This is a cross-post by Shiraz Maher from the StandPoint blog
Oh dear, it really hasn’t been a good week for the Guardian.
On Monday Comment is Free invited Gerry Adams to pontificate about – would you believe it – the killing of civilians. Yes, really. Since when did the Guardian recognise Gerry Adams as the moral arbiter on informers and leaks?
On Tuesday they published an outrageous piece which – even by their standards – plumbs new depths. Norman Geras noted the ‘miserable evasion’ of Priyamvada Gopal who trivialises the ordeal suffered by Aisha, the Afghan woman featured on the front cover of Time magazine. After fleeing an abusive marriage the Taliban tracked her down and ordered that her ears and nose were cut off as punishment. It is a haunting image; the mania of millenarianism.
Guardian censures Quilliam Foundation for doing its job!
Brian Whittaker on CiF writes:
But does the Guardian actually challenge Islamist ideology at all? In the last two days two articles have appeared in both its print and electronic channels which suggest that far from challenging Islamist ideology, it has dropped all pretence of providing any critical evaluation of the exponents of Islamism.
Both articles involve a briefing document by the Quilliam Foundations sent to Charles Farr, director of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, with recommendations on counter-terrorism policy. The report was for Farr’s eyes only but has been leaked.
Quilliam’s document contained a list of organisations, all of whom have aligned themselves with Islamist ideologies and with known links to publicly identified extremist groups.
Following the leak, there were the usual responses from Muslims sympathetic in one way or another to these groups: