Abu Dharr August 2008

Abu Dharr (Daily Terror) August 2008
Sunday August 31 2008 Women preachers at moderate mosque ‘urge faithful to kill gays’ Abul Taher, Times Women preachers are urging followers at one of Britain’s most influential mosques to kill homosexuals and view all non-Muslims as “vile”, according to a television documentary. The London Central Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre, known as the Regent’s Park Mosque, is one of the most respected centres for moderate Islam in western Europe. However, an undercover investigation by the Channel 4 Dispatches programme has found extremist preachers... Saturday August 30 2008 Muslim man convicted of killing BNP activist after years of 'racial hostility' Katie Dawson, Independent A Muslim man has been jailed for eight years for killing his BNP activist neighbour following a long-running dispute. Habib Khan, 50, stabbed Keith Brown, 52, with a kitchen knife during a row outside his home in Stoke-on-Trent on 6 July last year. Stafford Crown Court was told that Khan and his family had been subjected to "racial hostility" by his neighbours prior to the attack. Khan, of Normacot, was cleared of murdering Mr Brown but convicted of manslaughter following a trial in May. Campaigners fight to stop schools recruiting staff based on religion Riazat Butt, Guardian Leading academics, authors and scientists are launching a campaign to stop state-funded faith schools from discriminating against students and teachers on the grounds of religion. From Monday, such schools will be allowed to include faith as a selection criterion for teaching and non-teaching posts, reserving more places for people from the same religious background. In some schools this will expand to include the headteacher while in others this would apply to non-teaching jobs... Me on BBC London: transcript (Indigo Jo Blogs) Christians flee, leaders deplore religious violence in India (Alistair Scrutton, FaithWorld) Fire wrecks mosque plan church (BBC News Online) Oslo: Gay editor gets support from Muslim women (Islam in Europe) 'Muslim council chiefs ban tea and sandwiches during Ramadan' (Islamophobia Watch) Friday August 29 2008 Race row policeman Tarique Ghaffur told to ‘shut up’ and get on with his job Sean O’Neill, Times The country’s most senior Asian policeman was told by his superiors last night to “shut up” and get on with his job after publicly announcing that he was suing Scotland Yard for racism. Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur was rebuked after appearing before TV cameras in full uniform to accuse Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, of subjecting him to years of racial discrimination. Within two hours the Met’s Deputy Commissioner responded angrily. Translating feminism into Islam Faisal al Yafai, Guardian CiF Two years ago, Dr Bouthaina Shaaban, Syria's minister of expatriates, gave a speech in Damascus about the role of women. She recalled a story about an Arab woman who toured the United States in the 19th century, trying to persuade Americans to liberate their women, to allow them to move out of the home and into the workplace. How times have changed. (Although perhaps not that much: one is still lecturing the other.) Man guilty of making boys flog themselves with blades in Muslim rite David Pallister, guardian.co.uk A Muslim man was found guilty of child cruelty today in a British legal first after forcing two boys to beat themselves during a centuries-old Shia religious ceremony. The jury at Manchester crown court found Syed Mustafa Zaidi, 44, guilty of two counts of child cruelty. The boys, aged 13 and 15, were forced to beat themselves with a zanjeer zani, a wooden implement with chains and blades attached, during a ceremony to commemorate the death and martyrdom of a seventh-century Shia Muslim... [Why self-flagellation matters for Shias -Nadeem Kazmi, Guardian CiF] Turning the tables R. Butt, Guardian CiF My sister has worn a face veil for six years. She lives in Birmingham, where it is common to see women shrouded in black, however the sight is more unusual in Southampton, where my parents live and where, at the weekend, my sister was called "a ninja woman". This insult is neither the most hurtful – "fucking terrorist freak" – nor the most spurious – "Osama-lover" – to have been levelled at her over the years. But it wasn't the name-calling that really rankled her and me. Danish publisher hopes to publish 'inflammatory' Islam novel guardian.co.uk A Danish publisher is in negotiations to buy Sherry Jones's novel about the child bride of Muhammad, which was dropped by Random House in America and pulled from bookshops in Serbia. The Jewel of Medina tells the story of Aisha, one of Muhammad's wives, from the age of six to 18 when Muhammad dies. It was bought by Random House US for a reported advance of $100,000, but then dropped after the publisher was told by academics and security experts... Abbey Mills Mosque: 'No pledges have been broken' (Islamophobia Watch) Tuesday August 26 2008 Revealed: Britain's secret propaganda war against al-Qaida Alan Travis, Guardian A Whitehall counter-terrorism unit is targeting the BBC and other media organisations as part of a new global propaganda push designed to "taint the al-Qaida brand", according to a secret Home Office paper seen by the Guardian. The document also shows that Whitehall counter-terrorism experts intend to exploit new media websites and outlets with a proposal to "channel messages through volunteers in internet forums" as part of their campaign. Young children should be taught about sex, MPs say Fran Yeoman, Times Sex education should be compulsory for primary-school pupils, a cross-party group of MPs says today. The group is urging the Government to make lessons on sexual health and relationships mandatory for young children, the intention being to reduce Britain’s high rates of teenage pregnancy, abortion and sexually transmitted disease. In a public appeal, as ministers finalise a review of sex education provision, the MPs ask the Government to “guarantee appropriate sex and relationship education..." Plan to exhume cardinal is 'homophobic' Robert Verkaik, Independent The Catholic Church is under growing pressure to abandon the "homophobic" exhumation and reburial of the body of one its most famous cardinals, in defiance of his wish to lie for eternity next to the man he loved. Gay rights campaigners have accused the Vatican – which has ordered the disinterment in the first step towards beatification – of attempting to cover up the sexuality of Cardinal John Henry Newman, who died in 1890. MI5 criticised for role in case of torture, rendition and secrecy Richard Norton-Taylor, Guardian MI5 participated in the unlawful interrogation of a British resident now held in Guantánamo Bay, the high court found yesterday in a judgment raising serious questions about the conduct of Britain's security and intelligence agencies. One MI5 officer was so concerned about incriminating himself that he initially declined to answer questions from the judges even in private, the judgment reveals. Though the judges say "no adverse conclusions" should be drawn by the MI5 officer's plea against... The start of something beautiful Ryan Gilbey, Guardian Charles Starkweather was a 19-year-old