Bradford imam Alyas Karmani gets his chance in the Times (£) to put the other side of the story, in response to that headline piece earlier in the week about Muslim grooming gangs:
If we really want to understand why young Muslim men become radicalised, we have to recognise what life is really like for the “war on terror” generation. The past 13 years of almost daily vilification and demonisation of Muslims through a conveyor belt of media stories has had a deeply traumatising effect.
Do we need to read any further? It's the well-worn victimisation story (as used recently by Cage's Asim Qureshi about ISIS butcher Mohammed Emwazi), with not a flicker of recognition that there might, just possibly, be a problem that Muslims in Britain - or at least those who claim to speak on behalf of the Muslim community - would do well to acknowledge.
Nor is there any awareness of the reason that Muslims feature so prominently in the news. Hello? ISIS, Boko Haram, 9/11, etc. etc. [Mick Hartley] Read more
