It’s paranoia, not Islamophobia (according to David Goodhart)

“Iqbal Sacranie is a capable leader who has helped to turn the Muslim Council of Britain into an effective lobbying body, but his organisation’s default position remains grievance.

“Here he is in the introduction to a recent booklet for British Muslims: ‘The unleashing of a virulent strain of Islamophobia, inflammatory media reporting and the misconceived wars against Afghanistan and Iraq have all contributed to the undoubted increase in prejudice we face.’

“There will, regrettably, be some backlash after the London bombs. But to glorify this with the term Islamophobia is silly…. An undifferentiated rhetoric of grievance contributes to alienation, lack of integration and even indirectly to extremism.

“… the terrorist threat that Britain faces comes overwhelmingly from British or foreign Muslims…. So it follows that most terror-related investigations will focus on Muslim communities. This isn’t picking on Muslims; it is simply a fact of life.”

David Goodhart instructs British Muslims to stop their whingeing.

Guardian, 15 July 2005