warehouse worker with a James Dean obsession and an unpredictable temper. In the early hours of December 1 1957, Starkweather murdered a gas-station attendant who refused to let him buy a toy puppy on credit. The media christened him the Mad Dog Killer, and within two months, he had shot dead 10 more people, and fled across the midwest with his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate. The couple was apprehended in February 1958... Crib sheet (Jessica Shepherd, Chris Arnot and Donald MacLeod - Guardian) Islam in Europe Weekly Review (Islam in Europe) Channel 4 announces return of Undercover Mosque (Islamophobia Watch) 'Passport to evil' (Islamophobia Watch) Sunday August 24 2008 Watchdog questions Government grant to Islamic group with SNP link Eddie Barnes, Scotsman.com THE Scottish Government's decision to award more than Ł400,000 to an Islamic group run by an SNP activist was last night branded "unusual" by a senior figure in the body which oversees voluntary groups. Stephen Maxwell, a director of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), said First Minister Alex Salmond had been exposed to attack because of the presence of SNP activists in the group. Saturday August 23 2008 A marriage of convenience will not do Reefat Drabu, Guardian CiF Yesterday, Ed Husain accused the Muslim Council of Britain of bowing to extremist pressure and succumbing to its alleged male-dominated sensibilities because it withdrew from an initiative to create a Muslim Marriage Contract. Naturally I beg to differ and here are the reasons why. As chair of the MCB's social and family affairs committee, I regularly come across very real issues of broken families and loveless marriages. A people and a poet Ibtisam Barakat, Alt.Muslim On the afternoon of 9 August, I was getting ready to give a talk about Palestinian olive trees to a gathering of authors and thinkers at Keystone College in Pennsylvania. For the title of the presentation, I cracked the word olive in two, and turned it into O' Live! But death mocked me. Shortly before I left my room for the talk, the phone rang. It was my friend, musician Saed Muhssin, calling me from San Francisco. "This is hard news", he warned. "Mahmoud Darwish died today." Israel declares Gaza protest boats will not reach their destination Rory McCarthy, Guardian Israel last night warned an attempt by peace activists to sail two wooden boats to the Gaza Strip was a "provocation" and said it would prevent them reaching their destination. A group of 46 activists set sail yesterday morning from Cyprus and were hoping to reach Gaza later today to challenge the economic blockade Israel has imposed on the strip and to deliver a cargo of 200 hearing aids for a deaf school and 5,000 balloons. Thursday August 21 2008 MI5 report challenges views on terrorism in Britain Alan Travis, Guardian MI5 has concluded that there is no easy way to identify those who become involved in terrorism in Britain, according to a classified internal research document on radicalisation seen by the Guardian. The sophisticated analysis, based on hundreds of case studies by the security service, says there is no single pathway to violent extremism. It concludes that it is not possible to draw up a typical profile of the "British terrorist" as most are "demographically unremarkable"... (The making of an extremist; Counter-terrorism strategy) Iran bars spy film actor from travelling abroad Robert Tait, Guardian, An Iranian actor has been barred from leaving Iran after closely guarded details emerged of her starring role with Leonardo DiCaprio in a forthcoming Hollywood spy thriller about a hunt for an al-Qaida leader. Golshifteh Farahani was told by officials that she was not allowed to travel when she tried to board a flight at Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport. She is believed to have been bound for the US to discuss future film roles. Farahani, 25, recently finished filming her Hollywood debut film... Religion: Saudi mosques open 24 hours for Ramadan Riazat Butt, Guardian Mosques across Saudi Arabia will open 24 hours a day under new plans to allow Muslims to pray at their convenience during Ramadan, the month of fasting which begins in September. Under the proposals, unveiled yesterday by the Islamic affairs ministry, extra imams are to be drafted in to accommodate the annual increase in worshippers who spend longer hours at their local mosque. In Ramadan, Muslims lengthen the fifth and final prayer of the day... Wednesday August 20 2008 Frankland jail: Muslim inmates living in fear for their safety at high-security prison Alan Travis, Guardian Muslim prisoners, including some convicted terrorists, inside one of Britain's biggest high security prisons feel so unsafe that they have sought sanctuary in the jail's segregation unit for their own protection, the chief inspector of prisons discloses today. Anne Owers says that there have been serious incidents of "prisoner-on-prisoner" violence inside Frankland prison, near Durham, with black and ethnic minority inmates in general the target of attacks and Muslim prisoners in particular. Education: Poorest children being let down by underfunded schools, says study Polly Curtis and John Carvel, Guardian Children from the poorest homes are being systematically failed in their education because their schools are not receiving the funding needed to properly support them, new research suggests. Figures obtained by the End Child Poverty campaign reveal that in vast areas of the country fewer than one in eight of children who receive free school meals leaves school with five good GCSEs, including English and maths. Health: Alexander technique 'does ease back pain' Sarah Boseley, Guardian Chronic back pain, which causes probably more disability and days off work than any other health condition, can be eased through teaching better posture via the Alexander technique, doctors say. Back pain is notoriously difficult to treat and many people suffer from it for years. It is the biggest cause of sickness absence in the UK and some people are unable to work at all. Lower back pain affects seven in 10 people at some time in their lives. Sweden: Problems at joint Christian/Muslim funeral (Islam in Europe) UK Anti-terror Law Shatters Muslim Life (IslamOnline.net & Newspapers) Tuesday August 19 2008 No school like home Jessica Shepherd, Guardian Ian Fisher, like three-quarters of a million other 16-year-olds, is waiting to get his GCSE results in two days' time. But, education-wise, that is where the similarity between him and the vast majority of his peers ends, because Ian has never set foot in a school. In a lifetime of home education, the only formal lessons he has experienced were evening classes at his local college in Reading to help him prepare for the English and physics GCSEs he sat this summer. (Book) Our Qur'an documentary was a brave step - it should be applauded Antony Thomas, Guardian CiF Your article on my programme was peppered with quotes alleging "misrepresentation" and "bias", and included an extract from a letter signed by "a group of leading Shia scholars", containing five specific allegations (Misleading and defamatory: Channel 4 accused over documentary on Qur'an, July 28). The Guardian did not contact me before the article was