While Hitchens suggests that the West pay more attention to what jihadists are preaching in its own backyard, voices from the Islamic world are raising the alarm against Islamophobia, calling it "The Worst Form of Terrorism" (Via: Mick Hartley).

Here is what Hitch is saying:

"Yet Britain's former head of domestic intelligence, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller (and you can't get much more British than that, either), said last year that there are more than "1,600 identified individuals" within the borders of the kingdom who are ready to follow Tanweer's example (including those in whose honor we now all have to part with our liquids and gels at the airport). And, according to Manningham-Buller, "over 100,000 of our citizens consider the July 2005 attacks in London justified."

And here is what Foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) express, speaking of the same events:

"Islamophobia became a source of concern, especially after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, but the phenomenon was already there in Western societies in one form or the other,” they pointed out. “It gained further momentum after the Madrid and London bombings. The killing of Dutch film director Theo van Gogh in 2004 was used in a wicked manner by certain quarters to stir up a frenzy against Muslims,” the ministers pointed out. Van Gogh had made a controversial film about Muslim culture."

Mick has got it right:

"It gained further momentum after the Madrid and London bombings. Now why on earth should that be? And as for the killing of Theo van Gogh, well, as the foreign ministers helpfully point out, he'd made a controversial film about Muslim culture. What did he expect? Of course he got nearly decapitated and had a knife stuck in his chest with a note warning others - notably Ayaan Hirsi Ali - that this was the fate they could expect if they criticised Islam."

I suppose it is clear that the OIC equates criticism of Islam with Islamophobia (no examples of actual persecution of Muslims are provided. The main concern appears to be the reputation of Islam).

If Islamophobia is criticism of Islam,
and if Islamophobia is "The Worst Form of Terrorism",
then criticism of Islam is "The Worst Form of Terrorism".

One of the major criticisms levelled at Islamism is its militant antisemitism. The OIC does not seem to distinguish between Islamism and Islam, so neither will I. Which ultimately means that pointing out the antisemitism being preached by (some) Muslim preachers in (some) Western Mosques and the general quietism with which this is recieved in the wider community, is worse than this (graphic gore, be warned!).

Read here and here about how Islamists think and what they aspire to do.

"Finally Husain ends up with David, a Muslim convert and a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir. “The world today,” David tells him, “suffers from the malignant cancers of freedom and democracy.” No Nazi ideologue could have put it more succinctly. "