Moving on from health fascists to real fascists, the news yesterday told us that the entire membership list for the British National Party from 2007, complete with addresses and phone numbers, had been published on a website. Although the original website has been pulled down, it has been republished on Wikileaks and a few other places, while bloggers, frantic to avoid legal repercussions, have insisted that their commenters not post links to it. Meanwhile, LOLGriffin has been posting LOLcats-inspired cartoons and wants more; the original leak was in violation of a court injunction, but as for anyone who just wants to read it, there is a European Court ruling protecting people who publish what is already public. The original Data Protection Act contains an exception when the leaked material is "in the public interest". (More: Pickled Politics.)
BBC NEWS: 'Nazi' remark presenter is sacked
Long-time readers will know that I do not have a very high opinion of Jon Gaunt, the former BBC London talk show presenter. I posted this after hearing his treatment of an NHS official who was defending the security situation at a low-security mental unit in Enfield, north London, from which a schizophrenic man who had pushed people under a train while ill had escaped (he subsequently returned of his own free will). Put simply, he sounded like a juvenile oik, haranguing a lady who knew what she was talking about when he didn't. That post has attracted 151 comments, which makes it one of this blog's most popular posts (of course, I know some blogs attact twice that number in a much shorter space of time).
Another telling thing was the number of new callers to the show the week after he left BBC London. After being shunted up country by the BBC, he had to leave because of a conflict of interest involving his ongoing column at the Sun, so he went to TalkSport, owned by Kelvin McKenzie, a former editor of the Sun. Now, he has been sacked from there as well, after calling a councillor in Redbridge (the borough surrounding Ilford in east London) a "Nazi" and an "ignorant pig" for supporting a ban on smokers fostering children.
Recently, I had discussions on two blogs about the legitimacy of takfeer, meaning calling someone a non-Muslim, against people who appear to be Muslims but who have deviant beliefs or opinions about a matter of Shari'ah. On Umar Lee's blog, the author mentioned a woman he had come across, who wore a hijab and a jilbab, yet favoured gay marriage because "gay marriage is a good thing and Islam is for what is good". At Harry's Place, David T posted a 10-minute bit of audio from Yasir al-Qadhi, heavily edited to make it look like he was calling all Shi'ites kaafirs and suggesting that he should not have been allowed into the UK to speak at the recent Global Peace & Unity event.
The past few years, I've mostly been working as an agency driver. That was after a very inactive 18 months after leaving university, during which I tried to get office work, and never succeeded in getting more than a few days here and there, and most of it was just data entry. I had the skills, but for some reason, nobody was interested. Recently, driving work has been getting thinner and thinner on the ground, which has resulted in my spending almost all of what I earned in August and September. Over the past week, I saw two things which made me look into becoming a driving instructor, since with my clean 15-year driving record, I figured it was a skill I could pass on. One was a comment on a BBC article about bullying at work, by someone who said he'd escaped office life and its nasty culture to be his own boss as a driving instructor (here, but the post about being a driving instructor has gone - I wonder why?). The second was an advert on a jobs circular headlined "become a driving instructor". I followed it up and was put in touch with an instructor training school in Wimbledon.
I'm sure nobody will be surprised that I'm pleased that Barack Obama has won the election. I've got various cousins in the USA (of the two I actually know, one lives in North Carolina and one has recently lived in California, Virginia, Mexico and Cuba, depending on where the US State Department sends her), and the latter in particular told me that her colleagues were particularly displeased at having to work for Condi Rice instead of Colin Powell. I am particularly pleased that both Virginia and NC went blue (not that it matters which states went blue and which red, as they all get the same president in the end). I heard the election called a landslide, but really it wasn't - many of the states which had a majority for Obama this time border onto states which voted for Kerry in 2004, and Obama made few inroads in the south, even in places which had voted for Clinton (in fact, many of these places had a heavy swing towards McCain). So, it seems like more a case of boundaries being pushed back from 2004 than a revolution. (More: Ginny, Izzy Mo, Abu Eesa, Haroon Moghul: [1], [2], [3], Umar Lee: [1], [2], Tariq Nelson: [1], [2].)
