Indigo Jo Blogs

Misty Sussex countryside,
originally uploaded by Indigo Jo.

Here are a few pictures I took on a day trip down to the South Coast yesterday. I had booked a day rail pass having read a good weather forecast, but it turned out to be drizzly and a bit miserable by the time I got down there, after having been delayed at work for two extra hours. Still, I managed to shoot the equivalent of four rolls of film in both Brighton, specifically North Laine, and Lewes. This one is from Lewes Castle, into the misty Sussex countryside.

Brighton and Lewes, 6th October 2008

Also, here are some I took in late August on an afternoon trip down.

Last week, Ian Blair, the London Police commissioner, finally resigned. I must say I am glad to see him go, and I was disgusted that the killing of Jean-Charles de Menezes did not result in anyone losing his or her job. (Hat tip: Fareena Alam.)

What I am less pleased about is the way it came about - simply because the new mayor, Boris Johnson, publically announced that the police force needed "new leadership", i.e. that he had no confidence in him. What sealed his fate had nothing to do with the Stockwell killing, the Forest Gate affair or anything else to do with terrorism, but the fact that Johnson, and his buddies in the right-wing media, wanted a so-called "copper's copper" who will "get things done" without worrying about treading on people's (i.e. dark-skinned people's) toes. These people have been harping on about "political correctness" ever since the Macpherson report, which called the Metropolitan Police "institutionally racist" after they failed to nail the five racist thugs who murdered a young black teenager, Stephen Lawrence, in south-east London in 1993, preferring to harass his friend. The identities of those responsible are well-known.

This is a dangerous move towards an American-style politicised police, in which the forces are run by political operators who fear for their jobs, and need to placate scared suburban middle-class whites and do so by "getting tough" on, well, things and people they do not like. There is a reason why our police do not run for office - because the job is too important to be dictated by populism and politics. This is a particular danger in a city like London, where the only daily city paper is on the right.

Technorati Tags: nus, hind hassan

Red Pepper is a magazine I read a lot, although don't always buy; it usually contains thought-provoking political discussion which is radical without being crazy. In the current issue, there is an article (not online) from Hind Hassan, a member of Student Respect (I'm not sure if that's the Galloway or SWP faction; her website links to what appears to be the Galloway faction's website) but writing personally, about the recolonisation of the National Union of Students by New Labour. This is something I have personally witnessed in the 1990s, as I was involved in student politics then as well.

Recently, Shaikh Hamza Yusuf took part in an anti-malaria event recently held in Los Angeles, run by an organisation called Malaria No More which, unbeknown to him, was sponsored by the Tony Blair Faith Programme. Imam Zaid Shakir had been working with that organisation to try to get Muslims involved in efforts to eradicate malaria in Africa, where the majority of victims are Muslims. The organisation asked shaikh Zaid to put them in contact with Shaikh Hamza, so that he could speak in LA as a representative of the Muslims, while Rick Warren represented Christians. Shaikh Zaid wrote that neither he nor Shaikh Hamza would have participated had they known of Blair's involvement. He posted an article at his New Islamic Directions website, which is still available in the Google cache here), but has since clarified matters, to the effect that the invitation was a misunderstanding, not an act of treachery on anyone's part.

The clarification is to be found here. I posted the original so that nobody associated with either of the two shaikhs could be the subject of slander, and in particular so that none of the common Muslims who read and listen to his works would suffer such slander, as commonly happens when any public figure is deemed to be tained by association with anti-Islamic powers, and to make it clear that Shaikh Hamza did indeed denounce Blair's involvement with the Iraq war during his speech:

Since he was there, Shaykh Hamza condemned Tony Blair to his face and warned him of the sad fate he would have when he met his Lord, precisely because of the role he played in the war. He does not endorse in any way the work of Tony Blair's organization ... His only intention was to help eradicate malaria, a disease he was personally afflicted with during his years of study in Mauritania, and a disease whose devastating effect he has witnessed first hand during his years of traveling and studying is West Africa.

