Friday November 30, 2007 
Debating terrorism with politicians is challenging ...
Shazia Khan, Muslim News
A discussion about terrorism � the invitation didn�t exactly thrill me when it first landed on my desk. To be honest, there are only so many times a person can read, write and talk about terrorism before an element of fatigue sets in. But there was something that made me curious. It wasn�t your bog standard invitation to listen to experts talk at you about a subject. Instead, it was the first of a series of monthly discussions between ordinary Muslims and politicians.

Anger and dismay as Sudan court jails teacher for 15 days for insulting Islam
Xan Rice & Andrew Heavens, The Guardian
The British primary school teacher accused of insulting Islam by allowing her seven-year-old pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad was last night sentenced to 15 days in prison by a judge in Sudan. Gillian Gibbons, 54, of Liverpool, was found guilty of "insulting religion" after an eight-hour hearing in Khartoum north court. The maximum penalty she had faced was 40 lashes and six months in prison. Ali Ageb, a member of Gibbons' defence team, said he was "very unhappy" with the verdict and would appeal.

Welcome to 15 days of hell: Teddy bear teacher heads for notorious Sudan jail
David Williams and Christian Gysin, Daily Mail
The British teacher who let her pupils call a teddy bear Mohammed was today beginning a 15 day sentence after being convicted of insulting Islam. Gillian Gibbons escaped a flogging - but must now endure 15 days in a notorious Sudan jail. She will be incarcerated at the squalid Omdurman women's prison in Khartoum, which is massively overcrowded and infested with mosquitoes. The 54-year-old from Liverpool was said to be "stunned" by the sentence imposed for insulting Islam.

Sudanese court sentences teacher to 15 days in jail (Cahal Milmo & Anne Penketh, The Independent)
Outrage as teacher jailed over teddy row (Paul Byrne, Daily Mirror)

Bear scrutiny
Soumaya Ghannoushi, Guardian CiF
The guilty verdict against Gillian Gibbons is absurdity itself. The case is triply insane: the storm generated over a pathetic teddy bear; the involvement of the state and judiciary; and finally the sentencing of the poor woman. It is a cruel irony that we should be commenting on the name of a teddy bear when Sudan is threatened with fragmentation, and plagued with war and disease. The country has the largest internally displaced population in the world generated by two decades of civil war.

Thousands of Islamic fanatics wielding knives demand jailed teddy bear teacher is executed
Daily Mail (L)
Thousands of Islamic fanatics wielding clubs and knives are marching through the streets of Khartoum demanding the execution of teddy bear teacher Gillian Gibbons. As the mother-of-two started a 15-day prison term, protestors left mosques across the Sudanese capital to denounce the "lenient verdict" and call for the death penalty.

Teddy teacher secretly moved away from mob
Nick Britten, Daily Telegraph (L)
A British teacher handed a 15-day jail-term for "insulting Islam" has been moved to a secret location amid fears for her safety. Gillian Gibbons, 54, was transferred only a day after she was imprisoned, as hundreds of people wielding clubs and knives took to the streets in Khartoum calling for her to be shot. The Sudanese courts chose not to sentence Mrs Gibbons to be flogged but angry protesters denounced the decision for being too lenient.

Conspicuous consumption is emptying life of meaning
Joan Bakewell, The Independent
It took just 10 minutes to shift �8.9m from one owner to another. Compare and contrast with how long it takes the UN to get resources to the starving of Darfur or Bangladesh. Imagine the difference one Faberg� egg could make to the economies of many countries. Instead, at auction this week, a Faberg� egg in screamingly bad taste was bought by a private Russian collector, setting a world record price for a Russian art object.

Profile: The devil in Philip Pullman
Daily Telegraph
Back in the 1980s, Pullman the teacher, living in a modest suburban house, was almost broke. With two sons to bring up he could have been spotted cycling around the city unable, he has complained, even to be able to afford a glass of cheap wine. Cheese on toast was a typical family dinner. Two decades on, thanks to the extraordinary success of his children's fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials, he is a literary superstar and drives a large Mercedes.

