Melanie Phillips replies to Maleiha Malik’s excellent Guardian article which draws a comparison between the anti-semitism of the early 20th century and Islamophobia today.

Mel takes particular exception to the notion of “anti-Muslim racism”:

“Since when were Muslims a race? Islam is a religion. It is the Jewish people who are victims of something well-nigh identical to racism. But of course, in order to appropriate to Muslims the victimisation of the Jews, Muslims have to be presented similarly as the victims of ethnic prejudice.”

According to this argument, the British National Party’s vile anti-Muslim propaganda is not racist, because how can there be racism towards adherents of a particular religion? The fact that the overwhelming majority of Muslims come from minority non-white ethnic communities is mere coincidence, apparently.

This is of course exactly the same argument that the BNP itself uses. It’s no wonder that the fascists list Phillips as one of the newspaper columnists “whose opinions … most closely match their own“.