Now that a clarification has been published, I have removed most of the extracts previously published, as requested. A clarification of the matter from Imam Zaid Shakir can be found here, insha Allah.

This year, as usual, there was a controversy over what day was Eid al-Fitr, with the majority celebrating it on either Tuesday or Wednesday, with some countries waiting until Thursday and some Nigerians having it as early as Monday. In some countries, like the USA and UK, Eid was on different days in different towns despite major Muslim organisations calling Eid for Wednesday or Tuesday, and sometimes different mosques in the same suburb celebrating it on different days. By and large, the difference has been good natured. However, I found a disturbing exchange on a particular Yahoo forum, in which a dubious claim of sighting was coupled with statements questioning the faith of those who doubted it.

Jonathan Freedland: McCain or Obama? The US election result will have a huge impact on us | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Or, to use the actual headline, "This pansy-ass limey Brit won't butt out -- the US election is our business": a response by Jonathan Freedland, who wrote this article three weeks ago in the Guardian, to the abusive and bigoted responses which followed. You can see my comment on both here, but here's some of what Freedland received in his email:

In their thousands, Americans wrote to tell me they read my words not as a simple prediction of the consequences of an American decision broadly to maintain the Bush-Cheney approach -- but as some kind of threat. I was not merely commenting on the US election, they said, but intervening in it, seeking to blackmail American voters with the threat of global ostracism (as if I'm in a position to issue such a threat).

The counterblasts featured all the usual themes familiar to any columnist or blogger who wades into this terrain. America had saved Europe's "ass" twice before -- and we would doubtless come bleating for help again when we inevitably sought rescue from the Muslim hordes imposing sharia law on London, Paris and Berlin. We can't defend ourselves, of course, because we are limp-wristed "Euroweenies", effeminate socialists whose own decline robs us of the right to say anything about the United States, which remains the greatest nation on earth.

Britain specifically forfeited the right to meddle in US affairs more than two centuries ago, when it lost the War of Independence. Besides, Obama is a Marxist, so Europe is welcome to him. One Bill07407 managed to capture the flavour of this virtual avalanche -- including the curiously homoerotic undercurrent that runs through much rightwing American invective -- with this effort: "If you want Comrade Obama we will gladly ship him over after he loses in a landslide. Meanwhile you can kiss my ass. I bet you would enjoy it faggot." Equally reflective, this from bioguy777: "I love it! A pansy-ass limey Brit begs the US to do his bidding while his own country slips further towards total Islamic rule. We're electing McCain, and the rest of the world can piss up a rope if they don't like it. 1776, BITCH!"

His response is that the election is not just Americans' business, because its result affects everybody: the wars in which other countries participate are started in the USA, the "credit crunch" and the difficulties it has caused in Europe were partly the fault of American financiers' sloppy practices, and there is a global environmental emergency to which the USA is a substantial contributor. Personally, I don't agree with his conclusion that the USA was ever supposed to be some sort of example to the world - there was always a whole lot of humbug in all the talk of freedom which overlooked the presence of millions of Black slaves - but I do share his objection to being rudely told to butt out when our country is supposed to be their ally and when it helped them out on several recent occasions.

Just to wish all the Muslims reading this a fine and blessed Eid.

On the subject of the Saudi moon fitna, is it not about time those of us in the west made our feelings known to the Saudi authorities through their embassy? Since many of us here in London do it right (i.e. waiting for a credible moon sighting, rather than unconfirmed ones on the Islam Channel), particularly among the Deobandis in south London, there are enough of us to hold a demonstration which, depending on its location, could take in the embassy itself and at least one of the institutions which blindly follow its word on this issue.

I am sure nobody has any objection to Eid being celebrated on different days due to genuine differences of opinion; the problem is the celebration of Eid a day (or two) early due to what can only be baseless moon-sighting reports, often in the face of negative sightings from nearby and westerly countries (Jordan, Nigeria, Guyana, even northern Chile, where it almost never rains). The Muslims must mobilise against this senseless interference with our ibaada.