published, so let me address those specific points raised in the letter from the "leading Shia scholars" which ran alongside your piece. (Shia Islam: misrepresented? -Zia Sardar, Guardian CiF) Boys 'flogged' during Shia ritual BBC News Online A man whipped himself until he bled during a Shia Muslim religious ceremony, before allegedly forcing two boys to do the same, a court has heard. Syed Mustafa Zaidi, 44, is accused of encouraging the boys, aged 13 and 15, to beat themselves at a community centre in Manchester on 19 January. Manchester Crown Court was played a film showing Mr Zaidi beating himself with a whip made of knives and chains. Mr Zaidi, of Station Road, Eccles, denies two counts of child cruelty. Monday August 18 2008 Education: Government damaging troubled schools, say unions Polly Curtis, Guardian Education The government faces accusations that it is deserting struggling schools as some of the most troubled secondaries learn this week whether sub-standard GCSE results could force them to start closing by the end of the year. Unions and teachers' leaders say schools are being irreparably damaged by government rhetoric, and warn that some are being stripped of vital funding designed to improve their performance. Rape & the police & juries & drink (F-Word) Sunday August 17 2008 Head of Met had his rival bugged David Leppard, Times BRITAIN’S most senior Asian policeman was illegally bugged and spied on in a clandestine operation sanctioned by Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, according to leaked Scotland Yard documents. The papers allege that Tarique Ghaffur, an assistant commissioner, had more than 300 of his telephone calls tapped in an elaborate but fruitless operation directly overseen by Blair. Ghaffur was codenamed Vivaldi. 'As race wars split Georgia, could it happen in Britain?' (Islamophobia Watch) Saturday August 16 2008 Saccharine smiles and jackboots A C Grayling, Guardian CiF However churlish it might seem to say it, the revelation that little Lin Miaoke was miming the solo at the Olympic games opening ceremony is the perfect metaphor for today's China: all cosmetics, masking deception. China's self-presentation is a continuous act of fraud, which matters because the victims of the fraud include the Chinese people themselves and the future. So well-known is this that I cannot imagine anyone is surprised to learn that Lin Miaoke was miming... Issues in the Islamic Calendar (Tabsir) Monday August 11 2008 Eleven people dead after suicide attacks in western China Jonathan Watts, Guardian A wave of a suicide bombings and police shootings left 11 people dead in western China yesterday, as Uighur Islamic separatists attempted to steal global attention from the Beijing Olympics. In what appears to be one of the most widely coordinated assaults in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in recent memory, the militants threw or carried homemade explosives into a dozen government sites in Kuqa city, killing a security guard, injuring two police officers... Thousands flock to London's Mela BBC News Online Thousands of people have attended the London Mela in west London - said to be Europe's largest Asian festival. The day-long festival at Gunnersbury Park, which is now in its sixth year, showcased the best of South Asian music, dance, food, comedy and cabaret. "It's like the Notting Hill Carnival, the Glastonbury of Asian music," said Radio One DJ Bobby Friction. Headline acts at the Mela, which means "meeting" in Sanskrit, included Raghav, Jassi Sidhu and Taio Cruz. Prison service draws up emergency plans over fears of Muslim plot to kidnap guards Paul Sims, Mail Emergency plans have been drawn up over fears that a prison officer could be taken hostage by Muslim fanatics inside Britain's jails. The dossier has been compiled in the past few months amid mounting racial tension in the prison system. It details the action to be taken in the event of the 'worst-case scenario'. A senior prison source told the Mail that it was 'a real, live threat'. Intelligence gathered from within Britain's eight top-security prisons claims specific threats to kidnap and behead an officer... Novel on prophet's wife pulled for fear of backlash Suzanne Goldenberg, Guardian A romantic novel about Aisha, the child bride of the prophet Muhammad, has been withdrawn because its publisher feared possible terrorist acts by Muslim extremists. The Jewel of the Medina, a first book by Sherry Jones, 46, was to have been released on August 12 by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House. But the publishers apparently panicked after Islamic scholars objected to the work. Changing the face of Muslim family life Samia Rahman, Guardian CiF Tonight, at the City Circle, the Muslim Institute will launch a radical marriage contract (pdf) it hopes will change the face of British Muslim family life. Currently, the Islamic marriage ceremony (nikkah), performed by an imam in the presence of two witnesses, is not recognised by British law and often involves little or no paperwork. If things go awry and the couple divorce, the woman – and it is almost always the woman – experiences great difficulty securing the financial rights... Uproar over prayer calls in Muslim Morocco - MSNBC Wire Services- msnbc.com (CLOSER) OIC slams anti-Islam congress in Germany (Islamophobia Watch) Palestine Poet Mahmoud Darwish Dies (IslamOnline) First Muslim Woman in Olympic Board (IslamOnline) Guilt by association for US Muslims (Hussein Ibish, Guardian CiF) 1000 Palestinian Children Murdered (Suspect Paki) Muslim councillors 'frozen out' of extremism fight (Islamophobia Watch) Tebbitt on the Islamisation of the 'Christian West' (Islamophobia Watch) The truth behind pan-Islamism (Islamophobia Watch) Anwar Ibrahim continues campaign despite questionable charges (Amnesty International) Scum-watch: Europe and Hamza, sitting in a tree.. (Obsolete) New Islamic Education centre to be built (Nazia Parveen, Asian Image) Bashir apologises for 'tasteless' remarks (Asian Image) Tuesday August 05 2008 Olympics alert as 16 cops killed David Wooding, Sun CHINA was on Olympics terror alert last night after Muslim fanatics massacred 16 cops. Two maniacs in a truck ploughed into officers jogging near their barracks. They crashed into an electricity pole — then leapt out hurling home-made bombs and hacking at survivors with knives. Sixteen fellow cops were badly wounded in the bloodbath days before the Beijing Games open on Friday. The two killers — ethnic Uighur Muslims — were captured alive after the horror in the popular tourist city of Kashgar... Radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza has extradition to US postponed (Jessica Salter, Telegraph) Islam in Europe: Weekly Review (Islam in Europe) Monday August 04 2008 Atheist Richard Dawkins blames Muslims for 'importing creationism' into classrooms Fiona Macrae, Mail Devout Muslims are importing creationist theories into science and are not being challenged because of political correctness, one of the country's most famous scientists said tonight. Professor Richard Dawkins argued that as a result teachers were promoting the 'mythology' of creationism over the science of evolution. Professor Dawkins, a geneticist and author of the best-selling book The God Delusion, said: 