Author: Matthew Smith

The Wahhabis are our problem, not yours

On Wednesday evening the Evening Standard ran an “exposé” on the central mosque in London, alleging that its bookshop was run by Wahhabis and that the mosque is run by Saudi Arabia. The specific accusation is that the bookshop sells DVDs by Khalid Yasin and one Shaikh Feiz which contains content the average white Briton might find offensive, among them that women are deficient in intelligence compared to men, that Jews are comparable to pigs and that Christian missionaries deliberately spread AIDS in Africa under the cover of vaccines for common dangerous diseases.

“The point” about gays and discrimination

Right now, as I write this, the British House of Lords (for non-Brits, that’s an unelected upper house which can only suggest amendments and delay laws, not actually block them, although it could in...

In praise of hypocrisy

This morning the Daily Mirror reported that the former Education Secretary, Ruth Kelly, had sent her dyslexic son to a special private school because she felt that the provision in her area, Tower Hamlets...

Joe Queenan: the recurring white hope

From Friday's Guardian film/music review section, Joe Queenan on a recurring theme in Hollywood films prominently featuring Africa or black people generally: that "no matter how bleak the situation seems, they can always rely...

Secular fundamentalists “the new totalitarians”

Tobias Jones (of The Dark Heart of Italy fame) on militant atheists who behave like totalitarians, hiding among anti-sexists, anti-homophobes and anti-racists, but in reality seeking to erase religion totally from the Earth, starting...

Another false exposé by right-wing bloggers

Comment is free: Victim of the bloggers Brian Whitaker of how "patriotic" right-wing American bloggers saw a conspiracy where there was none, alleging that an Iraqi police captain, Jamil Hussain, was someone the Associated...

Is Ken really the man for this job?

In a couple of weeks' time there will be a conference in London, "A World Civilisation or a Clash of Civilisations", featuring a long list of speakers including Ken Livingstone (the mayor of London),...

Foreign drivers and safety

This morning on Radio 5 Live, the BBC’s AM rolling news/discussion station, they were discussing the topic of whether immigration was good for “your wallet” or not, a somewhat inflammatory topic inspired by yet...

Telegraph readers aghast at US email snoop demand

Telegraph Comment: Sinister security Surprisingly hostile response from the London Telegraph's "Digital Democrats" to the news of a deal between the US Homeland Security department and un-named Brussels Bureaucrats. Admittedly this comes from Europe,...

419 scammers using Yahoo Messenger

Has anyone else had 419 scammers try to chat them up using Yahoo (or any other) Messenger? Just now I had some idiot pretending to be one “Dr Lawson Koffi”, whose supposed position of...

Britain: the cost of separation

From today's Guardian: Scots and English would pay dearly for ending the union This article expresses a number of my own concerns about the prospect of Scotland becoming independent from the UK, or rather,...

Nazir-Ali jumps in on veil

Sunday Telegraph: Ban veils in public, says Asian bishop The Anglican Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali (son of a convert to Catholicism from Islam) jumps in on the latest bogus veil controversy by calling...

Unhappy Christmas

BBC NEWS: "I'm a risk to myself at Christmas" This article addresses the thing I hate most about Christmas – the fact that the whole country goes into shutdown mode, with no public transport...