Politics, tech and media issues from a Muslim perspective
Southern California InFocus – WAFA SULTAN: Reformist or opportunist? Thanks to Dr Maxtor, who reproduced the whole thing (with some of his usual acerbic commentary), this article exposes the various claims Wafa Sultan has...
Islamophobia Watch drew my attention to an article by Barbara Smoker, former president of the National Secular Society, in the latest edition of the Gay Humanist Quarterly. The edition is freely downloadable but is...
George Monbiot: A glut of barristers at Westminster has led to a crackdown on dissent This was in today’s Guardian (also find it, with references, here at George Monbiot’s own archive). The context is...
Once in a blue moon I find myself agreeing with the ultra-modernist Ziauddin Sardar, who writes a column in the New Statesman (you can see what I’ve written about his other writings in the “ZiaWatch” category). In this week’s New Statesman, he has an article in reaction to the recently published “Muslim Power 100”, which was sponsored by the Islamic Bank of Britain and Carter Andersen (I’m not sure what they do, because the only website under their name is at the time of writing suspended for non-payment of hosting fees). This is supposedly a list of the hundred most powerful Muslims (or people with Muslim names) in the UK right now.
These tots in PVC don't scare me (The Observer) Christina Odone (regular in the Observer and noted contributor to the Catholic press also) noted in last Sunday's Observer the popularity of indecent clothing for...
Further to UZ's post linking a NYT article on fighting email spam, the Guardian's technology supplement today printed an article on a new front in the malware wars: programs which cripple your computer while...
The Guardian today has a long article, entitled simply Faith, about religion and the heated debates it has recently provoked in the UK. Discussed are the usual matters of faith schooling, creationism and the...
Jinnzaman recently blogged a lengthy article by Shaikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller on the subject of the rulings of takfeer, who is entitled to pronounce it, when and why, and how it relates to...
BBC – BBC TWO – The Retreat This is a BBC2 series, starting tomorrow, about a group of people who went on an "Islamic retreat" at the Alqueria de Rosales, an Islamic complex with...
The weekly British photographers' magazine Amateur Photographer has a feature called Backchat (sponsored by Nikon), in which readers are invited to contribute their "thoughts or views on photography". This week's is from one Graham...
Five Chinese Crackers: More bullsh*t from the Express Thanks to Osama Saeed, a comprehensive rebuttal of the garbage on the front page of yesterday's Daily Spew regarding the MCB's report (PDF) about how British...
The project | Iraq | Guardian Unlimited This is the second part of Rajiv Chandrasekaran's exposé of how the "Coalition" managed Iraq – in this case, by filling important positions in the Coalition Provisional...
Some people just don't get it about the "road charging" situation. I signed the petition, along with well over a million others. No doubt, the government will simply brush it off, as they brushed...
Last month I got myself a digital camera with money I'd been given by relatives for my 30th birthday (£30 each from most of them, and I have plenty of aunts and uncles on...
BBC NEWS: Ex-BNP man 'wanted to shoot PM' (hat tip: Lenin) Remember the case of the biggest-ever haul of explosive chemicals the police found at a house in Lancashire last October, which hardly made...
BBC NEWS: Congestion rises in c-charge zone Shock horror: figures cited in a speech cited by Ken Livingstone (mayor of London) himself, in a speech at City Hall today, show that congestion has gone...
In the past couple of weeks, three events led to much heated discussion about the idea of "communities" in the West, and "community leaders" in particular: a Policy Exchange report (PDF) suggesting, among other...
Radio 4 – The British Mosque This is a BBC Radio 4 programme which was broadcast on Friday, which discusses the debates among architects involved in British mosque design, which actually has practices dedicated...
Mad Mel's Diary: the "War Against the West" Mel comments on the King Fahad Academy controversy, in which a sacked former teacher accuses the school of teaching from a textbook which makes some unflattering...
As an example of the sort of silly conspiracy-mongering George Monbiot was talking about in his article in the Guardian on Tuesday (which I linked), here is a reply to it (third letter down),...