Dutch tolerance
In today's Times, it's reported that Rita Verdonk (what a name!), the "hardline" integration minister of the Netherlands, has told the country's Parliament that "she was going to investigate where and when the burka...
Category: Media
Too busy fasting for jihad?
As a fairly good example of the certain hysterical websites run by immature Muslims I've alluded to in posts announcing the establishment of Blogistan, I found on the MPACUK website this morning a good...
More4’s stupid promotion
A brand new TV channel appeared this week, called More4, which is being promoted to the over-30s as an "adult entertainment channel", according to this report featuring "the best of documentaries, smart films, quality...
Gems from today’s Guardian
The first thing I saw this morning when I read their news website was an account of a meeting between Maya Angelou and the Indian food author Madhur Jaffrey. They talk about their families,...
Cohen on left anti-Semitism
There’s a long essay by Nick Cohen in the current New Statesman about his experiences of what he calls anti-Semitism on the left since the run-up to the Iraq war. His interest was piqued...
No nice wheelchairs?
This morning I read in the Guardian’s Society supplement an article by Judith Cameron, a freelance writer who looks after a severely-disabled daughter, Sophie. Cameron has written a monthly column about caring for her...
Butt out, Salman
While it’s still Wednesday, I thought I might point out an article in today’s Guardian, in which Giles Fraser advises Salman Rushdie to quit his “crusading” (wrong word, but still …) and concentrate on...
Ich bin kein Berliner (2)
Looking at today’s Saturday-edition Guardian, it’s becoming clear that the Independent isn’t the sinking ship some bloggers might have thought. Can anyone who’s read today’s edition confirm or deny my impression that the articles...
Ich bin kein Berliner!
Sorry if I’ve mangled my German, but yesterday the Guardian, a generally left-leaning British former broadsheet, relaunched itself with a “Berliner” format – the size used by Le Monde, slightly wider and quite a...
BNP turns to Slovaks for printing
A few months ago I blogged here about how a publishing company owned by a Saudi prince was printing the BNP’s monthly paper, Voice of Freedom. It now appears that the organisation has turned...
Reflections on last Sunday’s Panorama
I actually wrote most of an article for the Sharpener, a British group blog to which I occasionally contribute, about this awful programme, but stumbled on the bit where I had to deal with...
Shock horror! Schools turning into madrassas!
Keeping up – or rather down – their usual record, the Evening Standard today published an article “exposing” the poor quality and aloofness from the wider community of the UK’s Muslim faith schools (not...
Patrick Sookhdeo on moderate Islam
I just received a letter from someone at the Evening Standard, asking me if I’d like to write a letter in response to two articles they printed on Friday, one by Patrick Sookhdeo and...
Amir Taheri follow-up
I’d just like to forward this link with regard to Amir Taheri’s anti-hijab lies. The article appeared in the Message magazine last year (hat tip: Dr Maxtor): Hijab and a Revelation that was not
Cherie Blair: an embarrassment?
Today the press have been making a big fuss about a speech Cherie Blair, in her capacity as Cherie Booth QC, made in Malaysia in which she warned against the erosion of human rights...
Taheri’s lying on hijab
Faraz Rabbani and Umm Zaid have linked to an opinion piece in the Times, written by Amir Taheri. It contains of a number of lies and deviant opinions about hijab, among them that it...
Blogosphere claims a scalp
A couple of weeks ago, the Guardian published an article by one of its trainee journalists, Dilpazier Aslam, on the reaction of Muslim youth in Yorkshire to the London bombings. David T at Harry’s...
Explainers, not popes
The British right-wing press’s campaign of vilification against Islam continues today, with no less than three hostile articles by three of the usual suspects: Anne McElroy, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Amir Taheri. The last gets...
Omar Bakri shoots off his mouth again
Today I was off work. I went to Kingston, and the first place I headed was the Algerian cafe up near the mosque. On the way, I saw the Evening Standard’s headline boards saying...