News from Indonesia … and Blogistan

News from Indonesia today … that the government there turned down the British government’s offer to send a group of 120 Gurkha troops from Brunei to help with the Aceh rescue / clean-up operation. I wonder why?!

Also, I’ve opened up two new sub-sites here. One is the beginning of my Blogistan blog directory and portal project, which I’ve sort-of got off the ground by setting up the Drupal portal server. Another is The Vane (that’s V A N E, as in wind monitor), a blog dedicated to allowing Muslims to answer the windbags who feel qualified to comment on our religion online and in the media. The focus will be on repeat offenders – people with a track record of hostility to Islam and Islamic causes. One of my Robert Spencer pieces has already been moved; pieces responding to Polly Toynbee and the Cohen / Hari / Aaronovitch gang are to be found there also, insha Allah. If anone else wishes to contribute, please let me know – I can set up extra authors for free as it is based on WordPress, not MT.

I’d also welcome input from people with Drupal experience, as it’s vastly more difficult than running a MT or WordPress site.