Tolerating a libel

It’s always unpleasant to be libelled and particularly nasty to be defamed by supporters of totalitarian Islam. Journalists really shouldn’t sue, but sometimes it can get very frustrating, especially when the libel is obviously malign and ill informed. Over the past couple of weeks I have been examining the close relationship between London Citizens, the “community organisers” so beloved of the political class and the Islamists of East London Mosque and Islamic Forum Europe. In week one, we looked at London Citizens’ Deputy Chair Junaid Ahmed, who is a supporter of Hamas. Then last week we examined the reaction of Jewish leaders who have signed up to London Citizens. This is a relatively straightforward story of the left making common cause with radical Islam, an all-too-familiar story over the past decade. The IFE is not very happy about being rumbled. Azad Ali, an Islamist civil servant who regularly writes on the IFE blog, has now come up with the following deranged conspiracy theory:

“Martin Bright the ‘self-confessed Islamophobe’ is the editor of the paper which published an article, under the headline “This Was No Peace Activist” by Geoffrey Alderman, glorifying the killing of an innocent peace activist Vittorio Arrigon “