The arrest yesterday of four people in Islington, which led the police to search a Walthamstow property (two, if you believe Sky) under anti-terrorism laws seems to be linked to a petrol bomb attack on the home and office of publisher Martin Rynja. It may be because he recently agreed to publish 'The Jewel of the Medina', a book about the Prophet Mohammed and his child bride.

It seems that the attack involved the use of a petrol bomb. Of course, this is a serious matter, but quite why the police have got such a hard-on about this one beats me. I wonder why anti-terror laws are needed to be used in a situation where the existing criminal law would have worked quite adequately.

Do they get off on the excitement of thinking they are part of this 'war on terror'? They certainly had the 'terror' word fed out to the press very quickly. Is there a bit of self-aggrandizement going on here? Would the headline - 'Men arrested for pathetic criminal offense' not have been a bit more accurate? Have the police in fact blown this up into something bigger than it is and given these idiots a patina of chic and cool in fundamentalist circles when really they have been involved in what sounds like a half-cocked criminal enterprise by intolerant but amateurish fantasists? Are we obsessed with terrorism?