Thursday November 29, 2007 
Teddy bear teacher: Islamic fanatics demand 'She must die'
Olinka Koster, Liz Hull and Rob Krilly, Daily Mail
The British teacher who let her pupils call a teddy bear Mohammed appears in court in Sudan today amid a furious diplomatic row between London and Khartoum. Gillian Gibbons faces 40 lashes and a year in jail after after being charged with insulting Islam. She was charged after behind-the-scenes political moves to avoid a court case collapsed amid growing Islamic anger in the east African country. A powerful Sudanese newspaper urged authorities to call a hardline Islamist leader linked to Osama bin Laden to give evidence at her trial, to stress how offensive the case was to Muslims.

Religious savagery is too much to bear
Sue Carroll, Daily Mirror
Sadly, the best we can do is recoil in horror at a religion prepared to condone the degradation of females, and be grateful we were spared having to live in this dark corner of the world. But what about when one of our own faces a flogging? This week, British teacher Gillian Gibbons was hauled from her classroom in Sudan, arrested and thrown into prison, where she remains under threat of a jail sentence or 40 lashes. Her crime? Transgressing Faith and Religious laws by allowing pupils at Unity High School in Khartoum to call their teddy bear Mohammed - an act which, according to Sharia law, insults Islam's holiest prophet.

Sudan Teddy teacher charged (The Sun)
British Muslims should protest teddy lunacy, says Boris (Islamophobia Watch)

Dutch MP makes anti-Qur'an film
Mike Corder, AP, The Guardian
A rightwing Dutch MP said yesterday that he was making a film to highlight what he calls "fascist" passages in the Qur'an, in his latest high-profile criticism of Islam. The interior and justice ministers expressed concern but said they had no authority to stop Geert Wilders screening his film. Wilders plans to depict parts of the Qur'an he says are used as inspiration "by bad people to do bad things". Less than 10 minutes long, the film is expected to be shown in late January. It will show "the intolerant and fascist character of the Qur'an", said Wilders, whose anti-Islam campaign helped his Freedom party win nine seats in parliament in last year's election. In the past, Wilders has compared the Qur'an to Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf. He has claimed the Netherlands is being swamped by a "tsunami" of Islamic immigrants.
 

Mosques given code of practice
Jerome Taylor, The Independent
A coalition of four leading Muslim organisations has published the first set of national guidelines for the UK's 1,600-plus mosques in an attempt to fight extremism and introduce a level of self-regulation. The draft of a 10-point "code of practice" was published yesterday by the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (Minab), an independent body which was set up last year to open up and modernise Britain's mosques. Many of the provisions are aimed at encouraging women to become more involved in their local mosques and stopping young people from being drawn towards radical organisations.

British teacher sentenced to 15 days in Sudan jail
Times Online, and Rob Crilly in Khartoum - L
Gillian Gibbons, the British teacher who allowed her class to name their teddy bear Mohamed, has been sentenced to 15 days in jail followed by deportation from Sudan. Her lawyers announced that Ms Gibbons was found guilty of insulting Islam. The 54-year-old former Liverpool primary school teacher had faced a maximum penalty of 40 lashes and a six-month jail sentence. Tonight David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said he was "extremely disappointed" with the sentence and summoned Omer Siddig, the Sudanese ambassador to London, to the Foreign and Commnwealth Office (FCO) to make Britain's position clear.