Recently a young female was executed for adultery in Kismayo, Somalia. Initially we were told that she was 23, and had gone to the Shabaab militia, who control that part of the country, to confess and to submit to the Shari'a penalty by way of repentance. This week, Amnesty International somehow found out that she was actually 13 years old, a rape victim who had gone to the militia with her father to report the rape and was instead charged with adultery, and actually resisted the execution, as one might expect.
Tomorrow, the UK House of Commons is to vote on an amendment to the employment bill, restoring the right of trade unions to refuse to admit, or to expel, British National Party members (more here). The European Court of Human Rights had upheld the right of ASLEF, the larger of two train drivers' unions, to expel someone for being a member of the BNP; the House of Lords introduced an amendment which makes this more difficult. The campaign website emphasises the incompatibility of fascism and trade unionism:
- We believe that fascism is incompatible with the ethos of trade unionism. Trade unionism is built upon the concept of solidarity whilst the BNP seek to divide people on grounds of race, colour and religion.
- We believe that trade unions should have the right to exclude members of the BNP and other fascist parties from their membership.
- Unions should not be liable for any financial loss incurred by fascists if they are quite separately disciplined, overlooked for promotion or even sacked by employers after the union itself has taken action, as the Lords' amendments now state.
Nick Cohen has a column in today's Observer, in which he goes from the tendency of American conservative Evangelicals away from the Republicans, featuring one Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals who has indicated support for (although, so far, not formally endorsed) Barack Obama for president:
'I'm a conservative, but it doesn't mean I'm going to vote that way,' he announced. 'I could disagree with Obama, and do, on same-sex marriage and abortion, but that doesn't mean I'll vote against him.'
Jonathan Ross is someone I find really quite offensive and unpleasant at the best of times. I absolutely hate the cringe-making content of his Friday night show - I am not averse to the odd F word, but I can't stand smutty talk about sexual subjects, particularly when I'm watching it in any company, particularly older company. Which is why I'm rather glad they have suspended him after the incident involving Russell Brand and Andrew "Manuel" Sachs's granddaughter. Frankly, if anyone had rung my granddad and told him, while broadcasting it to millions of people on the radio, that he had f**ked my sister, I would want him off the air at the very least. I didn't hear it, but this woman did, or at least read the transcript.
What's even more galling is that there is any real debate about whether these two should be given the push. On the BBC station I usually listen to, BBC London, if a caller-in swears, he is off the line that second (see earlier post). There are no second chances, even if it happens late at night (especially, in fact, since Jumoké Fashola tends to be stricter about it than, say, Vanessa Feltz). Why is there one rule for highly-paid presenters, who surely are given a load of paperwork with the rules clearly printed on it before they go on air, and another for the general public, who learn the rules only by listening to the show for a few weeks and hearing a woman who's dying of cancer get cut off for using the F word? If anyone should be getting sacked, rather than suspended, it's Ross who actually used the phrase in question.
More at IslamicPolitik.
George Monbiot, in the Guardian last Tuesday, on the link between religious belief and the anti-intellectualisation of US politics:
Ignorant politicians are elected by ignorant people. US education, like the US health system, is notorious for its failures. In the most powerful nation on earth, one adult in five believes the sun revolves around the earth; only 26% accept that evolution takes place by means of natural selection; two-thirds of young adults are unable to find Iraq on a map; two-thirds of US voters cannot name the three branches of government; the maths skills of 15 year-olds in the US are ranked 24th out of the 29 countries of the OECD(3).
