“As well as neglecting the impact of the Iraq war and delivering a tendentious account of Qutb’s radicalisation, Amis also indulges in a display of casual prejudice: ‘No doubt the impulse towards rational inquiry is by now very weak in the rank and file of the Muslim male’. No doubt.”

Inayat Bunglawala replies to Martin Amis’s piece in last Sunday’s Observer.

Guardian Comment is Free, 12 September 2006