Daily Express fined for printing garbage
The Daily Express group has been ordered to pay £375,000 to seven friends of the McCann family, whose daughter Madeleine went missing in Portugal in May 2007 and has not been seen since, for...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
Panorama’s narrow view on Palin
Last Monday, BBC broadcast a Panorama programme, Obama and the Pitbull: An American Tale (requires Flash), about what you’d think were the two Presidential candidates (McCain himself hardly gets a mention). Watching the trailers,...
Photos from Eid in the Square
Last Saturday, I attended the Eid in the Square, Trafalgar Square in London to be precise. I caught only the last half of it, which meant two different “nasheed” groups and one guy who...
Haider was speeding, and other news from the criminal far right
BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Haider ‘was double speed limit’ Jörg Haider, the former leader of the so-called Freedom Party in Austria who died in a car crash on Saturday morning, was...
C++: the Ugly Useful Programming Language
Eric Raymond, author of the [Computer] Jargon File, The Cathedral and The Bazaar and a number of well-used but little-known pieces of software, is working on a book, putatively titled Why C++ Is Not Our Favorite Programming Language. In his recent announcement, he lays out why he wants to “harpoon the Great White Whale of programming languages”. I will lay out why it remains mine, and more to the point, why it endures despite the existence of alternatives such as Java.
The importance of religious over ethnic solidarity
Last week, the New Statesman printed a letter from Randhir Singh Bains of Essex, whose letters commonly appear in the centre-left press in the UK, about the history of inter-Asian solidarity in the UK:...
Pictures from Brighton and Lewes
Misty Sussex countryside, originally uploaded by Indigo Jo. Here are a few pictures I took on a day trip down to the South Coast yesterday. I had booked a day rail pass having read...
Ian Blair: good riddance, but …
Last week, Ian Blair, the London Police commissioner, finally resigned. I must say I am glad to see him go, and I was disgusted that the killing of Jean-Charles de Menezes did not result...
The re-Labourisation of the NUS
Technorati Tags: nus, hind hassan Red Pepper is a magazine I read a lot, although don’t always buy; it usually contains thought-provoking political discussion which is radical without being crazy. In the current issue,...
Shaikh Hamza and the Blair malaria programme (updated)
Recently, Shaikh Hamza Yusuf took part in an anti-malaria event recently held in Los Angeles, run by an organisation called Malaria No More which, unbeknown to him, was sponsored by the Tony Blair Faith...
Getting sanctimonious about early moon sightings
This year, as usual, there was a controversy over what day was Eid al-Fitr, with the majority celebrating it on either Tuesday or Wednesday, with some countries waiting until Thursday and some Nigerians having...
Why the US election is everyone’s business
Jonathan Freedland: McCain or Obama? The US election result will have a huge impact on us | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Or, to use the actual headline, "This pansy-ass limey Brit won't butt...
Eid Mubarak, and call to action
Just to wish all the Muslims reading this a fine and blessed Eid. On the subject of the Saudi moon fitna, is it not about time those of us in the west made our...
Proof that vilification leads to violence?
In the Wake of “Obsession” Hate-DVDs: Muslim Children Gassed in Ohio Mosque | MuslimMatters.org For the last few years the Daily Express, in the UK, has been running a front-page hate campaign against Muslims,...
Why won’t Arab governments give money for Lebanese Palestinians?
Leila Shahid: An urgent call for aid for Nahr el Bared in Lebanon (Comment is free) Leila Shahid (PLO representative to the UN) on the failure of Arab governments (as opposed to organisations) to...
Naomi Alderman on competitive sport
Naomi Alderman, a regular Guardian columnist, on one of my pet hates in popular attitudes to education – the emphasis on the supposed value of competitive sport. I'm sure we've all heard the attacks...
My letter appears in Standpoint
Standpoint magazine, a new political magazine published by the Social Affairs Unit, a centre-right think tank, pubished a letter from me in response to an attack by Douglas Murray on Peter Oborne's exposé of...
Response to Khan & Sikander on Islamic courts
Yesterday, Harry's Place published an article sourced from Gina Khan and one Paul Sikander, attacking Islamic courts and Muslim institutions' marriage practices. I wrote a lengthy article yesterday, but a bug in my blogging...
Well done to the anti-fascists in Cologne
I'd just like to say well-done to all those who routed the racists and fascists in Cologne who wanted to whip up some hatred against the local Turkish and Muslim population. It seems that...
True Stories: Forbidden Lie$ and Sabine
More4, the "grown-up channel" run by Channel 4 in the UK, is broadcasting Forbidden Lie$, about Honor Lost/Forbidden Love, the "novel" about honour killing in Jordan published as a book of fact, this coming...