Bush, Google and censorship
BBC NEWS: White House plans open government An interesting report on how the Obama government intends to open up the White House website to search engines. Under Bush, they "blocked" search engines from indexing...
Category: USA
Response to Umar Lee on Shaikh Hamza Yusuf
Umar Lee has posted an exposé of what he calls "Rand Institute Muslims" or RIMs as they supposedly exist in 21st-century America. Their characteristics, according to him, are "detachment from the Islamic Revival", supporting...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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,...
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...