Hassan Butt’s deception exposed
Channel 4 News has exposed the deception perpetrated by Hassan Butt, a one-time loudmouth with al-Muhajiroun, who has supposedly turned tail and written a book with Shiv Malik about his “exploits” as a militant...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
Blaming knives for stabbings
This year, sixteen teenagers have been murdered in London, on top of however many dozen victims there were in 2006. Not surprisingly, this has caused a panic over the carrying of knives in public,...
Round-up: drinks on the Tube, Blair uniting religions, Mary Whitehouse, high fuel costs
As you can see, I have not blogged much this week, mainly out of being tired after getting up in the morning to do various driving jobs. However, it's Sunday and I'm well and...
Finger-jabbing? Us?
Technorati Tags: michael burleigh Britain’s phoney war on terror – Times Online Via Islamophobia Watch. Michael Burleigh on the alleged weakness of the European response to "terror" compared with the tough talk coming from...
An example of ignorant pseudo-feminist Islamophobia
Islamophobia Watch pointed up this stupid article which appeared on the Irish Independent's website yesterday, by one Martina Devlin. I'm not all that familiar with Irish newspaper columnists as I rarely read the papers,...
In defence of silent letters
Marcel Berlins on changes in language (from the Guardian) Recently the Portuguese government approved a reform of the country’s spelling, bringing much of it into line with the Portuguese spoken in Brazil, most significantly...
The ugly face of the British evangelical lobby
Channel 4’s Dispatches programme tonight, In God’s Name, featured David Modell following some Christian evangelists as they went looking for “souls” on various run-down council estates, lobbied against the proposed changes to the British...
Round-up: Irshad Manji, moons in mosques, the OLPC fiasco, Pauline Campbell, Obama versus Agar, Undercover Mosque
Top Muslim blog piece this week, in my opinion, was brother Marc Manley's piece, The Trouble With Muslim Pundits today. While the establishment are busy fêting the likes of Ed and Maajid here in...
The real “nasty party”
John Harris: The tactics of Crewe expose a truly nasty party: Labour (The Guardian) An exposé of the "dog-whistle" tactics being used in the campaign for the Crewe and Nantwich by-election next week, in...
Challenging the future with a profound lack of history
Last week the Quilliam Foundation, a think-tank founded by Ed Husain and his acolyte Maajid Nawaz, held its grand launch event at the British Museum in London. It was entitled "Reviving Western Islam &...
The terrorism “experts” who are anything but
Status of terrorism experts questioned (Education Guardian) The Education Guardian casts doubt on the number of so-called terrorism experts who have gained prominence since 9/11, some of whom (like Evan Kohlmann) have been called...
Round-up: Austria, Hassan Butt, Julian Baggini in Rotherham, life in Yemen
Before the week begins in earnest, I thought I might offer a round-up of stories which caught my eye the past week: Stuart Jeffries in the Guardian on the stupid, racist gibberish which has...
Letter from me in the New Statesman
New Statesman – Letters My letter, regarding the portrayal of Croydon in Brendan O'Neill's article "What's Driving the BNP?" last Friday, got printed in this week's New Statesman. The letters pages seem only to...
Stupid Zionists
Johann Hari wrote this article in today's Independent, regarding the tendency of supporters of Israel to smear their opponents with accusations of anti-Semitism. Hari wrote an article last week about his travels in the...
Why Ken Livingstone lost
As I am sure most of you know by now, London now has a new mayor, Boris Johnson. Johnson won on second preference votes, a circumstance one would have expected would have favoured Livingstone...
Here’s gratitude for you
The Spectator this week led with a "Happy 60th Birthday, Israel" feature by Melanie Phillips. Perhaps there is nothing unusual about that, given that it repeats a whole load of the usual pro-Israeli claims...
Whole Foods and free speech
Been wondering recently why you can’t get The Ecologist in the Whole Foods shops in London? (These include the former Fresh & Wild stores.) The reason is apparently that the magazine printed a feature...
Secular Asians for Secular Democracy
Islamophobia Watch – Home – Stop pandering to Muslims says 'silent majority' Last week an outfit calling itself "British Muslims for Secular Democracy" had their big launch party, attended by Baroness Kishwer Falkner and...
The only white woman on the bus?
Brendan O'Neill interviews the British Nazi Party trying to win hearts and minds in Stanmore (with all the Jews!) and runs into a chick from Croydon bleating about how out of place she is...
Those Boris Johnson despises
Be very afraid: Zoe Williams on the possibility of Boris Johnson as mayor of London | Politics | The Guardian I know it's a bit late as the polling stations are about to close...