Splitters!
Recently some of us have been debating on Facebook whether to take part in a forthcoming coutner-demo to an al-Muhajiroun front group demo, which was to take place on the 31st. The event was...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
Muslims and conspiracy theories
Hey Mozzie, Over Here…I’ve Got a Conspiracy to Sell You… « Oy, Habibti…. Sis. Sabiwabi on the popularity of conspiracy theories among Muslims, among them the perennial “Shadows” tapes (or series of tapes) and...
How the 2006 niqab affair popularised the BNP
Gary Younge in today's Guardian traces the upsurge in anti-Muslim bigotry to Jack Straw's attack on the niqab in 2006: Three years ago this month Jack Straw argued his case for urging Muslim women...
Dignifying the BNP, blaming the victims
Melanie Phillips: The true cause of the BNP’s rise Melanie Phillips had this article published yesterday in the Daily Mail (also on her home page) and she comes out with her usual line about...
Pizza Mia
Organica inspired me to post this picture of my own home-made pizza, which I eat on average twice a week. It might not meet everyone’s idea of home-made since I didn’t make the dough...
Panorama: hate on the estate (updated)
There is a Panorama programme on tonight (BBC1, 8:30pm BST) about two Asian Muslim journalists who spent two months undercover in a Bristol housing estate, and encountered overt racist hostility, including both name-calling (Paki,...
Spooked: pamphlet on failures of ‘Prevent’
Arun Kundnani of the Institute of Race Relations has published a pamphet, Spooked: How Not to Prevent Violent Extremism (PDF), on how the government's "Preventing Violent Extremism" programme has turned into an intelligence gathering...
Celebrity journalism is rubbish
The Guardian revealed yesterday and the day before that several British tabloids accepted stories about various celebrities which were demonstrably false from an undercover documentary maker who was filming them. The stories included one...
Shelina Zahra takes on anti-hijabists
Last Friday and last Sunday, Shelina Zahra Janmohamed appeared on BBC Radio debating the issue of hijab with two foreign anti-hijab agitators. One of them is part of London’s small but well-connected Iranian exile...
BNP on the BBC: stupidity or deception?
The BBC is being called on to investigate how two senior members of the British National Party were allowed to appear semi-anonymously on the youth-targeted Radio 1 Newsbeat programme. Mark Collett, BNP publicity director,...
The line between compassion and pity
Last Sunday, the New York Times ran a feature on a young woman, Stephanie Smith from Minnesota, who became paralysed and brain-damaged after eating a home-cooked hamburger contaminated with a virulent strain of E-Coli...
Tantawi: the Italian bigots’ imam
Much as I suspected that the snake Tantawi's words would be thrown in the faces of Muslims in the West, this has now happened, as an MP from Silvio Berlusconi's political machine "People of...
A powerful man humiliates a young girl
Yesterday it was reported that Muhammad Tantawi, the dean of al-Azhar University in Egypt, announced that he was going to issue an “edict” banning the niqab or female facial veil. This happened after he...
He didn’t just call her a Paki
So, I’m sure everyone in the UK has heard that Anton du Beke (a BBC presenter and Strictly Come Dancing contestant) told his partner Laila Rouass, after she had applied a fake tan, “you...
Getting others’ hands dirty
Last week, there was an inquest into the suicide of a young woman, Kerrie Wooltorton, who drank poison and called an ambulance, supposedly because she did not want to die alone. The 26-year-old had...
Polanski versus Gary Glitter
Yakoub Islam (on Facebook) linked this video, in which Chris Rock compares Roman Polanski to OJ Simpson: People are defending Roman Polanski because he made some good movies? Are you kidding me? He made...
Charlie Brooker bashes Macs again
Microsoft’s grinning robots or the Brotherhood of the Mac. Which is worse? | Charlie Brooker | Comment is free | The Guardian Charlie Brooker, of TVGoHome and Screenwipe fame, wrote this column for Monday’s...
Hey Emel, what have you done to my avatar?
Back in late 2008, I got contacted by Emel magazine, a British Muslim lifestyle magazine, for a feature on Muslim bloggers. The process of getting the material over there took months, and I dealt...
Polygamy and sisters’ distress
Abdul-Rahman Murphy of Practimate on Muslim men’s attitude to polygamy and the distress it causes sisters, who often find themselves reluctant to marry: As my wife and I discussed this odd phenomenon of young,...
File on 4 investigates football racists
BBC – BBC Radio 4 Programmes – File on 4, 22/09/2009 File on 4 investigates the football hooligan racists who have been going around causing trouble in various British cities. They claim to be...