At the New Criterion blog Armavirumque, Daniel Johnson has been posting excellent reports from London about the British election; today’s entry (his third) has this troubling note about The Muslim factor. (Hat tip: Power Line.)

The Muslim factor played a bigger part than ever before — and a damaging one for British democracy. Cities with large concentrations of Muslim voters all registered strong votes against Tony Blair and for anti-war candidates of any other party, however extreme. It looks as though many Muslims still obey their community leaders and imams and vote en bloc.

As the proportion of Muslims grows, due to a higher birthrate and immigration, we are seeing this behaviour affecting more and more seats, as politicians make greater efforts to appease Muslim demands. Labour has already promised a new law to restrict “incitement to religious hatred” which nobody except the Muslims wanted. Now that the imams have flexed their electoral muscle, we can expect the Islamic shopping list to grow over the next few years.