No to co-operation with Muslim moderates, Times columnist argues

“Islamist violence has … provided a wonderful, unexpected opportunity for these moderates to demand more power and money from the State. This will leave them and their favoured co-religionists as the main intermediaries between the state and the Muslim community…. The panel makes it quite clear that it is not for Islamists alone to make adjustments after 7/7: rather, it is a two-way process in which the needs of two million-plus Muslims weigh equally in the balance with those of all 60 million non-Muslims. British identity will have to evolve into a much looser concept to accommodate them…. One panellist, Tariq Ramadan, is a case in point. This grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood once had his visa revoked in America and was once kept out of France – but is most welcome here.”

Ulster Unionist groupie Dean Godson takes time off from defending the Routemaster bus to slag off the participants in the Home Office task force on the July bombings and its report Preventing Extremism Together.

Times, 13 December 2005