Chechen mass illness psychological?
Perhaps it is as they say. But are they sure it's nothing to do with that radiation being released from a Grozny nuclear power plant? BBC NEWS: "Psychology" clue to Chechen ill
Category: Politics
Williams and Carey on Christmas
The Daily Telegraph reports on comments by Rowan Williams and George Carey (respectively, the current and previous archbishops of Canterbury) defending Christmas against these misguided "false accommodations" involving removing explicit mention of Christmas and...
Shaikh Nuh Keller on niqab (updated)
Shaikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller has issued a new lecture on the subject of niqab via the website Suhba.org. It is available to the public in the "lessons" section of the website. In the...
Amir Butler on Sydney riots
Br Amir Butler has provided his own account of the recent riots in Sydney. To my knowledge, this is the first Muslim blog account of the incidents (surprisingly, Irfan Yusuf doesn't seem to have...
Bigots’ friend back in shadow cabinet
The BBC is reporting that Boris Johnson, the former editor of the Spectator who allowed the brazenly unbalanced analysis of the July bombings and French riots to appear on his watch has been given...
Cameron wins, and Tory anti-ID pieces
Well, I have to say I'm guardedly optimistic about David Cameron winning the Conservative Party leadership election. When I saw David Davis' campaign page, I saw the complaint about foreigners taking up room in...
“The Project”: an Islamophobic conspiracy theory
Muslims may not be on course for another set of gas chambers as some seem to think (see this entry), but Islamophobia in Europe is taking on yet another of the characteristics of traditional...
Niqabs and hoodies
The London Evening Standard today printed a letter from one Papya Qureshi of west London, a Bengali Muslima "who has been taught to dress modestly": I have lost track of the names of clothes...
Observer on niqab
The Observer had a story on the front page of its review section last Sunday on niqab, the face veil worn by some Muslim women. The Big Cover-Up fails to ask the obvious question...
Why David Davis disappoints
The Conservative Party here in the UK is in the final stages of its leadership election: of five candidates available to the party's relatively small group of MPs, the membership have until early December...
Euro court rejects Turkish headscarf appeal
This just in from the BBC: Turkey can ban Islamic headscarves in universities, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled. The court rejected an appeal by a Turkish woman who argued that the...
Cohen on racism in Handsworth
Another civil disturbance, another Nick Cohen comment (duplicated on his blog), and you can bet he'll use it to drum for his pet causes – among them his opposition to sectional politics of any...
In defence of British time
Today was the last day of British Summer Time, by which for seven months of the year, the British call midnight 1am and noon 1pm. For the five months from the end of October...
Brazilians see sense
As a geek I've got a soft spot for Brazil, which is one of a handful of third-world countries which is at the forefront of open-source software adoption. This is mostly due to most...
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...
Blair to ban public smoking at last
No, he's not talking about banning it altogether – just about places where people eat, according to a report in today's Observer. And for once I've got something good to say about the present...
Darfur “not genocide”
A day late, I know (following a reminder and some new info on Lenin's Tomb): Jonathan Steele commented in the Guardian yesterday that the UN secretary-general has published a report that "attacks the government...
New Labour’s Stalinist attitudes
OK … those of us who opposed the Iraq war are used to having mud thrown at us: pro-Saddam, unholy alliance, SWP front group, and so on. Now, look which party proposes security laws...
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...
Victims and relatives
I was preparing a post on the recent proposal to introduce American-style “victim impact” statements in British murder and manslaughter trials, which I think is a really foolish idea. You can guess that it’s...