Let’s make one thing crystal clear. When I refer to jihad in the headline of this piece, I mean it in the non-violent sense of “holy struggle”, rather than the nastier “holy war” kind. This is an important distinction and I’m happy to make it straight away. You can’t be too careful these days.
I waded into serious “dar al-harb” (land of conflict – the Islamic scholars among you will understand) by taking issue with the individuals who signed a letter to the Observer calling on Nick Cohen to find another column to write. Their leader, Sunder Katwala of the Fabian Society, has always insisted that his intention was not to silence Nick. But aren’t there better things for the left to do?
Where, for example, is the letter-writing campaign to defend Hazel Blears from a libel action from Daud Abdullah, the self-styled “deputy secretary general” of the Muslim Council of Britain.
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