“The government’s desperation to engage with ‘moderate’ Islam appears to mean that it is keen to embrace even those who believe in Islamicising the west, as long as they make ritual noises denouncing the terror that flows from such an agenda. At the root of this is its determination to avoid at all costs being thought to have a problem with the current state of Islam itself as opposed to a few ‘unrepresentative’ terrorists, whose motivation will therefore be ascribed to everything but. Such myopia spells cultural suicide.”

Mad Mel condemns the government’s decision to appoint Tariq Ramadan to a Home Office task force.

Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 31 August 2005

As you might anticipate, she parrots accusations from Daniel Pipes’ attack on Professor Ramadan (the same one that provided the basis for the Sun’s recent witch-hunt). For Ramadan’s demolition of Pipes’ slanders, see here