In the Wake of "Obsession" Hate-DVDs: Muslim Children Gassed in Ohio Mosque | MuslimMatters.org

For the last few years the Daily Express, in the UK, has been running a front-page hate campaign against Muslims, continually harping on every petty concession they hear Muslims have received from some council or other, and crowing about every purported move to "get tough" on Muslims, as with the cover story on the most recent Sunday Express. My contention has been that media vilifications of ethnic or religious groups can lead to violence, and said as much in my letter two months ago to Standpoint, which they finally got round to printing in the most recent edition. While they printed most of the letter, they omitted that bit, despite the low hum of violence which has sounded for the last few years: an imam blinded in London, another suffering brain damage, a mosque being destroyed in Basildon, a man threatened with a chainsaw in Bolton, and this past weekend, a Muslim cemetery vandalised in Southall, west London.

Leila Shahid: An urgent call for aid for Nahr el Bared in Lebanon (Comment is free)

Leila Shahid (PLO representative to the UN) on the failure of Arab governments (as opposed to organisations) to come forward with money to reconstruct the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian camp in Lebanon. Since the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) appealed for new money, on 11th Sept this year, only the USA has come foward with new money, and as a general trend, Luxembourg gives more money to UNRWA than any Arab government, and Norway gives more than all of them combined.

(Still, I personally wonder why Nahr el-Bared cannot be closed and those who lived there integrated into Lebanese society, given that it has been there for more than most of its inhabitants lifetimes. They should not be keeping the "refugees" in limbo as if Israel really were to be wiped off the map tomorrow. The reason seems to be the unwillingness to upset the balance of power between the various religious groups in Lebanon, as most of the refugees are Sunni Muslims who are a minority in Lebanon, coupled with negative Lebanese attitudes to Palestinians, which I have heard personally even from Lebanese in London.)

Naomi Alderman, a regular Guardian columnist, on one of my pet hates in popular attitudes to education - the emphasis on the supposed value of competitive sport. I'm sure we've all heard the attacks on the alleged "all must have prizes" culture (Melanie Phillips wrote a book by that title, attacking the trend), but competition is only a small part of what physical education should be about, namely keeping the children fit. Basing it all around competition is guaranteed to associate it with humiliation for those less able. (I agree, since my favourite "sport" at school was cross-country; putting myself in front of a flying ball in a field full of much more physically mature kids, some of them more than willing to use fists when the usual means of getting the ball failed, was never my cup of tea.)

As someone who went to school in the 70s and 80s, I can't say that I noticed much of a "medals for all" culture myself. Physical education was taught in much the same way it's always been taught: team games, captains picking their sides, and the inevitable segregation between those who are good at games and are picked first and those rejects left shuffling uncomfortably while the captains try to decide between the fat child, the child in glasses or the child puffing on an inhaler. In other words, physical education was taught in a way guaranteed to give at least some of the children lasting exercise-phobia. ...

To get some sense of the damage this can cause, imagine if we taught maths using the same method. Every lesson would start with two maths captains picking their teams - inevitably leaving those known to be bad at maths to the end. The rest of the lesson would be taken up with public competition in mental arithmetic. Get a sum wrong, and not only would you show yourself up in front of your classmates, but you'd let your team down, too. And as for slow and steady progress, improving your skills and working on your weak spots? Forget it, there's no time for that. There's a reason we don't teach maths like this; it's because we think maths is too important for us to risk leaving some children behind by creating an association in their minds between maths and public embarrassment.

Of course, children who enjoy competitive sports should have the chance to play them, learn new skills and improve their performance. They should be encouraged to take that interest as far as they can. This country has a rich heritage and tradition in sport; both as participants and as whole-hearted supporters. We can all be tremendously proud of our Olympic athletes, of their determination and abilities. But competitive sport is really just one tiny offshoot of PE. Children who enjoy maths should be encouraged to pursue that interest as far as they can, too - to a professional level, if they want. But most of us don't need the skills of professional mathematicians. What we need are basic mathematical life-skills: the ability to plan a journey to get somewhere at the correct time, to make a budget, to work out that paying £20 a month over a year for a £120 TV isn't a good bargain.

