Amis wasn't advocating oppression of Muslims, he was merely adumbrating
In a letter in today's Guardian Martin Amis expresses indignation that Terry Eagleton should take exception to his remarks about Muslims.
(Just to remind you what these were: "There's a definite urge – don't you have it? – to say, 'The Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order'. What sort of suffering? Not letting them travel. Deportation – further down the road. Curtailing of freedoms. Strip-searching people who look like they're from the Middle East or from Pakistan ... Discriminatory stuff, until it hurts the whole community and they start getting tough with their children.")
As Mart explains: "I was not 'advocating' anything. I was conversationally describing an urge...." And in a letter to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in the Independent he offers a similar defence against Eagleton's criticisms: "The anti-Muslim measures he says I 'advocated' I merely adumbrated...."
So that's all right then.
For Osama Saeed's comments, see Rolled Up Trousers, 12 October 2007
Martin Sullivan