Zia Sardar has a go at emel
Did anyone else see Ziauddin Sardar on BBC2's Culture Show in the feature on emel magazine last night? He had the gall to criticise "emel" for being too "orthodox", something he's not too keen...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
Robert Spencer and me
Since Robert Spencer has recently drawn attention to a discussion we had last April which started when I replied to a post about female circumcision on his Dhimmi Watch sub-blog, I thought I'd do...
SUSE Linux 10 is here
After I went to the London Linux World Expo a couple of weeks ago I ordered a copy of Novell's new SUSE Linux package, having missed the "product launch without a product" which was...
Murray: Hazel Blears lied
Craig Murray has a piece in today's Guardian calling out Hazel Blears, a Home Office minister, for relaying a straightforward untruth regarding the so-called Islamic Jihad Union, a purported terrorist organisation operating in Uzbekistan,...
Top 10 blog design mistakes
Via Guardian Newsblog, a guy called Jakob Nielsen has laid out a list of the Top Ten Design Mistakes commonly found on blogs. I guess mine falls foul of quite a few of them:...
“Honour” Killings
Why oh why oh why? Both The Times and the BBC have recently reported on another “honour” killing in the British Muslim community. A disgusting remnant of Indo-Pak life that has sadly been brought...
Worker Communists as liberals!
Nick Cohen has written an appreciation of Maryam Namazie of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran for today's Observer newspaper (also at his site here). This wouldn't be so bad if Cohen actually made it...
Are you miserable?
With the ongoing saga of the ongoing troubles on the Northern or "Misery" Line (caused by the drivers' unions' refusal to drive unsafe trains), I just thought I'd point out a letter in tonight's...
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...
Too busy fasting for jihad?
As a fairly good example of the certain hysterical websites run by immature Muslims I've alluded to in posts announcing the establishment of Blogistan, I found on the MPACUK website this morning a good...
More4’s stupid promotion
A brand new TV channel appeared this week, called More4, which is being promoted to the over-30s as an "adult entertainment channel", according to this report featuring "the best of documentaries, smart films, quality...
The Routemaster is history
I heard it reported on the breakfast talk show yesterday (when I was too tired to blog but got up to write them an email) that the Routemaster bus is finally disappearing from the...
Gems from today’s Guardian
The first thing I saw this morning when I read their news website was an account of a meeting between Maya Angelou and the Indian food author Madhur Jaffrey. They talk about their families,...
Mufti Ibn Adam in Yemen
Via Seekers' Digest, Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam has written a lengthy piece on his recent trip to Yemen, including many asides on the country's history, the hadeeth literature on it, and some social commentary...
Cohen on left anti-Semitism
There’s a long essay by Nick Cohen in the current New Statesman about his experiences of what he calls anti-Semitism on the left since the run-up to the Iraq war. His interest was piqued...
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...
London Linux Expo
Yesterday I went to my second London Linux Expo at the Olympia in London. The show is an annual event held to promote Linux to the industry; there are stalls for a number of...
No nice wheelchairs?
This morning I read in the Guardian’s Society supplement an article by Judith Cameron, a freelance writer who looks after a severely-disabled daughter, Sophie. Cameron has written a monthly column about caring for her...
Thoughts on Jewish-Muslim dialogue
There’s an article on a Jewish blog called Adloyada about dialogue between us and them, and in this particular case it involved our very own Abdul-Hakeem Murad, best known for his translations and articles...