The Muslim’s Council of Britain’s uncompromising backing for Gillian Gibbons has rather thrown Islamophobes. How to register grudging support for the MCB’s stand while at the same time maintaining the implication that they are at heart dangerous extremists? Jasper Gerard finds the appropriate tone: “Could a row over a teddy have finally convinced them that the values of their homeland – Britain – are more sympathetic than a violent interpretation of Islam?”

Observer, 2 December 2007