Standpoint magazine, a new political magazine published by the Social Affairs Unit, a centre-right think tank, pubished a letter from me in response to an attack by Douglas Murray on Peter Oborne's exposé of Islamophobia earlier in the summer. Half of my last paragraph was edited out (much less than was eliminated from my letter to the New Statesman about a BNP agitator being mistaken for a mere "ditzy woman" in one of their articles), but the gist of it was delivered. Here's the unedited version (the bits they removed are italicised).

Yesterday, Harry's Place published an article sourced from Gina Khan and one Paul Sikander, attacking Islamic courts and Muslim institutions' marriage practices. I wrote a lengthy article yesterday, but a bug in my blogging client destroyed it, so this will be rather more brief insha Allah. Simply put, it consists of two so-called secular Muslims preaching to a gallery of anti-religious non-Muslims and spouting a number of familiar generalisations.

I'd just like to say well-done to all those who routed the racists and fascists in Cologne who wanted to whip up some hatred against the local Turkish and Muslim population. It seems that they turned on their heels and ran in the face of a popular mobilisation, which even the Christian Democrat (i.e. Tory) mayor called "a victory for the democratic forces" in the city. Experience shows that racists and fascists are thugs when not in power and murderers when they are, and as we found out to our cost in the 1930s, you can't play nicey-nicey with the nasty Nazis. Well done! Nazis raus!

More4, the "grown-up channel" run by Channel 4 in the UK, is broadcasting Forbidden Lie$, about Honor Lost/Forbidden Love, the "novel" about honour killing in Jordan published as a book of fact, this coming Tuesday at 10pm, insha Allah, so you can set your videos if you'll be at taraweeh then. More4 is only available on digital or cable, i.e. not on standard terrestrial, but you can also watch it over the Internet through their "catch up" system, if you've got access to Windows Media (why on earth can't they use Flash, as BBC do for their streaming iPlayer?).

No, I'm not asking you, but sister Aaminah has been asking about people asking you, which is something I've found rather annoying over the years, as if I'm going to tell the story of five years of my life from 16 to 21 in five minutes, or perhaps they expect something dramatic when really it wasn't (and what wasn't smooth and ordinary, I'd rather not tell). Here is a set of questions for converts (with my responses, assuming she publishes them) about these questions and here is a poem she wrote about the subject. (More: Ginny.)

I got this message today through the TROID Yahoo group. It's about the needs of Muslims in those islands in the Carribean which were hit by several hurricanes recently. The following are the needs of the 100 Muslims in Dominica:

Food Needs:

• 3 Empty Barrels: $135
• Non-Perishable Foods to fill: $1000

Total Food Cost: $1135

Books:

• 100 A Gift for the Intellects in Explanation of the Three Fundamental Principles of Islaam of Imaam Muhammad Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhaab with the exp. of Shaykh 'Ubayd al-Jaabiree $1200
• 100 The Prophet's Prayer Described by Imaam Muhammad Naasirud-Deen al-Albaanee $700
• 100 Fortress of the Muslim $210
• 100 The Collection of an-Nawawee's 40 Hadeeth (Pocket Size) $210

Total Book Cost: $2320

Da'wah Pamphlets:

• 200 Common Misconceptions About God
• 200 7 Fundamental Questions About Islaam
• 200 Women in Islaam
• 200 Muhammad: A Witness, Bearer of Glad Tidings and a Warner
• 200 Uprooting the Forces of Evil: Islam's War on Terror

Total Pamphlet Cost: $0 (to be donated by TROID)

Shipping Charges: $285

Dominica Total: $3740

Has anyone noticed that they ask for more money to distribute two particular "salafi" texts than they do for food? While I do not see anything wrong with sending a few Islamic books or dhikr manuals like Hisn al-Muslim, surely people in the Carribean need money to buy other necessities than food, such as clothing or tools or cooking equipment, than "salafi" propaganda tracts.

