A quote from Josie Appleton on spiked-online, 13 February 2006

[M]ainstream Britain has done much to inflate Muslims’ sense of persecution. Take the UK government’s numerous commissions on Islamophobia, which sanctify the idea that there is widespread hatred of Islam. Similarly, organisations such as Stop the War Coalition and Respect have opportunistically mouthed Muslims’ delusions back at them. […]

Yes, they have been activated and feel solidarity with a global Muslim cause. But this is the solidarity of narcissism, reading every global conflict as a personal attack. Cartoons and bomb strikes in Iraq alike are read as a form of personal offence.

The basis for this is a sense of disengagement from British society, rather than particular military interventions or offensive cartoons in themselves. British Muslims’ sense of estrangement at home leads to identification with an imaginary Muslim brotherhood. Global events are seen in a similar way to the cartoons, as icons of oppression, explaining and justifying a sense of victimhood.