Londonistan (book)

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Londonistan: How Britain is creating a terror state within

Londonistan: How Britain is creating a terror state within (ISBN 1-59403-144-4) is a book by British journalist Melanie Phillips on the topic of the spread of Islamism in the United Kingdom over the past twenty years. The book is published in London by Encounter books.

1 Overview
2 Critical reception
3 See also
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Overview

The book encompasses a critique of multiculturalism, weak policing, cultural relativism, and what Phillips calls a 'victim culture'. She argues that these forces combined to create an ideal breeding ground for Islamic terrorists. She points to the centrality of London based individuals and groups to many terror plots around the world, which she argues were enabled by a semi-formal "covenant of security" between Islamists and the British authorities. Zacharias Moussaoui and shoebomber Richard Reid are two of many such examples she points to in the book.

[edit] Critical reception

Steven Emerson said the book "exposes the scandalous appeasement of militant Islam by British officials, the media, even the Church of England, capturing in extraordinary detail how British society and institutions have either ignored or actively fostered the growth of extremist groups on British soil."^{[citation needed]}

In contrast, the historian William Dalrymple has been particularly critical of the book, describing it as written by someone who shows "no evidence of having spent any time in Muslim company, or of having set foot within the Muslim world".^[1]