“The attitude of much of the liberal media in Britain, France and the US to the French riots is now clear. The riots have nothing to do with Islam. The fact that most of the rioters are Muslim is irrelevant. The riots are about poverty, unemployment and discrimination. Anyone who says there’s an Islamist agenda here is a far-right bigot peddling patent and dangerous untruths.”
Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 14 November 2005
Mel also accuses Jason Burke of arguing that “my analysis is rooted in a barking mad species of conservative thought”. Couldn’t have put it better myself.