Indigo Jo on February 27th, 2010

The London Evening Standard yesterday had a two-page feature on a forthcoming fatwa by the leader of the Minhaj-ul-Quran group, Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, which unequivocally condemns suicide bombings. The feature is dominated by a picture of an al-Muhajiroun demonstration, but features a long article by Allegra Mostyn-Owen, a former wife of Boris Johnson who […]

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Indigo Jo on February 16th, 2010

Various newspapers have reported that two sculptures to be erected at both ends of Brick Lane in east London, a narrow street which has become a trendy hang-out place and which is supposedly full of Bengalis, have been dubbed the “hijab gates” and have become the focus of a lot of local opposition. Quoted […]

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Indigo Jo on February 9th, 2010

Last Thursday BBC Radio 4 broadcast a Report programme in which they attempted to “investigate” the links between British university Islamic societies (or ISocs) with terrorism, on the basis that Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalib, who attempted to blow up a plane near Detroit last Christmas, had been president of the ISoc at University College London. […]

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Indigo Jo on January 17th, 2010

I didn’t watch the Muslim Driving School programme, which was on BBC2 last Tuesday (at the right time to clash with Defamation, which I reviewed in my last entry), but I finally got round to seeing it just now, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was all shown in the north of England around […]

Continue reading about Muslim women driving, and contrasts on niqab

Indigo Jo on November 16th, 2009

folio » Blog Archive » Chasing wild geese

I wanted to fillet Johann Hari’s article in which he interviews three leading members of the Quilliam clique plus Anjem “Andy” Choudhary, but never having known them and always being far from the centre of all things HT — Newham and then SOAS (I was at Coulsdon College […]

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Indigo Jo on October 27th, 2009

“But You Have to Tell them” « Ginny’s Thoughts & Things

Ginny on one of my pet hates about dealing with (some) born Muslims: those who think any convert can easily “make someone Muslim”, and expect us to start preaching Islam as soon as we convert even though they may never have done any such thing […]

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Indigo Jo on October 25th, 2009

Recently some of us have been debating on Facebook whether to take part in a forthcoming coutner-demo to an al-Muhajiroun front group demo, which was to take place on the 31st. The event was titled “Say no to Andy’s fanatics!” (Andy being the nickname of Anjem Choudhary of al-Muhajiroun from the time when he […]

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Indigo Jo on October 24th, 2009

Hey Mozzie, Over Here…I’ve Got a Conspiracy to Sell You… « Oy, Habibti….

Sis. Sabiwabi on the popularity of conspiracy theories among Muslims, among them the perennial “Shadows” tapes (or series of tapes) and the more recent rumours about how the polio vaccine was part of a conspiracy to stop Muslims, or perhaps African people or […]

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Indigo Jo on October 19th, 2009

Arun Kundnani of the Institute of Race Relations has published a pamphet, Spooked: How Not to Prevent Violent Extremism (PDF), on how the government’s “Preventing Violent Extremism” programme has turned into an intelligence gathering exercise, in which educators and youth workers were encouraged to tattle on people regarding so-called ‘extreme’ opinions regardless of whether they […]

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Indigo Jo on October 14th, 2009

Last Friday and last Sunday, Shelina Zahra Janmohamed appeared on BBC Radio debating the issue of hijab with two foreign anti-hijab agitators. One of them is part of London’s small but well-connected Iranian exile community, namely Diana Nammi; the other is Marnia Lazreg, who has just published a book entitled Questioning the Veil, through […]

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Indigo Jo on October 14th, 2009

Brother Abu Sinan, who some of you may remember as a regular on Umar Lee’s blog, has appealed for help as he needs treatment for his autistic son, Sinan, which is starting to get expensive as medical insurance does not cover the only effective treatment:

We took our little Sinan to the Children’s National […]

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Indigo Jo on September 29th, 2009

Back in late 2008, I got contacted by Emel magazine, a British Muslim lifestyle magazine, for a feature on Muslim bloggers. The process of getting the material over there took months, and I dealt with two different sisters as the first one left the magazine, but I finally got word last week that it […]

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Indigo Jo on September 28th, 2009

Abdul-Rahman Murphy of Practimate on Muslim men’s attitude to polygamy and the distress it causes sisters, who often find themselves reluctant to marry:

As my wife and I discussed this odd phenomenon of young, practicing, Muslim singles remaining single, I asked the stereotypically male question, “Why are there so many unmarried people here? You […]

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Indigo Jo on September 11th, 2009

Recently sister Safiya (Outlines) posted an article about the situation of women who got hurt in the Kharabsheh or “K-Town” community in Jordan; this is the community of Shaikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller’s students who settle in or around his zawiya. One recurring theme, in a comment on that entry and on a blog […]

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Indigo Jo on August 15th, 2009

I’d just like to give a huge mabrouk to sister (Cassiopia) Khadija Bradley who got married yesterday (Friday). I don’t know the identity of the lucky man but I am sure he is as happy as she is. This is the lady I first heard of defending the niqab (see her article on […]

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Indigo Jo on August 15th, 2009

Jim Fitzpatrick condemned for ‘hijacking’ Muslim wedding by bridegroom - Telegraph

The details of this incident, in which a Labour government minister who represents the “safe” (not for long, insha Allah) east London seat of Poplar was invited to a Muslim wedding but walked out after discovering that men and women were to be separated and […]

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Indigo Jo on July 21st, 2009

I’m sure many of you have heard the story of the young girl who suffered terrible injuries in a gang rape in Aleppo last month; you can read the story in English here. There has been a Facebook group set up to show solidarity (it’s mostly in Arabic) and a few websites have reported […]

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Indigo Jo on July 17th, 2009

As long as I’ve been a Muslim, there has always been a division among Muslims as to the use of the word kaafir, the Arabic word for unbeliever. Some, particularly born Muslims from non-English-speaking backgrounds and members of certain hardline persuasions, use it very freely. Others find it derogatory, whether or not they […]

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Indigo Jo on July 8th, 2009

Rahila Gupta, in today’s Guardian, delivers a confused ramble about the issue of “choice” in wearing or not wearing the hijab in the West and in Saudi Arabia and Iran:

I believe it is misplaced for women to prioritise their race or communal identity over their gender identity. This is a cloth that comes […]

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Indigo Jo on June 28th, 2009

In the past couple of weeks I’ve noticed something startling appearing on the Muslim ‘net: conservative Muslims attacking the Pakistani Taliban. These include a series of posts from Abu Eesa ([1], [2] with links to four more) and the news that a great-grandson of Maulana Qasim Nanotwi, a founder of Darul-Uloom Deoband, has condemned […]

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