'Islam is importing creationism into this country. [Richard Dawkins: Muslim parents 'import creationism' into schools -Duncan Gardham, Telegraph] Lambeth conference: Archbishop blames liberals for church rift Riazat Butt, Guardian The Archbishop of Canterbury blamed liberal North American churches yesterday for causing turmoil in the Anglican communion by blessing same-sex unions and consecrating gay clergy as he attempted to chart a way out of the crisis that has been engulfing the church. On the final day of the Lambeth conference, a 10-yearly gathering of the world's Anglican bishops, Rowan Williams said practices in certain US and Canadian dioceses were threatening the unity of the Anglican communion. Healing the rift: how Williams kept his flock together Riazat Butt, Guardian The Lambeth conference, one of the four symbols of Anglican unity, takes place every 10 years in Canterbury, but the 2008 summit, which finished yesterday, was held amid an atmosphere of boycotts and recrimination - over the 230 bishops that stayed away and the one that was never invited. It was seen as a crucial test of Rowan Williams's leadership and an indication of whether the worldwide Anglican family could stay together in spite of irreconcilable differences... Guardian Bans Islamofascism (The Anorak) What the Catholic church really thinks [about medical research] (David Albert Jones, Guardian CiF) Sunday August 03 2008 'Anti-Semitic' satire divides liberal Paris Jason Burke, The Observer Take an elderly anarchist, anti-capitalist, anti-clerical cartoonist and add a suspicion of anti-Semitism and a dash of politics. Into this explosive mix stir several thousand amateur polemicists and a few score professional ones. Now, in a Paris sweltering in the summer heat, light the touchpaper and stand well back. There is no indication when the blast waves from the Affaire Siné are likely to stop reverberating around France. Warning on al-Qaeda's new female recruits Jason Burke, The Observer European intelligence chiefs have launched a major investigation into the threat posed by female Islamic militants within the EU, whose involvement runs from logistics or propaganda activity to suicide bombing, they say. 'This phenomenon has not been really taken into account yet and we need to explore and understand it,' said one diplomatic official connected with the probe. 'It is a new strategy by al-Qaeda.' The moves follow a spate of attacks in the Middle East conducted by women... A good ruling on the Sikh kara (Indigo Jo Blogs) Islam on Campus: letters from the Sunday Times (Islamophobia Watch) Saturday August 02 2008 Survivors of 7/7 bombings demand inquiry into attacks after trial collapses David Brown, Times Survivors of the July 7 bombings demanded a public inquiry into the attacks last night after a jury failed to reach verdicts on three British Muslims accused of carrying out a reconnaissance mission to London. Waheed Ali, Sadeer Saleem and Mohammed Shakil visited the London Eye, the Natural History Museum and the London Aquarium while allegedly pinpointing potential targets seven months before the 2005 atrocity. British Muslims aid Taliban in attacks on UK soldiers in Afghanistan Kevin Dowling, Times British Muslims are actively supporting the Taliban and al Qaida in attacks on UK soldiers, the former commander of Britain’s forces in Afghanistan said today. Brigadier Ed Butler, 46, claimed his troops also uncovered evidence that militant Islamic groups in Helmand Province are suspected of assisting terrorist plots in the UK. Earlier this year suspicions were raised that the Taliban were recruiting an increasing number of fighters from Britain after RAF experts overheard... [Muslims from Britain help Taliban, says Army chief - Sophie Borland, Mail] Gay bishop led to ridicule for Anglicans, say traditionalists Riazat Butt, Guardian The consecration of a gay Anglican bishop has led to sexual license, a new form of colonisation and ridicule for the church, it was claimed yesterday by bishops attending the Lambeth conference in Canterbury. They aired their grievances during group discussions about the US Episcopal church's decision to consecrate Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. In a first draft of these reflections on human sexuality, they explained why the issue of gay and lesbian relations was sensitive... [Liberal agenda of Western churches a 'new form of colonisation' -Martin Beckford] The militant secularists' inverted religion Soumaya Ghannoushi, Guardian CiF It seems that colour blindness does not only afflict religious fanatics. Militant secularists can also be afflicted. Both are unable to perceive tones, shades, details, and nuances. In their simplistic worldview, there are only uniform blocks of good and evil, identified here with believers and infidels, angels and demons, heaven and hell, there with science and superstition, enlightenment and darkness, modernity and medievalism. “Comfortable candor” at Yale Christian-Muslim meeting (Tom Heneghan, FaithWorld) Church wins ding-dong over the noise of village’s bells (Frances Gibb, Times) Mo-town record (Khaled Diab, Guardian CiF) Friday August 01 2008 Social cohesion – excluding Muslims Inayat Bunglawala, Guardian CiF Several UK newspapers on Sunday and Monday published alarmist stories based upon a new report entitled Islam on Campus by the Centre for Social Cohesion and a YouGov poll also commissioned by the CfSC. The website of the CfSC explains its purpose as trying to generate: "new thinking that can help bring Britain's ethnic and religious communities closer together while strengthening British traditions of openness, tolerance and democracy." Religion and the ethics of science Letters, Guardian Christian opinion on the moral status of the embryo is not all as restrictive as Jim Al-Khalili implies (While our scientists struggle with ethics, the Islamic world forges ahead, July 31). The majority in the Church of England's general synod take a gradualist view and our submission to the human fertilisation and embryo consultation drew on this to argue that, up to the 14-day point of implantation which Al-Khalili describes, some embryo research is ethically acceptable. Only broadband will do for monks with an internet habit Chris Green, Independent Choose to be a monk and you accept that your life will be a spartan existence dominated by prayer, chastity and reflective solitude, far from the hustle and bustle of the modern world. But such a traditional perception of monastic life is being challenged by a community of Catholic monks who live in a century-old abbey on Caldey Island, off Pembrokeshire in south-west Wales. Sick of being hindered by the limitations of their ancient dial-up internet connection... Lost property, naked bishops, and the mark of the beast (Riazat Butt, The Guardian) Condemn homosexuality, Vatican official tells Lambeth conference (Riazat Butt, The Guardian) Lambeth Diary: 'When did you last beat your wife, Bishop?' (Ruth Gledhill) Israeli war crimes and traffic offences (Jews sans frontieres) Finland: Considering legalizing male circumcision (Islam in Europe) Who are the real "New Jews"? (Indigo Jo Blogs) Anthony Glees and Centre For Social Cohesion at it again (MPACUK) The Episcopalian superiority complex (R Butt, Guardian CiF)
index

