It’s the latest disease: sensible people saying ridiculous things about Islam

David Aaronovitch“It’s time, apparently, that I woke up and smelt the cardamom, or whatever scent it is one associates with Islam. I’m wasting my time, some people reckon, stuck in a cushioned ante-room off a corridor leading away from reality while asserting – as I did last week – that the French riots were not to be explained by the religion of many of the rioters. Last Tuesday my e-mail box declared itself full after a small deluge of readers wrote in, most declaring that, although they weren’t French and hadn’t been there for a while, they knew – absolutely knew – that Islam was behind it all. And that those who thought otherwise were in a state of denial.”

Times, 15 November 2005

Who’d have thought it? An article by David Aaronovitch I actually agree with – well, apart from the implication that Rod Liddle is to be included in the category of “sensible people”.