Last year, I said the making of the film Fitna, by the crazed rightwing Dutch MP Geert Wilders, indicated that the anti-jihadist neocons had run out of things to say. But the collapse in the sanity of the anti-jihadist movement has been more amusing and spectacular than I expected.

This collapse was no doubt accelerated by the election of Barack Obama, who was attacked by a range of nutjobs convinced he represented the anti-Christ, or went to a jihadist school, or that he wasn't Christian, or that he was a "black power" segregationist. They conjured up fantasies of a "whitey tape" featuring his wife, Michelle Obama, in a racist tirade, and many remain convinced his birth certificate is a forgery. Obama got elected but the madness continued, most prominently on Faux News where presenter Glenn Beck now daily rails against the new "fascist" president and the coming "fascist state" to the point where even Bill O'Reilly (!) had to challenge him.

Watching the Republicans collapse into a state of crazed frenzy is highly amusing political theatre. A poll last week showed that only 21% of Americans now identified themselves as Republicans, compared to 35% as Democrats and 38% as Independents. That Republicans are in denial about their own extremism now seems obvious to everyone except most Republicans, and perhaps Meghan McCain.

It's worth explaining the stench of nuttiness eminating from the anti-jihadist movement. But I should also clarify that I have no love for religious extremists, and have a long history of attacking groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir (as well as Hindu and Sikh groups). Al-Qaida-inspired terrorism remains a continuing threat that we need to tackle. But it's also clear that many anti-jihadists, some of whom have praised me as "brave", had less benign motives.

This has become obvious in a massive blog war playing out in the US between LittleGreenFootballs, and Robert Spencer (JihadWatch) and Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs), which is written about here and chronicled on this blog.

I don't think there is an anti-jihadist movement anymore. It's all a bunch of kooks. I've watch [sic] some people who I thought were reputable, and who I trusted, hook up with racists and Nazis. I see a lot of them promoting stories and causes that I think are completely nuts.

That, believe it or not, is Charles Johnson of LGF, who has became increasingly annoyed. Johnson's beef is that anti-jihadists have increasingly started linking up with antisemites and neo-nazis in a bid to form a wider anti-jihadist coalition.

"Some people at that [counterjihad summit] in Belgium were not people we should have been associated with," Johnson said, pointing out that, since 2007, the terrorism-focused conservative bloggers have become supporters of Wilders, who wants to outlaw Islam in his country.

"Some of these people outright want to ban Islam from the United States, which I think is crazy, completely nuts. That's not something we do in this country. These people will outright defend banning the Qur'an or deporting Muslims. "

The lunatic anti-jihadists have their British and European counterparts, too. Some recently went to a conference titled Preserving Western Civilisation, which featured a hoot of speakers.

Wilders is popular here, too, most notably with Douglas Murray of the (oxymoronic) Centre for Social Cohesion, who ranted everywhere about Wilders being denied entry in the UK, while saying little about his authoritarianism. He also went off the deep end when denouncing the anti-Islamist thinktank Quilliam Foundation for daring to oppose Israel's invasion of Gaza. More recently, he attacked the anti-multiculturalist Kenan Malik in defence of Daniel Pipes and Mark Steyn.

I won't bother with Pipes (who was at the forefront of peddling rubbish about Obama's background) as his lunacy speaks for itself, but this is the same Mark Steyn who scarily warned about increasing Muslim birthrates and recently attacked Faisal Gazi when he reviewed Malik's book.

Steyn is Melanie Phillips on steroids, another member of this anti-jihadist fringe. Phillips spent an awful lot of time pushing conspiracy theories about Barack Obama on the Spectator website. This could have been even too much for the anti-jihadist blog Harry's Place which removed its link to her site.

But that didn't stop Harry's Place publishing a blog supporting Patrick Sookhdeo – another prominent anti-jihadist who is regularly praised in the rightwing press. Sookhdeo is famous for writing the hilariously bad The Myth of Moderate Islam article for the Spectator (what a coincidence), critiqued here. He also contributed to a similarly themed book entitled The Myth of Islamic Tolerance, put together by ... wait for it ... Robert Spencer of JihadWatch – currently being attacked by LittleGreenFootballs for planning to share a platform with neo-nazis. Phillips has also frequently and approvingly quoted and linked to Spencer from her blog.

There are several points to all this. The main reason many Islamists remain credible among British Muslims is because they are the only ones loudly defending Muslims from this tide of filth and hypocrisy in the US and UK. There is also another angle to all this: the role mainstream media and thinktanks play in supporting this lunatic fringe and their paranoid fantasies. In the meantime, just reach for the popcorn.