On Monday (11 April) the BBC's 'Panorama' broadcast "Living with the Ayatollah" highlighted human rights abuses in Iran. Ironically Iran's Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hosseini has been urging European countries to avoid encouraging 'Islamophobia'. The Guardian has taken up a similar cry with "Islamophobia on the rise as austerity bites".
What utter tosh. The maxim 'attack is the best method of defence' cannot hide the fact that claims of "Islamophobia" are used simply as devices to deflect well earned concern and criticism of double standards.
Postscript
The University of Exeter's European Muslim Research Centre was forced to issue an apology for serious errors of fact in their academic report Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: UK Case Studies referred to here which "may lead a reader to misconstrue the conduct, actions and the intentions of Councillors". Conservative MP Robert Halfon has demanded an explanation from Exeter University over a donation from the Middle East broadcaster Al-Jazeera. I know universities are short of funds but what next?
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