Abu Dharr (Daily Terror) August 2008

Sunday August 31 2008
Women preachers at moderate mosque ‘urge faithful to kill gays’
Abul Taher, Times
Women preachers are urging followers at one of Britain’s most influential mosques to kill homosexuals and view all non-Muslims as “vile”, according to a television documentary. The London Central Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre, known as the Regent’s Park Mosque, is one of the most respected centres for moderate Islam in western Europe. However, an undercover investigation by the Channel 4 Dispatches programme has found extremist preachers...

Saturday August 30 2008
Muslim man convicted of killing BNP activist after years of 'racial hostility'
Katie Dawson, Independent
A Muslim man has been jailed for eight years for killing his BNP activist neighbour following a long-running dispute. Habib Khan, 50, stabbed Keith Brown, 52, with a kitchen knife during a row outside his home in Stoke-on-Trent on 6 July last year. Stafford Crown Court was told that Khan and his family had been subjected to "racial hostility" by his neighbours prior to the attack. Khan, of Normacot, was cleared of murdering Mr Brown but convicted of manslaughter following a trial in May.

Campaigners fight to stop schools recruiting staff based on religion
Riazat Butt, Guardian
Leading academics, authors and scientists are launching a campaign to stop state-funded faith schools from discriminating against students and teachers on the grounds of religion. From Monday, such schools will be allowed to include faith as a selection criterion for teaching and non-teaching posts, reserving more places for people from the same religious background. In some schools this will expand to include the headteacher while in others this would apply to non-teaching jobs...

Me on BBC London: transcript (Indigo Jo Blogs)
Christians flee, leaders deplore religious violence in India (Alistair Scrutton, FaithWorld)
Fire wrecks mosque plan church (BBC News Online)
Oslo: Gay editor gets support from Muslim women (Islam in Europe)
'Muslim council chiefs ban tea and sandwiches during Ramadan' (Islamophobia Watch)

Friday August 29 2008
Race row policeman Tarique Ghaffur told to ‘shut up’ and get on with his job
Sean O’Neill, Times
The country’s most senior Asian policeman was told by his superiors last night to “shut up” and get on with his job after publicly announcing that he was suing Scotland Yard for racism. Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur was rebuked after appearing before TV cameras in full uniform to accuse Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, of subjecting him to years of racial discrimination. Within two hours the Met’s Deputy Commissioner responded angrily.

Translating feminism into Islam
Faisal al Yafai, Guardian CiF
Two years ago, Dr Bouthaina Shaaban, Syria's minister of expatriates, gave a speech in Damascus about the role of women. She recalled a story about an Arab woman who toured the United States in the 19th century, trying to persuade Americans to liberate their women, to allow them to move out of the home and into the workplace. How times have changed. (Although perhaps not that much: one is still lecturing the other.)

Man guilty of making boys flog themselves with blades in Muslim rite
David Pallister, guardian.co.uk
A Muslim man was found guilty of child cruelty today in a British legal first after forcing two boys to beat themselves during a centuries-old Shia religious ceremony. The jury at Manchester crown court found Syed Mustafa Zaidi, 44, guilty of two counts of child cruelty. The boys, aged 13 and 15, were forced to beat themselves with a zanjeer zani, a wooden implement with chains and blades attached, during a ceremony to commemorate the death and martyrdom of a seventh-century Shia Muslim...
[Why self-flagellation matters for Shias -Nadeem Kazmi, Guardian CiF]

Turning the tables
R. Butt, Guardian CiF
My sister has worn a face veil for six years. She lives in Birmingham, where it is common to see women shrouded in black, however the sight is more unusual in Southampton, where my parents live and where, at the weekend, my sister was called "a ninja woman". This insult is neither the most hurtful – "fucking terrorist freak" – nor the most spurious – "Osama-lover" – to have been levelled at her over the years. But it wasn't the name-calling that really rankled her and me.

Danish publisher hopes to publish 'inflammatory' Islam novel
guardian.co.uk
A Danish publisher is in negotiations to buy Sherry Jones's novel about the child bride of Muhammad, which was dropped by Random House in America and pulled from bookshops in Serbia. The Jewel of Medina tells the story of Aisha, one of Muhammad's wives, from the age of six to 18 when Muhammad dies. It was bought by Random House US for a reported advance of $100,000, but then dropped after the publisher was told by academics and security experts...

Abbey Mills Mosque: 'No pledges have been broken' (Islamophobia Watch)

Tuesday August 26 2008
Revealed: Britain's secret propaganda war against al-Qaida
Alan Travis, Guardian
A Whitehall counter-terrorism unit is targeting the BBC and other media organisations as part of a new global propaganda push designed to "taint the al-Qaida brand", according to a secret Home Office paper seen by the Guardian. The document also shows that Whitehall counter-terrorism experts intend to exploit new media websites and outlets with a proposal to "channel messages through volunteers in internet forums" as part of their campaign.

Young children should be taught about sex, MPs say
Fran Yeoman, Times
Sex education should be compulsory for primary-school pupils, a cross-party group of MPs says today. The group is urging the Government to make lessons on sexual health and relationships mandatory for young children, the intention being to reduce Britain’s high rates of teenage pregnancy, abortion and sexually transmitted disease. In a public appeal, as ministers finalise a review of sex education provision, the MPs ask the Government to “guarantee appropriate sex and relationship education..."

Plan to exhume cardinal is 'homophobic'
Robert Verkaik, Independent
The Catholic Church is under growing pressure to abandon the "homophobic" exhumation and reburial of the body of one its most famous cardinals, in defiance of his wish to lie for eternity next to the man he loved. Gay rights campaigners have accused the Vatican – which has ordered the disinterment in the first step towards beatification – of attempting to cover up the sexuality of Cardinal John Henry Newman, who died in 1890.

MI5 criticised for role in case of torture, rendition and secrecy
Richard Norton-Taylor, Guardian
MI5 participated in the unlawful interrogation of a British resident now held in Guantánamo Bay, the high court found yesterday in a judgment raising serious questions about the conduct of Britain's security and intelligence agencies. One MI5 officer was so concerned about incriminating himself that he initially declined to answer questions from the judges even in private, the judgment reveals. Though the judges say "no adverse conclusions" should be drawn by the MI5 officer's plea against...

The start of something beautiful
Ryan Gilbey, Guardian
Charles Starkweather was a 19-year-old warehouse worker with a James Dean obsession and an unpredictable temper. In the early hours of December 1 1957, Starkweather murdered a gas-station attendant who refused to let him buy a toy puppy on credit. The media christened him the Mad Dog Killer, and within two months, he had shot dead 10 more people, and fled across the midwest with his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate. The couple was apprehended in February 1958...

