Politics, tech and media issues from a Muslim perspective
The recent wave of media interest in niqaab that resulted from the Birmingham College and niqaab-in-court affairs has, as previously noted, featured a lot of opinionising from almost everyone except for wearers — plenty...
My veil epiphany | Victoria Coren Mitchell | Comment is free | The Observer Last Thursday a major further education college in Birmingham, the Birmingham Metropolitan College, backed down on a decision to ban...
I'm one of the people who's been "bumped" from Lloyd's Bank to the new TSB, a spin-off set up because the EU decided that Lloyds/TSB was too big after getting a government subsidy. The...
Last Tuesday a British soap actor, Michael “Le Vell” Turner, was found not guilty of multiple counts of rape and sexual assault on a child (now 17). There has been some suggestions that his...
iPhone 5C: if Apple produces a cheap phone, it could wipe out its rivals Mic Wright (@brokenbottleboy on Twitter) says that if Apple launches a cheap iPhone tonight (the rumoured iPhone 5C), it could...
Ohio captor 'needed suicide watch': http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23967581 Ariel Castro, the man who kept three young women captive in his house in Ohio for several years, was found hanged in his cell on Tuesday. According to...
Recently a mother who was known to the online autism community and kept a blog about parenting her autistic daughter was found in a fume-filled van with her. Both the mother, Kelli Stapleton, and...
Europe's Dirty Drug Secret: Stacey Dooley Investigates (viewable in the UK until next Sunday) Last Monday I saw a programme featuring Stacey Dooley, the British “investigative journalist” whose efforts at understanding the divisions in...
Last Thursday, the British Parliament resoundingly defeated a government motion to join military action in Syria in response to the recent chemical weapon attacks in the suburbs of Damascus. Labour were joined in their...
Carers and care workers are the best kind of people. So why are they treated so disgracefully? Yesterday the Guardian published the above article by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, best known for co-founding Vagenda magazine...
Recently I saw a number of appeals on Facebook and other social media to sign a petition to save a “mosque” in Manchester, the Islamic Academy of Manchester, which had been sold to a...
The BBC's online "Magazine" last week published three articles about transport issues, one of them about the notion of "road tax" and how it's commonly used as a trump card in arguments between motorists...
Currently Channel 4 is running a series called Benefits Britain 1949, in which people are invited to live on benefits at 1949 levels (supposedly adjusted to inflation) for a week. The Daily Mail has...
Recently there has been some well-deserved condemnation on blogs and Twitter feeds that I read about the British government’s attacks on immigration, which took the form of vans telling people who are in the...
Recently in the UK (not sure how many of my overseas readers are aware of it) there has been a major controversy about abuse of women activists on Twitter, which erupted when a feminist...
Woman with Down syndrome prevails over parents in guardianship case (from the Washington Post website) Yesterday Jenny Hatch, who had been fighting to free herself from a restrictive guardianship arrangement which required her to...
BBC Three: Failed by the NHS Last night there was a documentary on BBC Three about young people whose mental health conditions went untreated for months or years by the NHS mental health services,...
Owen Jones: Cruel? Certainly. Unforgivable? Beyond doubt. But the Tories aren't actually evil – Comment – Voices – The Independent Last week Sunny Hundal posted an article on Liberal Conspiracy in which he made...
Ban packed lunches, head teachers urged (from BBC News) The government has commissioned a report by two founders of the Leon restaurant chain (!) that says that take-up of school meals is low (43%)...
Recently a series called Don’t Call Me Crazy, set inside an adolescent mental health unit in Manchester, the now-closed McGuinness Unit, was screened on BBC Three, apparently the first time cameras had been allowed...