Muslims do like a good moan. Most often their target is the 'mainstream' media.

Both rarely do themselves any favours, it has to be said. Journalists know the Big Bad Muslim angle is good copy and will do anything to get it; even flying all the way to Beirut to speak to Omar Bakri Mohammed who preaches Armchair Terrorism whilst sipping strawberry juice. And certain Muslims like playing to their own gallery, indulge in victimhood and double-standards of their own, and enjoy the media spotlight despite their claims to be self-professed anti-modernists.

However, towards the end of 2006 and in early 2007, there was a story that I believe justified the scepticism that Muslims have towards the media.

The story involved the arrest of an ex-BNP member in Halifax, with what was described in the local press as 'the biggest haul' of chemicals of its kind ever found in Britain. That story did not make the mainstream news outlets, and it was left to bloggers and left-wing media outlets to try and get the story an airing. The BBC pathetically told one blogger they were too busy.

Now the trial has started, we learn that one of the men arrested, Robert Cottage, wanted to shoot the Prime Minister. But this isn't 'terrorism'. The word does not appear in the media coverage of this story (and he was not tried under any anti-terror legislation, but I concede that is a legal argument).

Let me be quite clear. My point has nothing to do with the actual case. This man, Robert Cottage, is innocent of all charges until he is found guilt in a court of law (I've put that in bold so it is clear for people who suffer from PostCommentsBeforeReadingSitis), regardless of his supposed political views, which he is perfectly free to profess and extol.

(Irony: how adherence to political correctness actually ensures an ex-BNP member can say is innocent.)

My point is to do with the blatent double-standards at work here. Even a Conservative blogger (who can't be accused of pandering to Muslim sensibilities) noted:

Maybe I have missed the [Robert Cottage] story, but I have not seen this covered in any of our national newspapers or national broadcast media. Why? If these kind of things had been discovered in the home of a British Muslim I suspect the media would be playing a rather different tune. Think of the front page headlines recently when similar discoveries were made elsewhere in the country.

The national media need to be very careful on these issues. I can't understand the news judgement which says it's not a story when explosives are found in a BNP member's house, yet when the same thing happens in the Muslim community it is on the front page.

I wonder when Comrade Reid will show up in Lancashire to preach British values?

His services are also required in Bath it seems.