It is not often that an Archbishop of Canterbury visits the Trade Union Congress. The Church of England is sometimes described as the Conservative Party at prayer – but its present head is sufficiently his own man to be respected across the political spectrum. Dr Rowan Williams delivered the first keynote address of the day at the TUC conference ‘Beyond Crisis’ on 16th November and his erudition seemed to have a calming effect on usually rumbustious trade union gatherings where guest speakers can be given a rough ride.

David Goodhart of Prospect would have us believe that Islamophobia is an "exaggeration", and smacks of Muslims' victim culture. Kenan Malik has asked: "Does Islamophobia really exist? Paul Goodman MP declares "The non-Muslim majority has no reason to beat itself up in a frenzy of liberal guilt...For some Islamist organisations, Islamophobia is less a testing problem than a rhetorical device to delegitimise criticism".

Well, here are the facts....fighting talk leads to abuse and fighting in the streets...and possibly even worse.

And where are our civil society leaders (with the exception of trade union activists), the faith leaders, the Goodhart/Kenan Malik litterati, and the overnight 'Islamic experts' not doing more to face down the mounting xenophobia? Why, in the words of the Muslim Council of Britain, this 'lacklustre' response?

Let us hope they start noting the signals such as the documentation from Bob Lambert and his colleagues at the European Muslim Research Centre, University of Essex [see link below]

[Part VI of a multi-part dossier]
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Next time superior-sounding politicians lecture us on the need to sign up unquestioningly to the shared values of liberal, democratic Britain, perhaps someone ought to raise a few caveats.

Dear Mr Susman

You were recently quoted in The Times as stating “we need to reach out to the Muslim community, in a way that isn't superficial and that is real. I intend to talk to people in the mosques and the academic community and the student community" (22nd Sept.)

One of the greatest attributes of India is in its diversity and in lies its admiration, and that it pronounces the soul and success of the country....but it yields a panorama of enchantment and disenchantment

Nauman Khan reflects on how divine dispensation and religious imagery is sought to justify war and the cruelty of man on man....religious fundamentalism is alive and well in the west, causing action and reactions elsewhere...

Part IV of a multi-part dossier

We wish Mr John Denham well at Communities & Local Government - however here is a briefing for the Secretary of State.

On 28th June 1919 the victors of World War I exacted their retribution on the defeated Germans and Ottomans. Britain, led by the Hellenophile Prime Minister Lloyd George, set up a new world order with disastrous consequences: stoking ambitions for a ‘Greater Greece’ leading to death and destruction on the Turkish mainland; humiliating terms imposed on Germany eventually leading to World War II; British and French mandates over seized Ottoman territories of the Middle East – for which the Muslim world still awaits for justice to be done.