Habeas corpus still manquee

I was more than uncomfortable with Brittain's allegation that the climate of fear of Arabs and Muslims in particular in the US before 9/11 was linked to "efficient and well-funded pro-Israeli lobbyists." Nor do I believe the British media is fundamentally Islamophobic. It's no more phobic about Islam than anything else. Britain, for all its faults, is a pretty tolerant place.

But I was angry rather than sympathetic when reading that one woman had to learn to deal with the modern world – like pay her own bills and interact with society, especially as this is International Women's Day. Why shouldn't she? The rest of us do. The fact that her husband couldn't take care of everything for her made me even more cross as she was born in the UK.

Brittain writes about the difficulties for the family of Abu Qatada, a well-known hate preacher, who received asylum in the UK. For years Britain has been trying to extradite him to Jordan. Brittain describes him as a family man and scholar, but he is also under a worldwide embargo by the United Nations Security Council Commission for his alleged affiliation with al-Qaeda.

Quite clearly you don't want to and shouldn't target the whole Muslim 'community', as most members are like the rest of society, law abiding, productive, good citizens. I imagine the women too are like the rest of us; complicated, sometimes difficult, with less than perfect family relationships, not always so saintly themselves.

I think it is not something to be admired that one of the women who has faced all this never got angry. She should have. Brittain writes about how these women all put Allah at the centre of their lives. That's a personal choice. But if she was writing about Christians, it would be a different story.

The father of John Walker Lindh, who plea bargained a 20-year sentence in the US, was surprised to find that no one rose up and protested at the grotesque picture of his son strapped and naked while being transported by US troops.

Brittain described him as a "young Californian student of Islam." Who also went to fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan, hardly the most progressive movement, especially when it comes to women.

We should care about the abuse of law, and Brittain does a good job reminding us this, Still, I found the book more irritating than enlightening.