Editing Terry Eagleton (section)

==Criticism of Martin and Kingsley Amis==
[[File:T.Eagleton & Wang Jie.jpg|thumbnail|right|Eagleton in 2012]]
In late 2007, a critique of [[Martin Amis]] included in the introduction to a 2007 edition of Eagleton's book ''Ideology'' was widely reprinted in the British press. In it, Eagleton took issue with Amis' widely quoted writings on "[[Islamism]]", directing particular attention to one specific passage from an interview with [[Ginny Dougary]] published in ''The Times'' on 9 September 2006. {{blockquote|What can we do to raise the price of them doing this? There's a definite urge – don't you have it? – to say, 'The Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order.' What sort of suffering? Not letting them travel. Deportation – further down the road. Curtailing of freedoms. Strip-searching people who look like they're from the Middle East or from Pakistan ... Discriminatory stuff, until it hurts the whole community and they start getting tough with their children ... It's a huge dereliction on their part.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/the-voice-of-experience/ |title=The voice of experience |access-date=10 November 2018}}</ref>|sign=|source=}}

Eagleton criticised Amis and expressed surprise as to its source, stating: "[these are] not the ramblings of a [[British National Party]] thug ... but the reflections of Martin Amis, leading luminary of the English metropolitan literary world." He drew a connection between Amis and his father (the novelist [[Kingsley Amis]]). Eagleton went on to write that Martin Amis had learned more from his father – whom Eagleton described as a reactionary "racist, anti-Semitic boor, a drink-sodden, self-hating reviler of women, gays and liberals" – than merely "how to turn a shapely phrase." Eagleton added there was  "something rather stomach-churning at the sight of those such as Amis and his political allies, champions of a civilisation that for centuries has wreaked untold carnage throughout the world, shrieking for illegal measures when they find themselves for the first time on the sticky end of the same treatment."<ref name=eagle-kink/>

The essay became a ''[[cause célèbre]]'' in British literary circles. [[Yasmin Alibhai-Brown]], a commentator for ''[[The Independent]]'', wrote an article<ref>{{cite news |last=Alibhai-Brown |first=Yasmin |title=It's time for civilised and honest engagement |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/yasmin-alibhai-brown/yasmin-alibhaibrown-its-time-for-civilised-and-honest-engagement-394480.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131009183433/http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/yasmin-alibhai-brown/yasmin-alibhaibrown-its-time-for-civilised-and-honest-engagement-394480.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=9 October 2013 |access-date=1 September 2013 |newspaper=The Independent |date=8 October 2007}}</ref> about the affair, to which Amis responded via open letter, calling Eagleton "an ideological relict ... unable to get out of bed in the morning without the dual guidance of God and Karl Marx."<ref>{{cite news |last=Brown |first=Jonathan |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/amis-launches-scathing-response-to-accusations-of-islamophobia-396670.html |title=Amis launches scathing response to accusations of Islamophobia |work=[[The Independent]] |date=12 October 2007 |access-date=1 July 2008}}</ref> Amis said the views Eagleton attributed to him as his considered opinion was in fact his spoken description of a tempting urge, in relation to the need to "raise the price" of terrorist actions. Eagleton's personal comments on [[Kingsley Amis]] prompted a further response from Kingsley's widow, the novelist [[Elizabeth Jane Howard]]. Howard wrote to ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', noting that for a supposed "anti-semitic homophobe", it was peculiar that the only guests at the Howard–Amis nuptials were either Jewish or gay.<ref name="amisfamily">{{cite news |last=Cockcroft |first=Lucy |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1565696/Family-defends-racist-Sir-Kingsley-Amis.html |title=Family defends 'racist' Sir Kingsley Amis|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=10 October 2007 |access-date=1 July 2008}}</ref> As Howard explained, "Kingsley was never a racist, nor an anti-Semitic boor. Our four great friends who witnessed our wedding were three Jews and one homosexual."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1565696/Family-defends-racist-Sir-Kingsley-Amis.html |title=Family defends 'racist' Sir Kingsley Amis |website=www.telegraph.co.uk|date=10 October 2007 }}</ref> Colin Howard, Howard's homosexual brother, called Eagleton "a little squirt", adding that Sir Kingsley, far from being homophobic, had extended an affectionate friendship to him and helped him come to terms with his sexuality.<ref name="amisfamily"/>

Eagleton defended his comments about Martin and Kingsley Amis in ''[[The Guardian]]'', claiming the main bone of contention – the substance of Amis' remarks and views – had been lost amid the media furore.<ref name=eagle-kink>{{cite news|last=Eagleton|first=Terry|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/oct/10/comment.religion|title=Rebuking obnoxious views is not just a personality kink|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=10 October 2007|access-date=1 July 2008|location=London}}</ref>