Gillian Gibbons and the Sudanese Judiciary (The Times - L)
A few sandwiches short at this teddy bear's picnic (Osama Saeed, Rolled Up Trousers)
No picnic in Sudan (Meera Selva, Guardian CiF)
Flogging a Dead Teddy Bear ('Aqoul)

Wednesday November 28, 2007 
Muslim youths aim for ambassador role
Martin Wainwright, Guardian Society
You can understand why a dog walker alerted the police, in the nervy atmosphere after the London bombings of two years ago. She had come across a group of young Asian men in a homemade hut not far from Leeds-Bradford airport, one of them scanning the bracken of Otley Chevin country park with binoculars. "I think he had a pretty impressive beard too, and another of them was wearing one of those camouflage jackets lads go for," says Mohammed Kamran, a colleague of the young men. "But actually, as the police discovered, they could hardly have been up to anything more civic minded."

Code of practice for mosques aims to stamp out extremism
Ruth Gledhill, The Times
Muslim leaders are to carry out spot checks and will introduce programmes to fight extremism in the first set of national guidelines for mosques. The draft guidelines, to be published tomorrow, represent the most radical attempt so far by leaders of the country�s two million Muslims to tackle extremism and introduce an effective system of self-regulation. The hope is that the new measures will help to prevent young people from being drawn to extremism through extremist teaching in and around unregulated mosques.

'Save my British teacher from the lash', pleads Sudanese pupil who named teddy Mohammed
Liz Hull and Olinka Koster, Daily Mail
A boy of seven taught by the British woman who is facing 40 lashes for naming a teddy bear Mohammed said yesterday: "It's all my fault". The pupil spoke as Gillian Gibbons, 54, prepared to spend a third night in a Khartoum jail cell without being formally charged. Mrs Gibbons, who moved to the Sudanese capital in August to take up the teaching post, was arrested on Sunday after complaints that she had insulted Islam's Prophet by choosing to name the bear Mohammed.

Pupil defends teacher in Muhammad teddy furore (Xan Rice and Andrew Heavens, The Guardian)
Pupil defends 'blasphemy' Brit (Guy Patrick, The Sun)
Comment from reader on Sun website: "invade their country kill their leaders
and convert them to Christianity that will solve the problem"

Teddy bear row teacher could be spared jail
Caroline Gammell and Blake Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph
Hopes that a British teacher could be cleared of blasphemy charges in Sudan after naming a teddy bear Mohammed have been raised after an embassy official said the "minute" matter would be resolved very quickly. Gillian Gibbons is being held at Khartoum police station for allowing the seven-year-old pupils in her class to name the toy after Islam's holiest prophet. The 54-year-old, from Liverpool, is facing the prospect of 40 lashes and six months in jail for blasphemy. Fears were raised that the divorced mother-of-two may be charged with the more serious offence of inciting rebellion.

Teacher charged over teddy row
BBC News Online - L
A British teacher has been charged in Sudan with insulting religion, inciting hatred and showing contempt for religious beliefs. The Foreign Office has confirmed that charges have been laid against Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool. She was arrested in Khartoum after allowing her class of primary school pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad. Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said he will summon the Sudanese ambassador �as a matter of urgency�.

What can't be named Muhammad? (BBC Online Magazine) ***
'Teddy bear' teacher charged with insulting Islam (Steve Bird and Rob Crilly, The Times) - L
Teddy teacher facing flogging charged with 'insulting religion' as militants demand action (Daily Mail) - L
Sudan teacher charged with insulting religion (James Orr and agencies, The Guardian) - L
Teacher charged in Mohammed teddy row (Caroline Gammell, Telegraph) - L

Sudan teddy insult teacher: Readers' views
BBC News Online
A British schoolteacher in Sudan has been charged with blasphemy for insulting Islam's Prophet after letting her pupils name a teddy bear Muhammad. If convicted, the punishment could be six months in jail, 40 lashes or a fine. BBC News website readers, as well as readers of BBCArabic.com, have been sending their reaction to this story.
 

Dutch lawmaker warned over planned film on Koran
Reuters
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch far-right politician whose anti-Islam comments have led to death threats says he is making a film for television about the Koran, despite warnings from the Dutch government about making such a film. Geert Wilders, who lives under constant guard, told Dutch television he wanted his film to open people's eyes. "It is not my intention to offend people. I just want to illustrate my opinions, which I have expressed as a member of parliament," he told broadcaster NOS.

