Neo-cons, Muslims and ‘last men’
Douglas Murray, author of the Social Affairs Unit’s Neoconservatism: Why We Need It, recently made a speech at the Pim Fortuyn Memorial Lecture on the topic “What Are We To Do About Islam?”. This...
Author: Matthew Smith
The Sharpener: Neo-cons, Muslims and “Last Men”
This is a link over to an article I’ve just published at *The Sharpener* in reply to a speech by Douglas Murray, author of the [Social Affairs Unit](http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/)’s pamphlet [Neoconservatism: Why We Need It](http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/pub/000676.php)....
Melanie Phillips soundbite of the week
In the style of the "Donald Rumsfeld soundbite of the week" the BBC's Broadcasting House programme used to have on a Sunday, in which the public was left to laugh at Dumbsfeld tripping over...
Ziyara to … the Taliban
Some of them may have been fighting to get rid of this sort of thing, but as a brother on Deenport pointed out, this is where a number of the Taliban who were killed...
Picking on the powerless isn’t brave
Gary Younge in today's Guardian takes issue with people who call it brave to defend popular orthodoxies and make statements of bigotry just because liberals might attack them, with particular reference to the "Larry...
Telegraph clarifies “Ban Qur’an” call
The Sunday Telegraph today published a letter from Abdul-Haqq Bewley (eighth letter down, "Most Muslims in Britain have conservative values") regarding the remarks Patrick Sookhdeo made regarding his and his wife's translation of the...
Cyclists running reds? Tut, tut …
Anyone who's been reading the London news the last couple of days will have heard that cyclists are getting a bit of bad publicity because of the tendency of some to pass lights at...
Why Windows Vista will suck
Via the Planet SUSE RSS feed, I got this article on Why Windows Vista will suck by Ziff Davis Internet senior editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols. The piece is in reaction to an earlier article...
Iranian dissidents force cancellation of meeting
Yesterday I came across an article at Harry's Place relating an incident in which a pro-Iranian London lecturer, Elaheh Rostami, addressed a Stop the War meeting along with Haifa Zangana (an Iraqi author whose...
Libya’s new Magdalen homes
On the *Guardian*’s website (but not in the print edition), [Brian Whitaker reports](http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,,1720032,00.html) on the prisons the Libyan state has set up for so-called fallen women – some of them rape victims, some of...
Who’s heard of Tajikistan?
Melanie Phillips [reproduces](http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/archives/001609.html) a press release from the [International Sephardic Leadership Council](http://www.sephardiccouncil.org/) regarding the [destruction of the only functioning synagogue](http://www.sephardiccouncil.org/press-taj2.html) in Tajikistan by the government. The régime is supposedly a progressive (most likely this...
Legacy of Afghan war
The BBC’s File on Four programme has broadcast a programme about the appalling security situation in southern Afghanistan – major maladminstration by provincial governors with links to such people as drug traffickers, “mujahideen” commanders...
Hockney, smoke and stupidity
There are three letters in today's Guardian attacking David Hockney, pop artist nowadays noted for his campaign against smoking bans in public places where people have to work. The letters are in response to...
Bookwright on “ban Qur’an” call
I got the following message in an email from Bookwright, the Danish publisher of Islamic texts. It concerns the call from the anti-Islamic rent-a-column writer Patrick Sookhdeo AKA Sookhdevil for Aisha Bewley's translation of...
Muslims march against bombers
For anyone who still thinks Muslims "never protest against terrorism", here's a report on such a march – in London, not a state-sponsored march in Damascus or Riyadh: BBC NEWS: Muslim march over shrine...
Green light for abuse of power
In the Guardian today, Jenni Russell has a column describing the danger you are in when you argue with a petty "public service" jobsworth: One of them aggressively thrust a BAA [British Airports Authority]...
Debate on the cartoons in Prospect
Prospect Magazine (a British Lottery-funded left-leaning intellectual magazine) has published an exchange of letters between Prospect contributing editor Kamran Nazeer and Emel magazine editor Sarah Joseph (Should Muslim turn a blind eye to the...
Brat Camp and the “Teen Gulag”
Cherry Potter has an article in today's Guardian (Train them like rats) regarding the Channel 4 series Brat Camp, in the latest version of which a group of recalcitrant teenage girls are taken out...
Monbiot on RFIDs
George Monbiot has an article in today's Guardian about the emerging "radio frequency identification tags", used in one company in Ohio to identify two workers who are entitled to enter the strongroom. The chips...
Amani Hissi update
For anyone who remembers the story of Amani Hissi, a Palestinian lady who lost her sight in childhood after she was hit in the face by an Israeli tear gas grenade, a guy called...