Murderous Islamists or Islamophobia?

I have a nominee for idiot of the week. I had never heard of him until yesterday, but he is one ‘Andreas Krieg’ who the Daily Mail has referred to as ‘a Middle East security analyst at King’s College London in Qatar.’

Mr Krieg was quoted in a story on the violence in Iraq, Syria, Kenya, Nigeria and elsewhere. This included stories so bloodthirsty that it is hard to look at some of the pictures which accompany the text. It should also be remembered that most of the victims of this violence are Muslim. And so are all of the perpetrators. So how, on being asked for a reaction to all this bloodshed does our noble academic respond? As follows:

‘Andreas Krieg, a Middle East security analyst at King’s College London in Qatar, said he had noticed a rise in extremism in recent weeks and months, but said Islam wasn’t to blame.

He told MailOnline: ‘All the empirical evidence shows that it is on the rise. You’re seeing it in all the headlines, then you’re looking at Iraq, you’re looking at Syria, you’re looking at Nigeria.

‘But in all three cases this has nothing to do with Islam. I think people in the West may think it is because they feel alienated by Islam. There is a lot of Islamophobia.’

You can read the whole sorry thing here.

I suppose we should feel grateful that Mr Krieg has ‘noticed’ the ’empirical evidence’. But next time Sunni death squads descend on a Shia town or Boko Haram kidnap another hundred schoolgirls and sell them into slavery, just remember, Mr Krieg doesn’t want you to think this is Islamism. No, no. This is ‘Islamophobia’ we are witnessing.