Reflections on last Sunday’s Panorama
I actually wrote most of an article for the Sharpener, a British group blog to which I occasionally contribute, about this awful programme, but stumbled on the bit where I had to deal with...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
Opposition to faith schools
The Guardian today published the results of a telephone poll conducted on its behalf by poll agency ICM, showing that two thirds of their interviewees oppose government funding for faith-based schools, which are, as...
Rat lovers demonstrate: terror works
The BBC has reported that a family which has been running a farm breeding guinea pigs for medical research has decided to cease its operations after a campaign of intimidation by animal rights freaks....
Flaming the Left
Crooked Timber has published a poem about the often-repeated insults right-wing columnists and bloggers throw at liberals. I have to say, I was thinking of the likes of Geras, Cohen, Harry and co when...
Some amazing storm pictures
Looking through the reports on the storms which hit the UK today, I found a real Subhan Allah moment in these pictures of the June storms in Dorset (on the south coast of England)....
Macs, mice and web browsers
I’ve been a Mac user for well over a year now, and I’m more than impressed with the whole system, particularly of course the operating system. I wouldn’t have touched the Mac if it...
Guardian: religious reform and iconoclasm
More comment on the Rushdie reform call, this time from Giles Fraser, “vicar of Putney and a lecturer in philosophy at Wadham College, Oxford”, in the Guardian. It brings in the issue of the...
Rushdie: Careful what you wish for!
There was a letter published in the Washington Post last Friday by one Irfan Murtuza attempting to rebut Salman Rushdie’s distasteful call for “reforming” the religion he makes money from insulting (thanks Ginny). The...
Shaikh Ya’qoobi on Mahdi
There has been some confusion recently as to the pronouncements by certain ulama on the coming of the Mahdi; some have even been quoted as saying they expect his coming next year! This provoked...
Rod Liddle on hijab
There is some of the usual “Roddle Twaddle” in the Spectator this week, in which he criticises the government for trying to ban Omar Bakri from “spew[ing] out his rubbish” rather than rebutting it...
Just upgraded my Mac
Last weekend I finally bit the bullet and bought the latest version of Apple’s Mac operating system, OS X Tiger or 10.4. Apple has given all its versions of OS X big-cat names, which...
Shiv trots out “conveyor belt” claim yet again
The Independent on Sunday today contains yet another multi-page feature on the London bombings and its aftermath, including yet another feature by Shiv Malik in which the “conveyor-belt to terrorism” claim is trotted out...
Shaikh Afifi on terrorism
Shaikh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti has published a long article fisking an article apparently written by Omar Bakri Muhammad, which calls actions like the Sept 11 hijackings “a viable option in Jihad” for Muslims who...
The proposed destruction of British democracy
On Friday Tony Blair held a press conference in which he announced a clampdown on people with extreme opinions in response to last month’s terrorist attacks in London. He intends to prohibit the glorification...
I’ve not gone away
I’ve been delivering tiles all week, and this afternoon was taking my parents to Gatwick Airport to go to Portugal, whereafter I drove to the Bluewater mall where I bought the latest version of...
On the subject of responsibility
Zaki Badawi, the UK media’s second favourite Islamic scholar after Omar Bakri, has been quoted in the media as saying that perhaps Muslim ladies should remove their hijabs, given the present volatile situation. I...
Shock horror! Schools turning into madrassas!
Keeping up – or rather down – their usual record, the Evening Standard today published an article “exposing” the poor quality and aloofness from the wider community of the UK’s Muslim faith schools (not...
Patrick Sookhdeo on moderate Islam
I just received a letter from someone at the Evening Standard, asking me if I’d like to write a letter in response to two articles they printed on Friday, one by Patrick Sookhdeo and...
Amir Taheri follow-up
I’d just like to forward this link with regard to Amir Taheri’s anti-hijab lies. The article appeared in the Message magazine last year (hat tip: Dr Maxtor): Hijab and a Revelation that was not
Cherie Blair: an embarrassment?
Today the press have been making a big fuss about a speech Cherie Blair, in her capacity as Cherie Booth QC, made in Malaysia in which she warned against the erosion of human rights...