“For quite a few years now, there has been a sustained effort on the part of the British media to present Islam – even after the Rushdie affair and now during the Taliban’s reign of terror – as something essentially ‘joyous’ and ‘vibrant’…. Not a mention of the women tortured, the Christian converts executed, the apostates hounded, the slaves in Sudan being sold into torment right now. Call me a filthy racist – go on, you know you want to – but we have reason to be suspicious of Islam and to treat it differently from the other major religions.”
Julie Burchill in the Guardian, 18 August 2001
“Julie Burchill’s article could very well have been written by Nick Griffin of the British National Party, who has also declared that Muslims are a problem”, Bilal Patel points out.