Will Hutton is a surprisingly influential British commentator with the quite remarkable ability to be wrong about almost everything always. Notorious both for his slightly unhinged anti-Americanism and his creepy devotion to the Brussels ‘project,’ Hutton now turns his attention to ‘fundamentalism’. Now, I’m no fan of religious fundamentalism of any description, but to compare its American version to the poison of Islamic extremism is, quite simply, nonsense. Doubt me? Well, lets take a simple (and rather crude) test. Would Mr. Hutton rather fly in a plane piloted by an Islamic or a Christian fundamentalist? I think we know the answer.

The reality is that, while all forms of fundamentalism may share certain psychological causes, they also differ very greatly. More than that, to regard all fundamentalisms as the same is to ignore the fact that what someone believes is as important as how they believe. Fundamentalist Christianity is very different from fundamentalist Islam, and to deny that is a blind, idiotic fundamentalism all of its own.

An exaggeration? Well, read this comment from Hutton and judge for yourself:

’In Iraq, the two unforgiving eye-for-an-eye fundamentalisms – American and Islamic, informed by the doctrine of blood sacrifice – confront one another in an arena of escalating violence.”

What a cretin.