Author: Matthew Smith

Review of Gita Saghal’s Hecklers appearance

Last Saturday Gita Saghal of Awaaz South Asia Watch and “Women Against Fundamentalisms”, an organisation which monitors and opposes religious fundamentalism in south Asia, appeared on BBC Radio 4’s programme Hecklers, so-called because one...

Second proggie group hit by mass resignations

Via Dr Maxtor, another representative-only-of-themselves "Progressive Muslim" group, the so-called Muslim Canadian Congress, has been hit by the resignation of several of its board. Readers might remember that a similar group, the Progressive Muslim...

No apartheid in Norbury

In this week's New Stateman, Darcus Howe responds to the persistent talk of "segregation" by presenting the situation in his home suburb of Norbury, south London, widely perceived (at least locally) as some sort...

Inside the real Tablighi Jama’at

In reply to last week's Guardian article purporting to give a glimpse "behind the scenes" at the supposedly secretive Tablighi Jama'at, Emdad Rahman posts his observations: Paul Lewis’ article contained a number of factual...

One for the textbooks?

BBC NEWS | UK | 'Porn-link' safety advert banned This is a story about how an anti-child-porn website, ThinkUKnow, was advertised on the radio, leading one lady to type what she heard – think*you*know...

John Ware interviewed in Media Guardian

John Ware, the guy behind the anti-MCB documentary last year and a more recent one attacking charity support for Hamas-run schools, was interviewed for yesterday's Guardian Media supplement (free registration required): He says he...

Shaikh Muhammad Pirzada launches website

[The website of Shaikh Muhammad Imdad Hussain Pirzada](http://www.mihpirzada.com/home.html), the founder of Jamia al-Karam in Retford, Notts (England) and one of this country’s most renowned *ulama*, has been launched on the [Night of Isra &...

Zia tells us to embrace Qadianis

It looks like Ziauddin Sardar has finally overstepped the mark … in his latest column in the New Statesman, he insists that we Muslims "respect differences among ourselves – particularly when they appear to...

“Sufi Muslim Council” exposed

Sufi Muslim Council Exposed: The 'Neoconservative' Sufi Muslim Council An anonymously written, but lengthy and detailed, article showing the links the so-called Sufi Muslim Council, a body which has been promoted in recent weeks...

“Japanese” loo habits catching on …

Guardian Unlimited: 'Bidet toilets, they're the future – I've sat on one' Helen Pidd in today's Guardian about the toilets which allow for what we call istinja – washing yourself after you relieve yourself....

Terrorist suspects “did not have passports”

NBC: Disagreement over timing of arrests – Lisa Myers & the NBC Investigative Unit – MSNBC.com A senior British official knowledgeable about the case said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance...

Inconveniencing the disabled

My work as a delivery driver often requires me to lift heavy items up several flights of steps, repetitively. It’s a huge inconvenience and annoyance, and the buildings involved are often quite new, leading...

Pipes makes terrorist out of drifter

Daniel Pipes, in a comment on the recent Seattle shootings in the New York Sun (on his web site), makes some really absurd leaps of the imagination in order to portray the incident as...

It’s hideous … and brainless

Apologies to anyone who's lost their lunch at the sight of this … I've seen many pictures of this dreadful "sculpture" and it's one of the most hideous human models I've seen anywhere. Here's...

Who’s photocopying who?

OSNews: Redmond, Start Your Photocopiers? OSNews regular Thom Holwerda on how Apple, who used the title above as a slogan when launching the current version of Mac OS X (Tiger) in 2005, has done...

Cross country abuse?

A silly story hit the papers over the weekend about a document which numbered cross-country school runs among forms of child abuse ([1], [2]). The document, entitled Your Legal Rights, was distributed to 14-16...