There's no shortage of reasons to claim to be offended these days, is there? My housemate has coined the term 'outrage entrepreneurs' to describe the people who spread resentment where hitherto there was none.

Yeah - part of the problem is the term "veil" routinely used in English/English media to mean anything from headscarf/face veil/burqa.

"their perpetual state of offendedness that the West is the West and that their retrograde magical recreation of an Islam that exists only in the fetid imaginations of semi-literate Saudi financed verse mumblers"

LOVE this.

It appears the outrage industry is a good deal bigger in Britain than elsewhere in Europe. I don't know why exactly, but I can always whank on about it...

Seems the Brits have opted to diminish problems with new religions and ethnicities by giving a little ground, and keeping down the public vitriol, a cultural Laissez faire policy, but only with regard to minorities. Unfortunately, the result has been that religious groups, from Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus to all types of Christians, have found out outrage works, by virtue of victimization. I have followed MediaWatchWatch a bit, it's surprising how easily the British political elite buys into that.

The British two-party political system is also doing a terrific job of hindering public discourse, and keeping out the oddballs. Not very democratic, though. I somehow have a hunch Blair's Christianity might have something to do with it - we all remember the atrocious Religious Hatred bill, defeated by one vote.

Also, the Brick Lane controversy demonstrated how this policy effectively hands power to bigoted gits within the community. Repression happens within minorities as well as between minorities and a majority.