“‘A notorious pro-Israeli Islamophobe’, ‘desperate to discredit Muslims’, ‘a track record for displaying unfairness and twisting the truth’. Panorama’s leading reporter, John Ware, is not quite public enemy number one for many British Muslims – that is an accolade no doubt held by Bush or Blair – but postings such as these on the Muslim Public Affairs Committee website show he comes a close second…. He says he is one of five journalists – the others are Martin Bright, the political editor of the New Statesman, Melanie Phillips of the Daily Mail, the Observer’s Nick Cohen and the Times writer-turned-Tory MP, Michael Gove – who have been labelled by the MCB as ‘being in the vanguard of Islamophobia in this country’. ‘We don’t meet up like witches to discuss it’, jokes Ware. ‘We’ve all come to this view independently that – potentially – politics and Islam is an incendiary mix’.”
Needless to say, Ware indignantly denies that he’s an Islamophobe: “Islamophobic meaning an irrational fear of Muslims? Absolutely not.”
For our earlier coverage of Mr Ware and Panorama see for example here and here,
For Yusuf Smith’s comments, see Indigo Jo Blogs, 22 August 2006