The Ramadhan Foundation denounced Channel 4 for distortion and bias. It said that Holland had claimed that "Mecca was never mentioned in the Holy Quran," when in fact he had said there was one ambiguous reference as I said above. It went on to say the Koran mentions Mecca twice, which is not true either. "The British Muslim community will not allow Channel 4 to distort our faith and our history," it declared. "The Ramadhan Foundation calls on Channel 4 to apologise for this programme." The Islamic Education and Research Academy joined the fray. It accused Holland of failing to discuss the hadiths, the oral traditions about the life of Muhammad. Holland had spent a good part of the programme doing just that. Undeterred, the academy thundered, "he saw what he wanted to see and rejected recklessly what he didn't like. His exclusion of established academic positions and material facts points to the only conclusion of justifying his own prejudices and ignorance of Islamic tradition."

Anyone who writes or broadcasts gets used to abuse. But in the context of 30 years of Islamist intimidation, demands for apologies and inquiries, and accusations of prejudice and distortion about a programme on the origins of Islam, are more minatory than everyday insults. Channel 4 cancelled a public debate about the programme. Holland became the target of hate attacks on Twitter. "You might be a target in the streets," read one. "You may recruit some bodyguards, for your own safety." The police offered advice on how best to stop the controversy turning into a confrontation, and said words to the effect of "issue a bland statement, then shut up, say nothing and hope it will all go away". The broadcasters have done as they were told, and for the moment everyone seems safe. The next historian or novelist may not be so lucky.

In these circumstances, Channel 4 and Holland deserved more praise than they received. It is easy to mock Holland's earnest, careful manner and accuse him of being an over-respectful historian. But at least he is an honest historian, not just in his books — which are a delight, if you have never read him — but also in the frightened and phoney world of British television. Compare the evidence he laid before the viewer about the debates on Islam's founding myths with the BBC's 2011 Life of Muhammad. The BBC did not discuss the work of Patricia Crone and the other academics who point to the faults and the omissions in the conventional account. The corporation was too frightened to let them speak: frightened of violence, frightened of accusations of Islamophobia — so frightened indeed that it would have been better if it had been honest with itself (and its viewers) and scrapped the programme. Or look at this year's Hajj exhibition at the British Museum, the most propagandistic exercise that great institution has ever presented. Curated by timid men and women, it did not say that some scholars doubted whether the Mecca of the Koran was the Mecca of the modern pilgrimage or hajj.

In You Can't Read This Book I said: "Islamist violence ensures that every mainstream broadcaster in the West is frightened of exposing Islam's founding myths." It is to Channel 4's and Holland's credit that I am going to have to cut that confident statement for the next edition.