Obsessed?

Contributors to Spiked have recently criticised other journalists' obsession with all things Islamic.

Yet the media really only has two registers today, obsessed and completely uninterested, and the challenge posed by Islamism is simply not one we can collectively afford to be uninterested in. I think it likely that the West will experience some sort of cultural correction to consumerism during this century, and for the sake of our present freedoms, I would rather this was largely driven by the rational rather than the religious. I am particularly keen that Islamism should play a very limited role.

I challenge those that worry about creeping Islamophobia to look at the other side of media obsession by spending an evening taking in current affairs programming on The Islam Channel or Unity Muslim.

"Let's have a free and fair debate on the effects of apparel," suggested someone on Yusuf Chambers's programme on Friday, clearly inviting contributions similar to those of Australia's leading Muslim cleric last week. The host nodded, adding that Christian women think they are free, but are being used. Christians can't be trusted to have a free and fair debate, it was then suggested, "because they have destroyed their religion".