Politics, tech and media issues from a Muslim perspective
Martin Bright’s documentary on British Foreign Office dealings with “radical Islam” finally aired on Channel 4’s 30 Minutes slot last night, and did not really contain any surprises for me. Martin Bright’s position is that the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO), in its dealings with the Muslim community, has largely restricted itself to dealing with groups led by the Muslim Brotherhood and Jama’at-e-Islami, to the exclusion of ordinary, moderate “Sufi” Muslims.
Via Islamophobia Watch, a hilarious exchange among Jamie Glazov of Front Page Magazine and Norman Geras and Nick Cohen, to which David Horowitz is later introduced. The "interview" was supposed to be about the...
While listening to the discussion of the dreadful bombings in Bombay yesterday, I could not help noticing the BBC falling over themselves to make sure they called the city by its "real name" of...
It's still open season on niqabis, as the Independent prints four letters in response to Deborah Borr's attack on them in Saturday's edition. The letters can be read here in the left-hand column (not...
Radical Middle Way Event: Shaikh Walead Mohammed, an American graduate of al-Azhar (who has also studied in Damascus) is to give a talk this Tuesday in London and next Sunday in Oxford on the...
A woman called Deborah Orr (or should that be Deborah Borr) wrote an article for today's (Saturday's) Independent attacking Muslim women who cover their faces ([1], [2]), alleging that face coverings are "are physical...
[Karen Armstrong in today’s *Guardian*](http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1815604,00.html) on how extremists in Islam, like those in other religions, are deliberately outside the mainstream of their religion and in fact have contempt for it: >Sayyid Qutb (1906-66), whose...
Rod Liddle has dedicated his “Liddle Britain” column this week in the Spectator (free registration required, but paywalled after a week) to slagging off the upcoming “Muslim day” at Alton Towers, the leisure park in the English Midlands, organised by Islamic Leisure. Liddle obviously thinks the reason this event is taking place is because Muslims don’t like rubbing shoulders with non-Muslims
Brian Whitaker at Comment is Free on the recent case of the R&B producer Dallas Austin, who was busted in Dubai with some cocaine he’d picked up back home. He got a four-year prison term, but returned to the USA today after being pardonned by the ruler of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. As is noted, there are at least three laws in force there: one for locals, one for rich westerners and one for poor foreigners:
Qays Arthur on the recent rise of the Islamic Courts in Somalia, which prompted him to find out if the people behind them are really practising traditional Sunni jurisprudence or something else – the...
On the same day that the Times (and the ITV evening news) featured a Populus opinion poll which supposedly showed that 13% of Britain’s Muslims think that the four men who carried out the...
This week’s Media Guardian on the invasion of Beeston, the home town of three out of the four people who bombed London last July, by reporters who had no idea of what sensitivity means:...
BBC NEWS | England | London | Rambling in headscarves The BBC on a group of Bangladeshi ladies in London who go on rambles in London with the Ramblers' Association – normally associated with...
The BBC programme Broadcasting House had a feature on the Somali community this morning, in reaction to the case of a girl being slashed by a Somali classmate, an orphan with a very low...
This week’s New Statesman (the first I’ve had through the door on a now ended subscription offer of £4.80 for three months) has on its front page a feature marking the anniversary of the 7th July bombings last year. There are two long articles, one by Shiv Malik (yep, him again) on the background of the bomber Shazad Tanweer and one by Ziauddin Sardar (yep, him again) on young British Muslims. Laughably Shiv’s feature is entitled The Suicide Bomber in his own words, which refers to the personal statement on his UCAS (university application) form that he’s managed to get hold of. Depressingly, as I noted last year when writing about political magazine coverage of the bombings, these two were the only voices within the community the NS could find, with Shiv concentrating on Hizbut-Tahreer, which had nothing to do with the bombings.
This week’s Croydon Advertiser has a report on an apparent “religious war” which led to a teenager being stabbed in April 2005; the case is currently the subject of an Old Bailey murder trial: An Old Bailey jury heard how the defendant, from Croydon, also 16 and who cannot be named, told police: “On the streets these days it’s like Muslims against normal people. Stefan [Persaud] and this other boy were Muslims and they were trying to turn people over to become Muslims.”
The Guardian: Patrick Barkham on the rise of the man bag This is what they were talking about on the Vanessa Feltz show yesterday: the phenomenon of some men carrying what amount to handbags...
The report on the murder of Zahid Mubarek, the Asian youth jailed for “going equipped” and murdered in his cell in Feltham young offenders’ institution in March 2000, has just been issued, and a press conference can be seen at that page (see this earlier post). It was alleged on Channel 4 News that evidence existed that the staff at the institution had a game called “Gladiators”, which involved putting unsuitable inmates in the same cell so the staff could see the fireworks.
Thanks to Pickled Politics for reminding me of this … a quite comprehensive article in today's Guardian debunking recent attempts to whitewash the British empire: Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | The story...
Something that made me wish I'd written this post a few days earlier (like, when I first saw the report on the PGAP survey): this article about conspiracy theories surrounding the July bombings, and...