Crib sheet (Jessica Shepherd, Chris Arnot and Donald MacLeod - Guardian)
Islam in Europe Weekly Review (Islam in Europe)
Channel 4 announces return of Undercover Mosque (Islamophobia Watch)
'Passport to evil' (Islamophobia Watch)

Sunday August 24 2008
Watchdog questions Government grant to Islamic group with SNP link
Eddie Barnes, Scotsman.com
THE Scottish Government's decision to award more than Ł400,000 to an Islamic group run by an SNP activist was last night branded "unusual" by a senior figure in the body which oversees voluntary groups. Stephen Maxwell, a director of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), said First Minister Alex Salmond had been exposed to attack because of the presence of SNP activists in the group.

Saturday August 23 2008
A marriage of convenience will not do
Reefat Drabu, Guardian CiF
Yesterday, Ed Husain accused the Muslim Council of Britain of bowing to extremist pressure and succumbing to its alleged male-dominated sensibilities because it withdrew from an initiative to create a Muslim Marriage Contract. Naturally I beg to differ and here are the reasons why. As chair of the MCB's social and family affairs committee, I regularly come across very real issues of broken families and loveless marriages.

A people and a poet
Ibtisam Barakat, Alt.Muslim
On the afternoon of 9 August, I was getting ready to give a talk about Palestinian olive trees to a gathering of authors and thinkers at Keystone College in Pennsylvania. For the title of the presentation, I cracked the word olive in two, and turned it into O' Live! But death mocked me. Shortly before I left my room for the talk, the phone rang. It was my friend, musician Saed Muhssin, calling me from San Francisco. "This is hard news", he warned. "Mahmoud Darwish died today."

Israel declares Gaza protest boats will not reach their destination
Rory McCarthy, Guardian
Israel last night warned an attempt by peace activists to sail two wooden boats to the Gaza Strip was a "provocation" and said it would prevent them reaching their destination. A group of 46 activists set sail yesterday morning from Cyprus and were hoping to reach Gaza later today to challenge the economic blockade Israel has imposed on the strip and to deliver a cargo of 200 hearing aids for a deaf school and 5,000 balloons.

Thursday August 21 2008
MI5 report challenges views on terrorism in Britain
Alan Travis, Guardian
MI5 has concluded that there is no easy way to identify those who become involved in terrorism in Britain, according to a classified internal research document on radicalisation seen by the Guardian. The sophisticated analysis, based on hundreds of case studies by the security service, says there is no single pathway to violent extremism. It concludes that it is not possible to draw up a typical profile of the "British terrorist" as most are "demographically unremarkable"...
(The making of an extremist; Counter-terrorism strategy)

Iran bars spy film actor from travelling abroad
Robert Tait, Guardian,
An Iranian actor has been barred from leaving Iran after closely guarded details emerged of her starring role with Leonardo DiCaprio in a forthcoming Hollywood spy thriller about a hunt for an al-Qaida leader. Golshifteh Farahani was told by officials that she was not allowed to travel when she tried to board a flight at Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport. She is believed to have been bound for the US to discuss future film roles. Farahani, 25, recently finished filming her Hollywood debut film...

Religion: Saudi mosques open 24 hours for Ramadan
Riazat Butt, Guardian
Mosques across Saudi Arabia will open 24 hours a day under new plans to allow Muslims to pray at their convenience during Ramadan, the month of fasting which begins in September. Under the proposals, unveiled yesterday by the Islamic affairs ministry, extra imams are to be drafted in to accommodate the annual increase in worshippers who spend longer hours at their local mosque. In Ramadan, Muslims lengthen the fifth and final prayer of the day...

Wednesday August 20 2008
Frankland jail: Muslim inmates living in fear for their safety at high-security prison
Alan Travis, Guardian
Muslim prisoners, including some convicted terrorists, inside one of Britain's biggest high security prisons feel so unsafe that they have sought sanctuary in the jail's segregation unit for their own protection, the chief inspector of prisons discloses today. Anne Owers says that there have been serious incidents of "prisoner-on-prisoner" violence inside Frankland prison, near Durham, with black and ethnic minority inmates in general the target of attacks and Muslim prisoners in particular.

Education: Poorest children being let down by underfunded schools, says study
Polly Curtis and John Carvel, Guardian
Children from the poorest homes are being systematically failed in their education because their schools are not receiving the funding needed to properly support them, new research suggests. Figures obtained by the End Child Poverty campaign reveal that in vast areas of the country fewer than one in eight of children who receive free school meals leaves school with five good GCSEs, including English and maths.

Health: Alexander technique 'does ease back pain'
Sarah Boseley, Guardian
Chronic back pain, which causes probably more disability and days off work than any other health condition, can be eased through teaching better posture via the Alexander technique, doctors say. Back pain is notoriously difficult to treat and many people suffer from it for years. It is the biggest cause of sickness absence in the UK and some people are unable to work at all. Lower back pain affects seven in 10 people at some time in their lives.

Sweden: Problems at joint Christian/Muslim funeral (Islam in Europe)
UK Anti-terror Law Shatters Muslim Life (IslamOnline.net & Newspapers)

Tuesday August 19 2008
No school like home
Jessica Shepherd, Guardian
Ian Fisher, like three-quarters of a million other 16-year-olds, is waiting to get his GCSE results in two days' time. But, education-wise, that is where the similarity between him and the vast majority of his peers ends, because Ian has never set foot in a school. In a lifetime of home education, the only formal lessons he has experienced were evening classes at his local college in Reading to help him prepare for the English and physics GCSEs he sat this summer. (Book)

Our Qur'an documentary was a brave step - it should be applauded
Antony Thomas, Guardian CiF
Your article on my programme was peppered with quotes alleging "misrepresentation" and "bias", and included an extract from a letter signed by "a group of leading Shia scholars", containing five specific allegations (Misleading and defamatory: Channel 4 accused over documentary on Qur'an, July 28). The Guardian did not contact me before the article was published, so let me address those specific points raised in the letter from the "leading Shia scholars" which ran alongside your piece.
(Shia Islam: misrepresented? -Zia Sardar, Guardian CiF)

Boys 'flogged' during Shia ritual
BBC News Online
A man whipped himself until he bled during a Shia Muslim religious ceremony, before allegedly forcing two boys to do the same, a court has heard. Syed Mustafa Zaidi, 44, is accused of encouraging the boys, aged 13 and 15, to beat themselves at a community centre in Manchester on 19 January. Manchester Crown Court was played a film showing Mr Zaidi beating himself with a whip made of knives and chains. Mr Zaidi, of Station Road, Eccles, denies two counts of child cruelty.

