“The reverberations from Muslim protests offended at the cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) continue to resound. Despite peaceful protests in London by Muslim Association of Britain and Muslim Council of Britain, the organisers still found themselves subject to an attack in the Sunday Express (February 12) for failing to do enough to tackle extremism. On the same theme, the British National Party, fresh from their acquittal of inciting racial hatred, have announced plans to turn the May local elections into a ‘referendum’ on Islam. Other far right groups have made threats of book-burning sessions of the Qur’an. For Muslims, past echoes of Nazi demonisation of the Jews don’t seem so far away.”

Salma Yaqoob in the Muslim News, 24 February 2006