If you can't stand the heat . . .

Muslims feel like "the Jews of Europe" in the UK because of a growing culture of hostility, according to a British MP. A Muslim.

He's Shahid Malik, and makes his remarks in an interview to coincide with the third anniversary of the 7/7 London bombings. By Muslims.

"Somehow there's a message out there that it is OK to target people as long as it's Muslims, and you don't have to worry about the facts, and people will turn a blind eye," he told the Dispatches TV programme.

The Jerusalem Post tells us, quoting Malik:

"I think most people would agree that if you ask Muslims today what do they feel like, they feel like the Jews of Europe," he said. "I don't mean to equate that with the Holocaust, but in the way that it was legitimate almost – and still is in some parts – to target Jews, many Muslims would say that we feel the exact same way."

The Channel 4 [Dispatches] documentary, entitled "It Shouldn't Happen to a Muslim", will look at claims that negative attitudes to Muslims have become legitimated by think-tanks and the media who use language now being used by the far right.

Malik says British Muslims now feel like "aliens in their own country" and that he himself has been the target of racist incidents. "The MP said he regularly receives anti-Muslim hate mail . . ."

Er, hang on a mo. Racist or anti-Muslim? Yes, some people probably do hide behind religious objections in order to give vent to racism, but not all do. Being anti-Islam is not racist, unless it's accompanied by racism.

Just saying. Before anyone argues.

Is there any wonder that they feel isolated when they continue to moan and groan? Today we've reported on the fact that police may consider fitting bootees on their sniffer dogs – at extra cost to the taxpayer, no doubt – when they're taken to a Muslim home.

Last Thursday, we reported on Muslim unease because a dog was being used on a police postcard giving people their new non-emergency phone number. And there's more. Oh, there's more.

There's an old saying: if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. In this case that means if you can't fit in, assimilate, then bugger off. If you can, then stay. You're welcome.

When their religious "sensitivities" (and that goes for other nutcase belief systems, too) are forever getting in the way of the free, untrammelled flow of daily life, they can drop the religious sensitivities or just go. Few will miss the whining and whingeing.