Skipper

Amazingly, perhaps, the cartoon controversy continues. It's now reached the similar status to the Salman Rushdie affair, with people dying in riots and threats of murder and mayhem writ large on demonstrating Muslims' placards. The Muslim group spokesman who argued so powerfully on the Andrew Marr programme yesterday morning was from Hizb -ut-Tahrir and I'm concerned to hear the government may be thinking of banning it. Their's is one voice of reason and calmness which should be retained in this increasingly manic debate.

But the thing that worries me is that slogans like 'Massacare those who insult Islam' and 'Behead those who insult Islam' is that they will alienate the decent, tolerant Britons who have been prepared to accept the gulf between 'us' and 'them' as just one more aspect of the diverse world in which we live. The insidious thinking of the racist response is thereby made much more persuasive and closer as is the danger of real violence between races and religions in this generally harmonious muticultural society.