Al-Qa’ida and Muslim hearts and minds
Matthew Parris, writing in the most recent edition of the Spectator (part 1, part 2) in reply to David Selbourne, who claimed that American power is past its prime, that Islam is what has...
Author: Matthew Smith
Thinking of getting the MS Office demo?
This is something I read on the Planet KDE blog I use to gather news for my other blog: an account of what the author found when she downloaded the recent Microsoft Office demo....
Review of “Londonistan”
I waited for some time to pick up my copy of Melanie Phillips's book Londonistan, largely because I have a conscience about paying for books which are as full of damaging gibberish as this...
Radio 4: Muslims leaving the UK
BBC Radio 4 – I'm a Muslim, Get Me out of Here! This programme (to which you can listen until this time next week) examines the phenomenon of educated, professional Muslims leaving the UK,...
Bananamerica in ten easy steps
Naomi Wolf has an article in today's Guardian entitled Fascist America, in 10 easy steps, which lists ten things governments generally do when turning a country from a democracy to a dictatorship. It's not...
Manal Omar, the ‘burkini’, the rude busybody and the local media
Manal Omar on her five piece Islamic swimsuit – The Guardian I don't know why I'm surprised that a woman has run into problems wearing an all-over swimsuit; Manal Omar's run-in with some staff...
Cyberporn and credit card fraud
Operation Ore flawed by fraud – Guardian Unlimited Technology This tells the story of a witch-hunt against supposed downloaders of child porn who were jailed for the offence in the UK on the basis...
Blacksburg: from one massacre to another
There were two articles that caught my eye today in the Guardian about the Blacksburg massacre, one by Simon Jenkins and the other, in the G2 supplement, by Lionel Shriver, the author of a...
Not posh enough for a prince?
The Guardian: Common people I’m not sure if the latest bit of royal news has made it across the Pond yet, but over the weekend it was announced that Prince William (heir to the...
London’s foxes and hen-houses
Has anyone been watching the programme Meet the Foxes, about London's urban foxes? The film showed a "family" of urban foxes in north London, and their various neighbours, including some who fed them and...
Abdul-Hakim Murad: the churches and Bosnia
Abdal-Hakim Murad – The Churches and the Bosnian war This is something br. Mas’ud Khan posted to his website a couple of weeks ago, which I only just got round to looking at for...
“Inshallah” on the BBC: a cultural cringe?
Melanie Phillips’s Diary » The Beeb’s cultural cringe Melanie Phillips reproduces emails one Brian Gilbert sent to her (not sure who he is; there is a film director by that name, but it may...
“Something remarkable” happening in Glasgow
Guardian Unlimited: Something remarkable Robina Qureshi on what you might not hear about the situation in Glasgow vis-a-vis the resettled asylum seekers: the fact that the community has rallied around them, to the extent...
Toynbee: the press’s hypocrisy
Guardian Unlimited: Our press, the worst in the west, demoralises us all Polly Toynbee (someone with whom I agree vary rarely) on the hypocritical media condemnations of the sailors who were captured by Iran....
Do blogs need codes of conduct?
O'Reilly Radar: Draft Blogger's Code of Conduct I'm really quite surprised that it's taken the recent "Kathy Sierra affair" ([1], [2]) for the blogging community to get around to drawing up a "code of...
Windows Vista: slow, slow, slow
I'm just typing my first ever blog entry on a computer running Windows Vista, on my uncle's new Dell. And really, it's the most appallingly slow piece of software I've ever used. (I'm using...
A sentimental journey
Last week, as I said in my last-but-one post, I went with my family to Wales, specifically Tywyn (pronounced Towin'), the same small town I went to with them for a few days last...
Qat habit might ruin Sana’a
BBC NEWS – From Our Own Correspondent: Yemen’s khat habit soaks up water This is a BBC report about the qat (or khat) habit, which uses 40% of Yemen’s scarce water supply and is...
Marriage visa age to rise
BBC NEWS | Politics | Marriage visa age to rise to 21 The Government have announced that they are raising the minimum age for acquiring a marriage visa to the UK from 18 to...
WHO advocates male circumcision
BBC NEWS | Health | WHO agrees HIV circumcision plan The World Health Organisation today recommended that the circumcision of boys be used as a means of preventing AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, although obviously...