Gary Younge in the Guardian

On the appeal of fundamentalism, Garry Younge has an excellent article in today’s Guardian. He argues that fundamentalists (and Muslims are by no means the only kind) for the most part “stalk the borders of our community”, but “at moments when an identity feels besieged they will move to centre stage”. Why do Muslims feel besieged? At least partly because: “For the past five years they have been fed on a nightly diet of bombings and occupation in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon; imprisonment and torture in Guantánamo Bay, Belmarsh, Basra and Abu Ghraib; and tales of alleged wanton murder and rape in Hamdania, Haditha, Balad and Mahmudiya. This excuses nothing but explains a lot.”