Politics, tech and media issues from a Muslim perspective
Following my entry on the fake controversy over "segregation" (i.e. separate seating for men and women) at Islamic society events in London, Channel 4 News covered the issue this evening, featuring interviews with Maryam...
From the Archive: Paul Johnson on the Know-Nothing Left This article first appeared in the New Statesman in 1975 when Paul Johnson was still associated with the British political left (in the late 1970s...
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%)...
The week before last (I have only just had the opportunity to write about it due to work), a teacher from Kent called Jeremy Forrest was jailed for five and a half years for...
The other night I saw a Panorama documentary which covered the issue of children going missing from the care system in the UK. I had been expecting this to be about children who were...
Letters: We need an inquiry into sex abuse cases | Society | The Guardian This letter from Anthony Stansfeld of Thames Valley police appeared in yesterday’s Guardian, and attributes the grooming and rape of...
Michael Gove proposes longer school day and shorter holidays | Politics | guardian.co.uk Michael Gove, the current education secretary, has announced extended school days and longer terms, allowing schools to stay open until 4:30pm...
BBC News – Leading music college loses border licence Point Blank Music College, a well-regarded college which seems to specialise in modern music (teachers include DJ Pete Tong, alumni include Goldie and Leona Lewis)...
Terry Deary on Libraries (from the Guardian) Terry Deary (of Horrible Histories fame) thinks bookshops are closing because libraries are cutting their throats by lending out books rather than selling them. Uh, not so...
Kesgrave: ‘It was survival of the fittest’, claims ex-pupil of abuse inquiry school – News – Ipswich Star Last month I gave an interview to a journalist from the Ipswich Star, a local newspaper...
Former pupils call for new investigation into abuse claims at Suffolk school | Society | The Guardian A few weeks ago I was contacted by a journalist from the Guardian, Josh Halliday, who saw...
A number of newspapers, and the BBC, have reported today that a foster family from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, have had three children removed from their care allegedly becuase they are members of the UK...
The past week or so I've been following a series of posts by the blogger "Anna Raccoon", who I earlier came across in her articles about the Court of Protection and her championing of...
As the British team in the London Olympics surpassed its previous gold medal record (its all-time record from 1908 is unbeaten, but that was when the rules were very different from now), politicians started...
Chris Woodhead, the former chief inspector of British schools, has been in the news twice this week, the first occasion when he proposed that the school leaving age should be 14, so as to...
School skirt ban is just the latest battle in the uniform wars | Education | The Guardian Recently a secondary school in Ipswich (the third in the town) changed its uniform code making trousers...
Boris Johnson in tough units call for young rioters – Crime, UK – The Independent Boris Johnson has called for school children involved in the riots last week (and presumably any future similar incidents)...
Innocence Lost: What Happened to Girlhood? « Clutch Magazine The above article appears on a website mainly aimed at the African American community and I got the link from a Black American Muslim friend...
Yesterday, the last in the present series of Waterloo Road, the BBC school soap, aired, and it featured the climax of two separate stories, that of Denzil and his death-defying stunts which nearly killed...
I watched the first part of Neil Morrissey’s Care Home Kid series yesterday (on iPlayer, where viewers in the UK can see it until next Monday) with much interest. Although I never was in...