OT but not:

A little thing that happened to me yesterday. I needed to know whether or not it is generally agreed by muslims to be a religious requirement for a man not to be clean shaven, and if so whether this was considered merely desirable, or whether it was a strict requirement. So I sent an email asking that question, in essentially those terms.

I also added a jokey reference to not wanting to ask a particular muslim member of my family, as the fact that he drank whisky made me suspect he wasn't the best person to comment on muslim religious observance. (NB this person does exist and he does drink whisky)

Harmless, yes? Oh no. Apparently we have a muslim member of staff who had taken out a formal grievance against the firm because, get this, we serve too much alcohol at staff parties. And here I was referring to muslims !! and Alcohol !! Outrage !! I'd say the excrement hit the fan but excrement is unclean so I'd better not.

(Obviously a readiness to take offence on religious grounds absolves you from the need to be consistent, since my very point was that as this person drank alcohol he wasn't a very observant muslim, but I digress.)

I tell you what, my friends, I don't know if it is a minority of muslims, or the laws we have passed to accommodate them, or our own pussy-footing approach to those laws and pathetic complaints under them, but this morning I am THAT CLOSE to saying we have made a major problem for ourselves.