From the South African Independent:

Poor dietary and lifestyle habits during Ramadan pose grave health risks to fasting Muslims, local doctors and dieticians have warned.

Night-time binge eating and consuming too much sugar and cholesterol-rich food may have a severe effect on the health of many Muslims observing the fast, health experts have warned.

"High incidences of diabetes and hypertension in the Muslim community are aggravated by bad diets during Ramadan," Dr Faisal Suleman said.

"Lots of people break their fast with oily savouries that cause high cholesterol. There is also a lack of exercise during the month."

I can't really imagine how people can eat such stuff after a long day's fasting; I need the energy boost, and although I sometimes eat curry, I make sure it's got plenty of vegetables in it. Otherwise it's pizza (of my own making) or pasta with tomato and vegetable sauce with fish. I've also cut out all the diuretic stimulants (tea, coffee, hot chocolate), excepting the days when I'm travelling and therefore not fasting (but still have to get up early, so I drink coffee). A few difficult days at the beginning excepted, I think this has been a very healthy Ramadan for me ma sha Allah.

Last Wednesday, Jonathan Freedland, a former Guardian US correspondent, wrote this article suggesting that the international judgement will be harsh if the Americans elect McCain and Sarah Palin, with her record of putting religion ahead of general good governance in her home state, and that it would reflect a nation out of touch and in decline. That prompted some idiot called Miguel Giles in Sacramento, CA, to write a bigoted rant, which appeared in the paper on Friday.

When I first saw this story, I thought they meant goats kept by prisoners as a possible food source, but no, they really were there awaiting trial:

The beasts were due to appear in court, charged with being sold illegally by the roadside.

The minister said many police had serious gaps in their knowledge and they would be sent for retraining.

Mr Nyamugabo was conducting a routine visit to the prison when, he said, he was astonished to discover not only humans, but a herd of goats crammed into a prison cell in the capital.

The goats' owners were also charged, so the world hasn't gone completely mad.

There was no word on what their punishment would have been, had they been found guilty.

I think the death penalty is in order here. Let them be lunch! (Or dinner, since it's Ramadan.)

Will there be no end to the repetitions of the myth that faith schools are the cause of the problems in Northern Ireland? A professor called David Canter has published a study, based on interviews with 49 convicted terrorists in India, has supposedly established that "spiritual belief and attachment to a particular social group provided the two most important pathways into the world of terror". The prof also claims that there was "no doubt" that religious segregation led to terrorism in Northern Ireland.

A study based on 49 terrorists in India alone is hardly representative, is it? Many terrorists in India are Marxists, such as the Naxalites, and if we look just outside India we find the Tamil Tigers, who are not religious at all (although their ethnic base is a predominantly Hindu population) yet have been known to engage in suicide bombings. One presumes that many of Canter's terrorists were Kashmiris; surely the political situation in Kashmir is what actually made the difference for these people between having a spiritual belief and a group attachment and being terrorists. The Northern Ireland situation was caused by the British settling Scottish Protestants in the region and, later, the establishment of a mini-state for them to dominate, and religious segregation has, by all accounts, got worse as the Troubles have wound down. I do hope no public money was wasted on this pointless study.

Meanwhile, in the Guardian's letters today, Cristina Odone on the positive effects of Muslim schools on girls:

As I discovered in the course of researching In Bad Faith, published by the Centre for Policy Studies, faith schools in the state sector sharply increase the chances that low-income Muslim parents keep their daughters in schools. They would otherwise withdraw their girls, once they reach puberty, from what they regard as the dangerous playground culture of sex and violence found in secular state schools. The number of Muslim girls from faith state schools who go on to higher education is more than twice that of Muslim girls from secular schools.

Critics who accuse Muslim schools of breeding terrorists should ask themselves whether it is better to keep these schools within the state system, where they must adhere to the national curriculum, undergo regular Ofsted inspections and obey a range of government regulations; or lock them out, which frees them from any accountability to the state.