“John Reid telling devout Muslims to watch out in case their children become, oops, even more devout Muslims was bordering on the ridiculous….

“These brainwashed young men threatening us are not coming from liberal, Westernised homes full of moral relativism and then suddenly turning psycho. If they come from observant Muslim families – which the 7/7 bombers all did despite all the nonsense about them being ‘ordinary Westernised boys’ – then the priming started long ago. They would have been brought up to genuinely believe that Allah intended women to have a single purpose in life as subservient wives and mothers; gay people are perverts; freedom of speech does not apply to any kind of criticism of their belief; democracy is a man-made sham; and the values of the West are inferior….

“The leap to ‘radicalism’ from such a narrow background is not exactly over a chasm…. since many devout, law-abiding Muslims have publicly expressed agreement with a great deal of the bombers’ philosophy – except the killing part – what possible help can they be in this war? It would be of more practical help to try and reasonably persuade devout Muslim parents to let their children absorb a far wider cultural agenda….”

Muriel Gray does her Melanie Phillips impression in the Sunday Herald, 24 September 2006

See Osama Saeed’s reply at Rolled Up Trousers, 26 September 2006