Monday August 18 2008
Education: Government damaging troubled schools, say unions
Polly Curtis, Guardian Education
The government faces accusations that it is deserting struggling schools as some of the most troubled secondaries learn this week whether sub-standard GCSE results could force them to start closing by the end of the year. Unions and teachers' leaders say schools are being irreparably damaged by government rhetoric, and warn that some are being stripped of vital funding designed to improve their performance.

Rape & the police & juries & drink (F-Word)

Sunday August 17 2008
Head of Met had his rival bugged
David Leppard, Times
BRITAIN’S most senior Asian policeman was illegally bugged and spied on in a clandestine operation sanctioned by Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, according to leaked Scotland Yard documents. The papers allege that Tarique Ghaffur, an assistant commissioner, had more than 300 of his telephone calls tapped in an elaborate but fruitless operation directly overseen by Blair. Ghaffur was codenamed Vivaldi.

'As race wars split Georgia, could it happen in Britain?' (Islamophobia Watch)

Saturday August 16 2008
Saccharine smiles and jackboots
A C Grayling, Guardian CiF
However churlish it might seem to say it, the revelation that little Lin Miaoke was miming the solo at the Olympic games opening ceremony is the perfect metaphor for today's China: all cosmetics, masking deception. China's self-presentation is a continuous act of fraud, which matters because the victims of the fraud include the Chinese people themselves and the future. So well-known is this that I cannot imagine anyone is surprised to learn that Lin Miaoke was miming...

Issues in the Islamic Calendar (Tabsir)

Monday August 11 2008
Eleven people dead after suicide attacks in western China
Jonathan Watts, Guardian
A wave of a suicide bombings and police shootings left 11 people dead in western China yesterday, as Uighur Islamic separatists attempted to steal global attention from the Beijing Olympics. In what appears to be one of the most widely coordinated assaults in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in recent memory, the militants threw or carried homemade explosives into a dozen government sites in Kuqa city, killing a security guard, injuring two police officers...

Thousands flock to London's Mela
BBC News Online
Thousands of people have attended the London Mela in west London - said to be Europe's largest Asian festival. The day-long festival at Gunnersbury Park, which is now in its sixth year, showcased the best of South Asian music, dance, food, comedy and cabaret. "It's like the Notting Hill Carnival, the Glastonbury of Asian music," said Radio One DJ Bobby Friction. Headline acts at the Mela, which means "meeting" in Sanskrit, included Raghav, Jassi Sidhu and Taio Cruz.

Prison service draws up emergency plans over fears of Muslim plot to kidnap guards
Paul Sims, Mail
Emergency plans have been drawn up over fears that a prison officer could be taken hostage by Muslim fanatics inside Britain's jails. The dossier has been compiled in the past few months amid mounting racial tension in the prison system. It details the action to be taken in the event of the 'worst-case scenario'. A senior prison source told the Mail that it was 'a real, live threat'. Intelligence gathered from within Britain's eight top-security prisons claims specific threats to kidnap and behead an officer...

Novel on prophet's wife pulled for fear of backlash
Suzanne Goldenberg, Guardian
A romantic novel about Aisha, the child bride of the prophet Muhammad, has been withdrawn because its publisher feared possible terrorist acts by Muslim extremists. The Jewel of the Medina, a first book by Sherry Jones, 46, was to have been released on August 12 by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House. But the publishers apparently panicked after Islamic scholars objected to the work.

Changing the face of Muslim family life
Samia Rahman, Guardian CiF
Tonight, at the City Circle, the Muslim Institute will launch a radical marriage contract (pdf) it hopes will change the face of British Muslim family life. Currently, the Islamic marriage ceremony (nikkah), performed by an imam in the presence of two witnesses, is not recognised by British law and often involves little or no paperwork. If things go awry and the couple divorce, the woman – and it is almost always the woman – experiences great difficulty securing the financial rights...

Uproar over prayer calls in Muslim Morocco - MSNBC Wire Services- msnbc.com (CLOSER)
OIC slams anti-Islam congress in Germany (Islamophobia Watch)
Palestine Poet Mahmoud Darwish Dies (IslamOnline)
First Muslim Woman in Olympic Board (IslamOnline)
Guilt by association for US Muslims (Hussein Ibish, Guardian CiF)
1000 Palestinian Children Murdered (Suspect Paki)
Muslim councillors 'frozen out' of extremism fight (Islamophobia Watch)
Tebbitt on the Islamisation of the 'Christian West' (Islamophobia Watch)
The truth behind pan-Islamism (Islamophobia Watch)
Anwar Ibrahim continues campaign despite questionable charges (Amnesty International)
Scum-watch: Europe and Hamza, sitting in a tree.. (Obsolete)
New Islamic Education centre to be built (Nazia Parveen, Asian Image)
Bashir apologises for 'tasteless' remarks (Asian Image)

Tuesday August 05 2008
Olympics alert as 16 cops killed
David Wooding, Sun
CHINA was on Olympics terror alert last night after Muslim fanatics massacred 16 cops. Two maniacs in a truck ploughed into officers jogging near their barracks. They crashed into an electricity pole — then leapt out hurling home-made bombs and hacking at survivors with knives. Sixteen fellow cops were badly wounded in the bloodbath days before the Beijing Games open on Friday. The two killers — ethnic Uighur Muslims — were captured alive after the horror in the popular tourist city of Kashgar...

Radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza has extradition to US postponed (Jessica Salter, Telegraph)
Islam in Europe: Weekly Review (Islam in Europe)

Monday August 04 2008
Atheist Richard Dawkins blames Muslims for 'importing creationism' into classrooms
Fiona Macrae, Mail
Devout Muslims are importing creationist theories into science and are not being challenged because of political correctness, one of the country's most famous scientists said tonight. Professor Richard Dawkins argued that as a result teachers were promoting the 'mythology' of creationism over the science of evolution. Professor Dawkins, a geneticist and author of the best-selling book The God Delusion, said: 'Islam is importing creationism into this country.
[Richard Dawkins: Muslim parents 'import creationism' into schools -Duncan Gardham, Telegraph]

Lambeth conference: Archbishop blames liberals for church rift
Riazat Butt, Guardian
The Archbishop of Canterbury blamed liberal North American churches yesterday for causing turmoil in the Anglican communion by blessing same-sex unions and consecrating gay clergy as he attempted to chart a way out of the crisis that has been engulfing the church. On the final day of the Lambeth conference, a 10-yearly gathering of the world's Anglican bishops, Rowan Williams said practices in certain US and Canadian dioceses were threatening the unity of the Anglican communion.