He notes that, in the early days of Darwinism, it was bound up in the USA with social Darwinism, in which the rich were supposed to be at the top of an evolutionary ladder. However, another reason was the religious involvement in slavery and subsequent racism. He assigns a large part of the blame to the Southern Baptist Convention:
Over the Summer and early Autumn (i.e. Ramadan), I had a lot of work delivering electrical supplies to shopfitters working in the new Westfield centre, and spent many an hour sitting on the ramps leading off the West Cross Route in Shepherds Bush waiting to be allowed in to deliver truckloads of goods, or on the ramps waiting for forklifts to arrive or to get out of the way, or negotiating with the guys on the loading bay when my boss had mixed up goods going to different shop units because they were going to the same client, so when the centre opened yesterday, I decided I wanted to know what all the fuss had been about. The centre took five years to build, and at the time I was delivering, it seemed unbelievable that it was only a couple of months from completion. So, I went along yesterday with my Canon digital SLR. You can see all of my pictures here.
It has been reported that The Message, a film about the arrival of Islam which featured Anthony Quinn in the original, is being remade, this time with Muslim actors and set around Makkah and Madinah. The original was sponsored by Colonel Gadaffi and caused a siege in New York before its premiere, because some local Muslims mistakenly believed that the Prophet (sall' Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam) was depicted in the film. The Guardian's report connects this to the recent "Jewel of Madinah" affair and predicts that "the film is likely to renew debate about freedom of expression and self-censorship". Since this film is being made by Muslims, and the earlier version is commonly available in Islamic shops in many countries.
The other day I wrote an article in response to one in the Sunday Telegraph of 19th October, quoting at length an official in the Church of England from Bradford who claimed that the Tablighi Jama'at, the missionary arm of the group he had signed some sort of agreement with in Bradford, citing "many examples of Christian and Muslim leaders working in partnership", in fact did not engage and promoted an "us and them" mentality, among other things. As so often when a right-wing British paper wants to slander the Tablighi Jama'at, they called on the so-called Centre for Islamic Pluralism, whose British spokesman, Irfan al-Alawi, obliged. I pointed out that the CIP's leader, Stephen Schwartz, "is notorious for cosying up to American Jewish and fundamentalist Christian bigots (i.e. those who run Front Page Magazine, where most of his writings seem to appear) and telling the Muslims' enemies what they want to hear by denouncing prominent Muslims as extremists". Schwartz responded by calling me "obviously illiterate and dishonest", alleged that the only prominent Muslims he had denounced were extremists -- "name an exception" -- and threatening to sue me.
I managed to get to Global Peace and Unity 2008 this year, for the first time since 2006 (and that, like this time, was because I managed to blag a free ticket off another attendee; I couldn't spare £20 for one afternoon). GPU, for anyone who has never had the pleasure, is a big Muslim gathering, with an exhibition for Muslim business and charity, some talks and nasheeds, and this year a skateboarding display (?!), in a big exhibition venue. This venue was ExCeL in east London, which I found not to be satisfactory. In fact, I had forgotten what an awful venue ExCeL was (it's irritating even to type, let's face it). However, I did manage to make a few connections, which could lead to some media opportunities for me, so I shouldn't complain too much, especially when the sister who gave me a free ticket is probably reading this, but there were a few problems that really need airing if these events are to be a success in future. (More: iMuslim, Suspect Paki [1], [2].)
For anyone - particularly here in the UK - who's depressed about losing three great blogs in as many weeks, ENGAGE, a new Muslim organisation dedicated to media monitoring and encouraging political participation, has got their website up and running. (To anyone who might be wondering why they chose the same name as this site, I pointed that out when I was contacted by them, and was told they were aware of the name clash and could live with it.) So perhaps it's MPACUK without the constant condemnations of 'inactive' religious Muslims, which is something the community badly needs.
Also, if anyone wants to get Blogistan going again, please let me know. This was a Muslim group blog that was meant to show an authentic face of Muslims in Britain, but it foundered due to lack of interest. This time, it is not limited to people in Britain; if you are interested, give me a shout (i.e. leave a comment below; if you don't want to be published, clearly mark your comment "NOT FOR PUBLICATION"at the beginning).
