Melanie Phillips claims that after the Satanic Verses controversy “the promotion of Islam in Britain became fused with an agenda of murder”.
You might wonder why a liberal newspaper gives space to a hard-right journalist like Phillips to promote her vile opinions about Muslims. But Phillips’ views are not that far removed from those expressed on a weekly basis by Observer columnist Nick Cohen, and the paper has given prominence to Martin Bright’s campaign to depict maintream Muslim organisations in Britain as supporters of violent extremism. As we never cease to point out on this site, when it comes to Islamophobia the differences between liberals and the racist right have become increasingly blurred.