Who is a Muslim, and who isn’t?
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...
Category: Politics
The obligatory Obama post
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...
The hidden dangers of a ban on fascists in unions
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...
Religion, evolution and stupidity
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...
Tablighis: engaging in Bradford, isolating in London – or is it just a misunderstanding?
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....
Panorama’s narrow view on Palin
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,...
Haider was speeding, and other news from the criminal far right
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...
Ian Blair: good riddance, but …
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...
Why the US election is everyone’s business
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...
Proof that vilification leads to violence?
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,...
Response to Khan & Sikander on Islamic courts
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...
Well done to the anti-fascists in Cologne
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...
The ingratitude of a boorish “angry American”
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...
Plain speech, true speech?
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...
Pity the horses, but not the murderer
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...
Who are the real traitors?
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...
Move ’em down south? Hardly
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...
The descendants of Nazis who became Jews
The Guardian today had this feature on descendants of Nazis, including a shirt-tail relative of Adolf Hitler, who became Jews, and in one case a rabbi, supposedly to cleanse themselves of the sins of...
But freedom for whom?
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown has a confused ramble in today's Independent, lamenting the fact that joining the European Union has decreased in popularity since 2002, when the figure was 70% in favour (by 2006, it was...
A state funeral for Thatcher?
It was reported today that the government had decided to honour Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister of the UK from 1979 to 1990, with a state funeral when she dies (she is 82 and...