Blaming the colonials for everything
Over the weekend I saw a touching story about an elderly Moroccan lady who completed the first grade of her country's school system after having been illiterate all her life and having spent three...
Category: Muslim world
Are ISIS really Khawaarij?
Yesterday I saw a Facebook post which linked to a story about a paper by Craig Considine which claimed that "newly translated" stories from the time of the Prophet (sall' Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam)...
Why Muslims aren’t pacifists
Martin Luther King junior famously wrote a Letter from a Birmingham Jail, a response to local White clergymen who had urged him to be less strident and roll back on the direct action. One...
On the “Muslim Luther” fallacy that won’t die
Last night on BBC's Newsnight, there was a two-minute slot by a Canadian journalist called Graeme Wood, who claimed that the rise of the "Islamic State" was equivalent to the Christian Reformation spearheaded by...
“Sunnis condemn the Saudis” isn’t news
The Independent carried a story last Thursday in which Robert Fisk claimed that "for the first time", Saudi Arabia was under attack from both Sunni and Shi'ite scholars as some two hundred scholars, including...
Saudi Arabia minimising civilian casualties?
I was rather surprised to hear the ongoing war in Yemen being described as the "forgotten war" on BBC's Newsnight, as I've been hearing about it almost non-stop on my social media feeds; but...
There’s more to the Binladins than OBL
Yesterday a light aircraft crashed when attempting to land at Blackbushe airfield near Farnborough. The airfield is a former RAF base which has also been a passenger airport, but these days is used for...
No, we’re not “quietly condoning” ISIS
Last week, in a speech to a gathering of security chiefs in Bratislava, Slovakia, David Cameron accused Muslims of pointing the finger at everyone but themselves for some Muslims being attracted to ISIS. The...
ISIS and the “three silly girls”
Recently three young girls, British Bangladeshis from east London, left the UK for Turkey apparently intending to join ISIS in Syria, and the media have been up in arms about the fact that someone...
‘Wahhabis’ are not the only fanatics in Pakistan
The saints go marching out as the face of Islam hardens in Pakistan | World news | theguardian.com This article is about how traditional, supposedly gentler and mystical, forms of Islam are being edged...
A suspected war criminal to settle a hostage crisis?
The BBC just reported that the trial at the Hague of William Ruto, the Kenyan deputy president, for crimes committed after the 2007 general election, has been suspended so that he can go back...
Parliament got it right on Syria (for now)
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...
Let’s not panic over Mali and Algeria
Until we learn to be as single-minded as the fanatics – at home and abroad – we’re ALL hostages | Mail Online In response to the attack by an “al-Qa’ida franchise” on the gas...
Jonathan Freedland: there is no silence on Syria
We condemn Israel. So why the silence on Syria? | Jonathan Freedland | Comment is free | The Guardian This article appeared in the opinion section of yesterday’s Guardian and criticises the public and the...
Why don’t Muslims condemn every bad thing a Muslim does anywhere? by Cristina Odone
How many Muslim women martyrs do we need before Muslim leaders speak out? – Telegraph Blogs Cristina Odone is asking why Muslims didn’t loudly condemn the shooting of Malala Yousufzaid in Swat, Pakistan, as...
How to blaspheme in Pakistan
How to commit blasphemy in Pakistan | World news | The Guardian This is a fairly comprehensive assessment of the situation surrounding the blasphemy law in Pakistan right now. While I am not against...
The small creditors
In the days since Col Gaddafi was killed, I have noticed that the western media are obsessed with ensuring that Libyan officials answer to western courts for things the régime did in the 1980s...
Somalia? Send a proper journalist
LIZ JONES: The caring professions? They just don't seem to care at all | Mail Online The above article is a rant by Liz Jones, normally a fashion columnist on the Daily Mail also...
CIA vaccine scam endangers vaccines worldwide
CIA organised fake vaccination drive to get Osama bin Laden’s family DNA | World news | The Guardian The Guardian today reported that an investigation by the paper had uncovered a fake vaccine programme...
Trafalgar into Tahrir?
Anti-cuts campaigners plan to turn Trafalgar Square into Tahrir Square | World news | guardian.co.uk I am planning to attend the march organised by the Trades Union Congress this coming Saturday (26th March), but...