Writing the current issue of the Spectator, Rod Liddle takes issue with Baroness Warsi’s criticism of his speech headlined “Islamophobia? Count me in!” Liddle objects that “she hadn’t heard, or read, the speech I made, or asked what I had meant. Condemning a speech solely because of its headline strikes me as being the very apogee of ‘shallow’.” Whereas Liddle’s bigoted ramblings are of course famous for their intellectual depth. So what did he say in his speech at the Evening Standard‘s “Is Islam good for London?” debate in November 2007? Liddle summarises:

My speech expressed a profound dislike of the ideology of Islam because it lends itself to a) homophobia, b) the subjugation of women, c) anti-semitism d) viciousness towards so-called apostates, e) authoritarianism and f) a somewhat medieval approach towards crime and punishment. And then there’s the barbarism of female circumcision, forced marriages and the notion that those who are not Muslims are not quite human, that their lives are worthless. These last three manifestations of Islamic thought are not universally present throughout the Islamic world, for sure. But the ideology facilitates them, offers them a weird sort of legitimacy.

The other manifestations of Islam I noted above, however, are universal within the Muslim world. OK, some Islamic states kill homosexuals while others merely imprison them. Some Islamic states merely loathe Jews, rather than loathing them and demanding their liquidation. Moderate Malaysia will put you in prison and take away your children for giving up your Islamic faith, while hardline Saudi Arabia will kill you. There are gradations of spite, violence, persecution and insecurity within Islam: but what there always is, beyond all doubt, is spite, violence, persecution and insecurity.

I was careful, in that speech to which she refers, to draw a distinction between Islam and Muslims….

You can imagine how it would go down with Britain’s Jewish community if Liddle delivered a speech headlined “Antisemitism? Count me in” in which he quoted bloodcurdling passages from the Torah, listed the atrocities committed by Israel as a self-proclaimed Jewish state and then concluded by observing that he drew a distinction between Judaism and Jews.

See Mehdi Hasan’s response to Liddle on his New Statesman blog.