AppleInsider | Steve Jobs on Apple's cash, NetBooks, Apple TV, and cheap PCs
A couple of years ago I wrote this, a reply to a series of articles on OSNews on why the author wouldn't be buying another Mac. I said I would be, if the platform was still as viable as it had been then. That was in 2006, and it's now 2008, and my eMac is still sitting there, and it's still the only Mac in the house. Not because it's really "going strong", although I still use it (not so much now that I've got Office on my Dell laptop, but it's the only machine which can send faxes), but because in that time, it has simply been crowded out by the competition. Quite simply, Macs are not good value for money anymore, at my price range.
BBC NEWS: When Islam meets Bridget Jones
This is a review by Shelina Zahra Janmohamed, the author of the Spirit21 blog (you can also find the review there). She concludes that the book is a tacky bit of historical romantic fiction - and not very historical at that, playing with the details to sex up the book, casually throwing in concepts from South Asia and Turkey which appeared later.
Also, brother Kashif posted his reaction to a posting by Adam Deen telling Muslims they should ignore these provocations and they'll go away; on the contrary, says Kashif:
Despite accusing others of simplistic reasoning, unfortunately, it is these authors themselves who employ a very simplistic type of reasoning and forget something that every little boy learns in the playground: when you let someone bully you and insult you, it won't stop until you stand up and do something about it.
Olympic mosque could create breeding ground for extremists, says senior Anglican - Telegraph
This was in yesterday's Telegraph, and it surprised me how many specific falsehoods and irrelevances could be crammed into one article. The claims come from one Dr Philip Lewis, "an interfaith adviser to the Bishop of Bradford", who as one brother suggested on the MPACUK forum, must have bought his PhD from Woolworths!
Three years after the "Historic Jumah" in which a small number of people in New York did an invalid "Friday prayer" at a church in New York, Amina Wadud turns up in Oxford to lead what seems like an even smaller group at a Masonic Hall. A writer at Ummah Pulse did some investigation into the accuracy of some BBC reports (that it was in a mosque), and this is what he came up with.
As for the proof of the invalidity of the prayer of anyone who "prayed" behind Wadud, here is a collection of opinions by some modern scholars of Islam who are not ranting extremists (PDF, I'm afraid); I also wrote a few articles tackling not only the "prayer" itself but the media response to it and some of Wadud's other antics ([1], [2], [3]). I wonder if she is aware (or if she cares) about Hargey's well-documented deviations, such as believing that the hadeeth contain so many forgeries and fabrications that they should not be used to derive legal rulings, but rather that Muslims should use the Qur'an alone? Can't she get any more publicity back home? Both of them know that they will only fool non-Muslims with this, that Muslims will reject them and will incur the hostility of liberals; I suspect that this is Hargey's aim.
The Daily Express group has been ordered to pay £375,000 to seven friends of the McCann family, whose daughter Madeleine went missing in Portugal in May 2007 and has not been seen since, for printing untrue statements about them. The papers, including the Daily Express itself, the Sunday Express and Daily Star, claimed that the Portuguese police had identified them as suspects and suggested that they had covered up facts and misled the authorities. In March, the papers printed a front-page apology to Madeleine McCann's parents for printing similar stories about them.
The BBC are calling the payout huge; the fact is that, although it may be substantial to the recipients (even divided up between the seven of them, as the reports seem to suggest), is a drip in the ocean compared to the Spew's turnover - it is probably the sort of thing their insurance would cover and their premiums will go up next year; that will hurt (a bit). No doubt if the victims of the libel had been rich and famous, the Express would have had to pay them more. I think that papers which make their money this way should face crippling sanctions, including the suspension of their circulation, including when they print sensational stories whipping up public hostility to Muslims, Gypsies or any other minority.
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