New Statesman - Books - Losing the plot
Brendan O’Neill (of Spiked Online) reviews Melanie Phillips’ “hysterical” new book Londonistan and accuses it of repeating rumours and claims which have been debunked in an official report and of overstating the importance of Islamic extremism and the role of people like Abu Hamza, whom she accuses of “radicalising” the 7th July bombers, alleging that they “amassed inside [Finsbury Park] mosque a huge arsenal of weapons”, when in fact the guns fired only blanks. O’Neill notes that she repeats the “mistaken” Iranian badge story which emanated from Amir Taheri, one of the book’s endorsers (I don’t think it was a mistake, but a malicious lie, a point I intend to make in a letter to the magazine), and accuses Phillips of seeing “evil conspiracies of wicked men where a sensible person would see ragbag collections of wackos and saddos”. He calls her a “once fine writer [who] has become obsessed with radical Islam”, whose writing “has become increasingly shrill and paranoid” since Sept 11. (More: Towards God …)
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She makes my blood boil never have I seen such Islamophoiac comments from a person she is such a zionist . I wonder how much she gets paid for her see no evil hear no evil say no evil approach to Israel.
He calls her a “once fine writer [who] has become obsessed with radical Islam”, whose writing “has become increasingly shrill and paranoid” since Sept 11.
If he thinks that’s the sole thing wrong with her then his criticisms would appear to be based purely on sensibility.
Please don’t call her a zionist either. That makes her sound like someone who wants to go live on a farm in the west bank but just doesn’t have the money right now. She’s part of the group of jewish nationalists who’ve infiltrated themselves into the mainstream Right like Horowitz and Podhoritz.
This isn’t really something new though. There have been many jews who’ve lent their support to the Xenophobic/imperialistic British Right of old. I’d imagine in earlier times though that they weren’t so open about their ethnic attachments. I remember reading that most jews linked to the British imperial establishment were actually fiercely opposed to zionism. That seems to have changed now.