7 /10 1 Votes
Country United Kingdom Publication date 2006 Pages 212 Originally published 2006 Page count 212 OCLC 64595883 | 3.5/5 Goodreads Language English Media type Print (Hardcover) ISBN 1-59403-144-4 Publisher Encounter Books | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Subjects Islamic terrorism, Politics Similar Works by Melanie Phillips, Islamism books, Terrorism books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Londonistan: How Britain is Creating a Terror State Within is a 2006 best-selling book by the British journalist Melanie Phillips about the spread of Islamism in the United Kingdom over the previous twenty years. The book was published in London by Encounter books.
Contents
Overview
The book encompasses a critique of multiculturalism, alleged 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 the shoe-bomber Richard Reid are two of many such examples she points to in the book.
Critical reception
According to Kenan Malik in The Independent, Phillips's arguments share some striking similarities with Islamists. He wrote that, "Both insist that we are in a religious world war between the forces of good and evil. Both believe that only religion can help restrain decadent behaviour and establish a proper moral framework. Both abhor the growth of secular humanism. Both see Britain as "a debauched and disorderly culture of instant gratification, with disintegrating families, feral children and violence, squalor and vulgarity on the streets".
Describing the book in The American Conservative magazine, the writer Theodore Dalrymple wrote "the British journalist Melanie Phillips documents not only the establishment and growth of Muslim extremist groups in London but the administrative incompetence and cultural weakness that permitted it to happen. Some pusillanimity that she records would be funny if it were not so deeply disturbing."
Writing for The Daily Telegraph, the historian and writer Michael Burleigh decided that the book could not be more "timely" and praised her "sensible suggestions".
David Smith, writing for The Observer, compared Phillips to "a crazed boxer" who "comes out swinging wildly and some of her punches land. ... But her shrill, hectoring tone does her no favours." Smith also claims that Phillips is wrong to say that piggy banks were banished from British banks in case Muslims were offended. "A small point, perhaps, but a telling one".