Thus the headline to an article in the New Statesman, 14 November 2005

And what precisely is this “long history of violence” on the part of Hizb ut-Tahrir that Ziauddin Sardar explains to us? Er … actually there isn’t one. He tells us that HT “has not, strictly speaking, advocated violence. But this does not mean that it is not a violent organisation.” Now there’s a reasoned argument for you. An organisation does not advocate (never mind practise) violence … but it’s violent all the same. Needless to say, this rubbish is applauded by the likes of Harry’s Place and Norman Geras.

A Muslim colleague recently told me that Ziauddin Sardar was almost as bad as Irshad Manji, and I thought that was an exaggeration (I quite enjoyed Desperately Seeking Paradise). But now I’m not so sure.