Politics, tech and media issues from a Muslim perspective
Marcel Berlins: Rights and responsibilities bill is all wrong (from the Guardian) Marcel Berlins in today's Guardian on one big flaw in the proposed "charter of rights and responsibilities": Adding responsibilities to rights will...
Now that the boom years are over and thousands of people are losing their jobs, the government announces more restrictions on people claiming unemployment benefits, with accompanying cheerleading in the popular press which print...
Moving on from health fascists to real fascists, the news yesterday told us that the entire membership list for the British National Party from 2007, complete with addresses and phone numbers, had been published...
Recently, I had discussions on two blogs about the legitimacy of takfeer, meaning calling someone a non-Muslim, against people who appear to be Muslims but who have deviant beliefs or opinions about a matter...
I’m sure nobody will be surprised that I’m pleased that Barack Obama has won the election. I’ve got various cousins in the USA (of the two I actually know, one lives in North Carolina...
Tomorrow, the UK House of Commons is to vote on an amendment to the employment bill, restoring the right of trade unions to refuse to admit, or to expel, British National Party members (more...
George Monbiot, in the Guardian last Tuesday, on the link between religious belief and the anti-intellectualisation of US politics: Ignorant politicians are elected by ignorant people. US education, like the US health system, is...
Olympic mosque could create breeding ground for extremists, says senior Anglican – Telegraph This was in yesterday's Telegraph, and it surprised me how many specific falsehoods and irrelevances could be crammed into one article....
Last Monday, BBC broadcast a Panorama programme, Obama and the Pitbull: An American Tale (requires Flash), about what you’d think were the two Presidential candidates (McCain himself hardly gets a mention). Watching the trailers,...
BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Haider ‘was double speed limit’ Jörg Haider, the former leader of the so-called Freedom Party in Austria who died in a car crash on Saturday morning, was...
Last week, Ian Blair, the London Police commissioner, finally resigned. I must say I am glad to see him go, and I was disgusted that the killing of Jean-Charles de Menezes did not result...
Jonathan Freedland: McCain or Obama? The US election result will have a huge impact on us | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Or, to use the actual headline, "This pansy-ass limey Brit won't butt...
In the Wake of “Obsession” Hate-DVDs: Muslim Children Gassed in Ohio Mosque | MuslimMatters.org For the last few years the Daily Express, in the UK, has been running a front-page hate campaign against Muslims,...
Yesterday, Harry's Place published an article sourced from Gina Khan and one Paul Sikander, attacking Islamic courts and Muslim institutions' marriage practices. I wrote a lengthy article yesterday, but a bug in my blogging...
I'd just like to say well-done to all those who routed the racists and fascists in Cologne who wanted to whip up some hatred against the local Turkish and Muslim population. It seems that...
Last Wednesday, Jonathan Freedland, a former Guardian US correspondent, wrote this article suggesting that the international judgement will be harsh if the Americans elect McCain and Sarah Palin, with her record of putting religion...
Linda Grant wrote this article in last Thursday's Guardian, on why small-town Americans vote Republican, even those who are well-educated like one she spoke to. Those she actually knows perceives "whitebread Republicans" as "like...
Zoe Williams, in today's Guardian, on the mawkish obsession with the horses and other pets which belonged to the family believed to have been murdered by its indebted father a couple of weeks ago...
Recently I had an exchange with an old school acquaintance who accused me of defending an enemy of my country, namely Abu Hamza, on my blog. Abu Hamza is currently in jail, having served...
Yesterday, the Policy Exchange published a report which suggested that the government should stop trying to revive the north, and instead build lots of new houses around London, Oxford and Cambridge and encourage ambitious...