England people not very nice
Letter: Why I’ve withdrawn from National debate | Stage | The Guardian A letter from Rabina Khan (this one, possibly) on why she’s pulled out of the debate on the National Theatre play, England...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
William Dalrymple on Sufis in Pakistan
William Dalrymple charts Pakistan’s descent into chaos | World news | The Guardian This appeared in the G2 supplement in the Guardian yesterday. Dalrymple has in general been sympathetic to Pakistan in his writings,...
Organise against the WCPI “One Law” campagin
There is a rally to be held in London this coming Saturday, organised by the so-called One Law for All campaign, against “Shari’ah courts” (i.e. voluntary Shari’ah councils which arbitrate in some family and...
Cerrie Burnell: what’s the problem?
In the Shade of the Veil: What’s the problem here? Last week, there was a huge controversy over the use of a presenter with one hand missing on a children’s TV channel run by...
Democracy does not guarantee rights
Jack Straw: Our record isn't perfect. But talk of a police state is daft | Comment is free | The Guardian Jack Straw (currently the Justice secretary in the British government) wrote in yesterday's...
Who’s endangering who?
Nearly a month ago, I flagged up a review by Ben White on an evangelical website of a new book by Patrick Sookhdeo, who I have taken to calling Sookhdevil for reasons anybody who...
Denis MacEoin’s rake job
Denis MacEoin, a serial Islamophobic letter-writer and think-tank hack, has published another report attacking Muslim schools. The sneering tone of the report might be gauged from the title: Music, Chess and Other Sins (PDF...
Review of “Muslim First, British Second”
A brother has asked me to review the Panorama programme entitled Muslim First, British Second which was on BBC1 on Monday night. You can watch it (as I did) on the BBC's iPlayer here...
The adoption abuse scandal
One of the legacies of the child abuse witch hunt culture of the 1990s and early 2000s, which saw at least three innocent women sent to prison for “murdering” babies who in fact died in cot deaths, is cases like that of the Websters of Norfolk, whose three children were seized from them after doctors accused them of causing fractures to one of them deliberately, and adopted.
Sacked Mini workers had an hour’s notice
Today, 850 workers at the BMW plant in Oxford, which manufactures the Mini car, were fired because the company was facing falling sales. The Mini was a long-standing Austin/Rover product, which was saved when...
Wife Swap embarrassment
Br. Umar posted a YouTube video based on a recent American version of the reality TV show Wife Swap, in which an originally British, but naturalised American, man swapped with a family from Missouri,...
Wilders should be kept out
Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician notorious for making an anti-Muslim film called Fitna which was essentially a montage of all the worst stereotypes of violent Muslims, has been banned from entering the UK to...
Notes on the Sheffield hymn scandal
Islamophobia Watch and a Muslim Facebooker drew my attention to the “scandal” of the head-teacher in Sheffield who was “forced out” after Muslim pupils (and, presumably, parents) objected to her whole-school assemblies. She had...
Hassan Butt: I’m a professional liar
Al-Qaida fantasist tells court: I'm a professional liar (Guardian website) The Guardian reports on the most egregious of the "ex-extremist" fraternity, who, when the story about having actually been a terrorist got too hot...
The importance of sensitivity
This week, Carol Thatcher, a TV "personality", economist and daughter of Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister, was dropped from a BBC TV show for calling a sportsman a golliwog. The remark was made...
Finding a decent Linux distro
I recently acquired (thanks Mum & Dad) a new Dell Inspiron 530 computer, and one of the first things I do in such circumstances (which don’t come that often, admittedly) is to install Linux...
Muslims, shaikhs and the oppositional mentality
Looking at the discussion which has ensued from Umar Lee’s original “Rand Institute Muslims” post two weeks ago, something which has stuck out is the oppositional attitude of some of the major contributors. It...
Don’t be a drudge – go for a trudge
Snow in Kingston, February 2009 – a set on Flickr So, we’ve had the biggest snow fall in southern England since 1991 (which I remember fairly well; I was away at school), and the...
The organic corporate nanny
Does anyone out there (particularly in the UK; I’m not sure if it’s available anywhere else) like Kingfisher toothpaste? It’s an organic brand of toothpaste which is available in a variety of flavours, including...
Review of rotten book by the Sookhdevil
Ben White of Fulcrum, a website for evangelical Anglican Christians, has drawn my attention to a review he has written of Patrick Sookhdeo’s 2007 book Global Jihad. While I’ve not read Sookhdevil’s book, this...