Mandriva One 2008: brain dead
In the last few weeks there has been the usual flurry of new Linux distribution releases. Ubuntu’s new one, Gutsy Gibbon, came out in October; SUSE released version 10.3, Mandriva have just put out...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
Godson v Bunglawala on al-Jazeera
YouTube – Riz Khan – Has Islam been hijacked in the UK? – 31 Oct 07 This is a debate between Dean Godson of Policy Exchange, which published the report on “hate literature” in...
Why ‘spelling reform’ is cultural vandalism (2007)
Last Friday, in the Guardian, Simon Jenkins wrote that he welcomed the decision of the Scottish Qualifications Authority that they would accept text-message spellings in school examinations in “a direct challenge to the English...
Britz: another exposition
Having watched the second episode of Britz, sister Safiya posted a second article outlining its inconsistencies. She concludes that the programme is "prejudiced garbage" and that the Muslims involved in it should be ashamed....
CCTV, civil liberties and safety
CCTV is no silver bullet – it risks making life less safe – Guardian Unlimited A timely article by Libby Brooks about the proliferation of CCTV cameras in the UK. We have 20% of...
The McCartney “hate tape”
I was not going to comment on the latest twist in the divorce saga of Paul McCartney and Heather Mills until I saw the front page story on today’s Daily Mirror, in which Mills...
Britz: a negative opinion
Outlines: And I thought Sleeper Cell was bad… I have to say that I agree with much of what sister Safiya says in this review. I was sceptical about this programme from the outset,...
“Hate books” that aren’t
A report was published yesterday by the “Policy Exchange” alleging that so-called hate literature is widely available in British mosques (PDF), many of it subsidised by Saudi Arabia. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, this was published on the same day as a Saudi state visit. The report is written by Denis MacEoin, on whose letters to various newspapers I have commented here in the past. He is well-known for having anti-Islamic attitudes, having written letters to newspapers opposing Muslim girls’ rights to wear hijab and on one occasion alleging that “multiculturalism gets you Northern Ireland”, rather than invading someone’s country and gerrymandering a state so that your planted minority can rule over a section of the majority population in that country.
“Anti-Islamofascist” group to host … British fascist
I've just got a message from CAIR that "Young Americans for Freedom", one of the groups who have sponsored one of the so-called Islamofascist Awareness events in the USA, at which Rick Santorum spoke...
The Herbal Hill “heretics”
Melanie Phillips's Diary: "The Heretics Of Farringdon" Melanie Phillips on the recent resignation of the Observer's editor, Roger Alton, who has been in the position for ten years and under whose leadership the paper...
Horowitz and Darwish’s snuff movie
I came across a short film produced by the so-called David Horowitz Freedom Center, narrated by Nonie Darwish who is an anti-Islamic harpy who features on Townhall.com and a number of other American "conservative"...
Defending written Arabic
New Statesman – The talking cure This is a review by Samir el-Youssef, a regular in the New Statesman, attacking a new book entitled Why Are the Arabs Not Free? by Moustapha Safouan (a...
Dr Watson and the new race/IQ controversy
Fury at DNA pioneer's theory: Africans are less intelligent than Westerners – Independent Online Edition To be honest, I'm a bit shocked that this "news" appeared on the front of the Independent, and that...
British tourists raped in Jordan
The news agencies are reporting that two British women were raped last Saturday in fields near to the Jordan-Israel border. The women, who had been studying Arabic in Damascus, were on a short visit...
The Crossrail fares rip-off
This afternoon they are announcing on the radio that Ken Livingstone has announced that fares for public transport in London will rise to finance the construction of the Crossrail scheme. Apparently this wasn’t part of the original plan, but has come to be necessary – a week after the government decided to support the scheme – because they hadn’t taken into account the interest which would have to be paid on the loans.
A senseless Eid scandal
To start off, now that it really is Eid and I've got the time and energy to type, Eid Mubarak everybody. Anyway … All this Ramadan, I've been working on the assumption that today...
The recent Eagleton vs Amis affair
Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Rebuking obnoxious views is not just a personality kink This is an article by Terry Eagleton, who has been involved in a public argument with the novelist...
Counter-reformation II
Ali Eteraz posted a reply to an article I posted last weekend, in reply to his three articles on Islamic reform and the alleged “counter-reformation” which has gained pace since 9/11. Here is my reply to parts of his reply.
Medical students: getting picky with the facts
Muslim medical students get picky – Times Online This is an attempt to incite hostility to Muslims, based on the reported actions of a handful of ill-advised Muslim medical students. By the way, read...
The other side of Burma’s “peaceful” monks
The other, invisible suffering of Burma « Islam, Muslims, and an Anthropologist In the recent rush to support the monk-led uprising against the military junta in Burma, the situation of the long-suffering Muslim minority,...