Healing the rift: how Williams kept his flock together
Riazat Butt, Guardian
The Lambeth conference, one of the four symbols of Anglican unity, takes place every 10 years in Canterbury, but the 2008 summit, which finished yesterday, was held amid an atmosphere of boycotts and recrimination - over the 230 bishops that stayed away and the one that was never invited. It was seen as a crucial test of Rowan Williams's leadership and an indication of whether the worldwide Anglican family could stay together in spite of irreconcilable differences...

Guardian Bans Islamofascism (The Anorak)
What the Catholic church really thinks [about medical research] (David Albert Jones, Guardian CiF)

Sunday August 03 2008
'Anti-Semitic' satire divides liberal Paris
Jason Burke, The Observer
Take an elderly anarchist, anti-capitalist, anti-clerical cartoonist and add a suspicion of anti-Semitism and a dash of politics. Into this explosive mix stir several thousand amateur polemicists and a few score professional ones. Now, in a Paris sweltering in the summer heat, light the touchpaper and stand well back. There is no indication when the blast waves from the Affaire Siné are likely to stop reverberating around France.

Warning on al-Qaeda's new female recruits
Jason Burke, The Observer
European intelligence chiefs have launched a major investigation into the threat posed by female Islamic militants within the EU, whose involvement runs from logistics or propaganda activity to suicide bombing, they say. 'This phenomenon has not been really taken into account yet and we need to explore and understand it,' said one diplomatic official connected with the probe. 'It is a new strategy by al-Qaeda.' The moves follow a spate of attacks in the Middle East conducted by women...

A good ruling on the Sikh kara (Indigo Jo Blogs)
Islam on Campus: letters from the Sunday Times (Islamophobia Watch)

Saturday August 02 2008
Survivors of 7/7 bombings demand inquiry into attacks after trial collapses
David Brown, Times
Survivors of the July 7 bombings demanded a public inquiry into the attacks last night after a jury failed to reach verdicts on three British Muslims accused of carrying out a reconnaissance mission to London. Waheed Ali, Sadeer Saleem and Mohammed Shakil visited the London Eye, the Natural History Museum and the London Aquarium while allegedly pinpointing potential targets seven months before the 2005 atrocity.

British Muslims aid Taliban in attacks on UK soldiers in Afghanistan
Kevin Dowling, Times
British Muslims are actively supporting the Taliban and al Qaida in attacks on UK soldiers, the former commander of Britain’s forces in Afghanistan said today. Brigadier Ed Butler, 46, claimed his troops also uncovered evidence that militant Islamic groups in Helmand Province are suspected of assisting terrorist plots in the UK. Earlier this year suspicions were raised that the Taliban were recruiting an increasing number of fighters from Britain after RAF experts overheard...
[Muslims from Britain help Taliban, says Army chief - Sophie Borland, Mail]

Gay bishop led to ridicule for Anglicans, say traditionalists
Riazat Butt, Guardian
The consecration of a gay Anglican bishop has led to sexual license, a new form of colonisation and ridicule for the church, it was claimed yesterday by bishops attending the Lambeth conference in Canterbury. They aired their grievances during group discussions about the US Episcopal church's decision to consecrate Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. In a first draft of these reflections on human sexuality, they explained why the issue of gay and lesbian relations was sensitive...
[Liberal agenda of Western churches a 'new form of colonisation' -Martin Beckford]

The militant secularists' inverted religion
Soumaya Ghannoushi, Guardian CiF
It seems that colour blindness does not only afflict religious fanatics. Militant secularists can also be afflicted. Both are unable to perceive tones, shades, details, and nuances. In their simplistic worldview, there are only uniform blocks of good and evil, identified here with believers and infidels, angels and demons, heaven and hell, there with science and superstition, enlightenment and darkness, modernity and medievalism.

“Comfortable candor” at Yale Christian-Muslim meeting (Tom Heneghan, FaithWorld)
Church wins ding-dong over the noise of village’s bells (Frances Gibb, Times)
Mo-town record (Khaled Diab, Guardian CiF)

Friday August 01 2008
Social cohesion – excluding Muslims
Inayat Bunglawala, Guardian CiF
Several UK newspapers on Sunday and Monday published alarmist stories based upon a new report entitled Islam on Campus by the Centre for Social Cohesion and a YouGov poll also commissioned by the CfSC. The website of the CfSC explains its purpose as trying to generate: "new thinking that can help bring Britain's ethnic and religious communities closer together while strengthening British traditions of openness, tolerance and democracy."

Religion and the ethics of science
Letters, Guardian
Christian opinion on the moral status of the embryo is not all as restrictive as Jim Al-Khalili implies (While our scientists struggle with ethics, the Islamic world forges ahead, July 31). The majority in the Church of England's general synod take a gradualist view and our submission to the human fertilisation and embryo consultation drew on this to argue that, up to the 14-day point of implantation which Al-Khalili describes, some embryo research is ethically acceptable.

Only broadband will do for monks with an internet habit
Chris Green, Independent
Choose to be a monk and you accept that your life will be a spartan existence dominated by prayer, chastity and reflective solitude, far from the hustle and bustle of the modern world. But such a traditional perception of monastic life is being challenged by a community of Catholic monks who live in a century-old abbey on Caldey Island, off Pembrokeshire in south-west Wales. Sick of being hindered by the limitations of their ancient dial-up internet connection...

Lost property, naked bishops, and the mark of the beast (Riazat Butt, The Guardian)
Condemn homosexuality, Vatican official tells Lambeth conference (Riazat Butt, The Guardian)
Lambeth Diary: 'When did you last beat your wife, Bishop?' (Ruth Gledhill)
Israeli war crimes and traffic offences (Jews sans frontieres)
Finland: Considering legalizing male circumcision (Islam in Europe)
Who are the real "New Jews"? (Indigo Jo Blogs)
Anthony Glees and Centre For Social Cohesion at it again (MPACUK)
The Episcopalian superiority complex (R Butt, Guardian CiF)

index

daily terror
			A.D. archive August 2008