Here we go again
by Scoop Shachtman, 4 December 2007
More on Amis. He’s been speaking again, this time at Manchester University. The Guardian editorialises in a “news” report:
In an interview after the plot was exposed, Amis said Muslims should be made to suffer.
No, in fact he did not.
At the Manchester Evening News they report on the same talk.
Speaking during the debate on Terrorism and Literature before an audience of 600 people in Manchester, the 58-year-old novelist denied any anti-Muslim sentiments.
Amis said: “I don’t and I never have advocated any discriminatory treatment to Muslims. My remarks were prefaced by the comments ‘there’s a definite urge. “I did have that urge and I’ll explain why.
“It was just after an incident in August where there had been reports of plans for a Jihadist massacre. What do you want, do you want - for writers to pretend they don’t have these urges?”
He added: “I think that 95 per cent of Muslims would like to get their house in order but it is the Jihadist and their thuggish tactics which are stopping them. Muslims yearn to get their house in order.”
[…]
Amis went on to discuss British attitudes to Afghanistan and other oppressive regimes, saying that many people failed to condemn them outright.
He said: “When you suggest that Britain is more morally evolved than the Taliban it is not a racial slur. I don’t think one should be terrorised by rationalism and feel unable to make that judgement.”
