David Goodhart, in the Guardian, sees no there there. Money quote:
Under Labour the first Muslims were elected to the House of Commons and appointed to the Lords. Muslim organisations lobbied for and won state funds for Muslim schools, a question in the census on religious faith, and criminalisation of religious hate crimes. The huge rise in public spending and focus on improving delivery in the poorest areas will have particularly benefited Muslims alongside other disadvantaged groups. And since 9/11 the government has sought out bright young Muslims for senior civil-service jobs and introduced innovations such as the hajj information unit for those making the pilgrimage to Mecca.
None of this shifts the Muslim community leadership’s constant victimization-line, an argument that certainly doesn’t help defuse the kind of deranged anger behind the London massacre. (Mad props: Clive Davis.)
EMAIL OF THE DAY: “I have been in Sana’a, Yemen working on an English language magazine and I felt the need to tell you that the climate here is angry. I read your blog daily and have the highest esteem for your intellectual pursuits. But, you’ve got it wrong about the “war is good because it stops the breeding of terrorists” thing. It’s only making it worse – much, much worse. The U.S. is seen in a terrifically unenthusiastic light and all the war in Iraq seems to be doing is creating a culture of furious, uneducated 13 year olds who have to prove their manhood. The U.S. was something made up to them before this war. It was a far off place of blonde girls in bikinis and dudes who blow-dry their hair five times a day. Now, it’s real and it’s cramping their style. All the work our soft power did to create positive relations in the Arab world is becoming moot. Democracy is something a nation has to want, something a nation has to want so much they will shed blood for it. And the Arab world wants democracy as much as they want a hole in the head. They don’t get it, they don’t care to get it and it seems to be making life particularly shitty for their Iraqi brothers. I don’t care what Bush or Wolfowitz or any of that crew have to say, people are not going to embrace this imposed “freedom.” I am here, you aren’t.” And those millions of Iraqis who risked their lives to vote last January? They wanted democracy like they wanted a hole in the head? It sure didn’t look like that from here – or among any of the direct witnesses at the time.
The Dish 