NU, Muhammadiyah scold govt over liberal thinker
Jakarta Post
JAKARTA (JP): The nation's two largest Muslim organizations criticized Wednesday the Religious Affairs Ministry for barring a liberal Egyptian Islamic thinker from addressing an international youth conference in East Java. "We are concerned with the case. It should not have happened," Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin told The Jakarta Post. Last Sunday, Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd of Egypt decided to cancel his appearance at an Islamic seminar slated for Tuesday in Malang, East Java...

Revenge of the banlieues
Soumaya Ghannoushi, Guardian CiF
It seems France must brace itself for years of unrest under Sarkozy. Since his election, transport and energy workers, teachers, postal workers, air traffic controllers, hospital staff and students have gone on strike. Even magistrates are threatening industrial action. From the "scum" and "yobs" of the suburbs who need to be "cleaned up", to the muscular unions that need to be tamed, Sarkozy appears to excel in opening new fronts while old ones remain ablaze.

Tuesday November 27, 2007 
British teacher faces 40 lashes in Sudan over a teddy bear named Mohammed
Bob Krilly and Christian Gysin, Daily Mail
British teacher is facing 40 lashes in Sudan for naming a teddy bear Mohammed as part of a primary school project. Gillian Gibbons, 54, was being interrogated at a police station in the capital Khartoum last night over allegations that she has insulted Islam. An angry mob shouted death threats as the divorced mother-of-two was taken away and the school has been closed until January amid fears of reprisals from Islamic extremists.

Facing 40 lashes for �Islam slur'
Nick Parker and Guy Patrick, The Sun
A BRITISH teacher is facing 40 lashes in Sudan � for letting her pupils name a teddy bear Mohammed. Gillian Gibbons, a 54-year-old described as �timid and polite,� has been arrested and accused of blasphemy against Islam�s prophet. The teacher, from Liverpool, let her class of seven-year-olds choose the teddy�s name as part of a project at Unity High School in Sudan�s capital Khartoum. She was said to be �deeply distressed� in a police cell last night after learning she faces the barbaric lashing under the Muslim state�s strict sharia law.

'My name is Muhammad' - school project leaves British teacher facing 40 lashes (Xan Rice & Andrew Heavens, The Guardian)
Teacher held for teddy bear 'blasphemy' (Terri Judd, The Independent)
British teacher faces lashes in Sudan after class teddy bear is named 'Muhammad' (Rob Crilly, The Times)
Insult, what insult? (Indigo Jo Blogs)
'Barbaric clash of values' (Islamophobia Watch)
A silly affair (Inayat Bunglawala, Guardian CiF)
Sudan plays down teddy blasphemy case (Mark Tran and agencies, Guardian Unlimited -L)

Whirling dervishes� star turn caps Prince�s homage to Islamic mystic
Alan Hamilton, The Times
He�s Charles�s kind of guy: a 13th-century Persian Islamic scholar, poet and mystic, the inspiration for the whirling dervishes that put the wind up General Gordon at Khartoum, and who even today is among the biggest-selling translated poets in America. This year being the 800th birthday of Mevlana Rumi in what is now Afghanistan, it was fitting that the Prince of Wales should take his wife to visit the mystic�s shrine on the first full day of their four-day official visit to Turkey, followed by a demonstration of dervish-whirling.

Prince Charles has bags of fun.. (Daily Mirror)

'Racist song' councillors cleared
BBC News Online
Two councillors from the British National Party have been cleared of wrongdoing after singing a "racist" song outside the office of a Muslim MP. Kirklees BNP councillor Colin Auty sang the song outside the office of Dewsbury MP Shahid Malik, while Burnley BNP councillor Derek Dawson filmed him. Mr Malik said the lyrics were offensive to British Muslims in the area. The Standards Board for England ruled the pair were acting "outside their official capacities" as councillors.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: My life under a fatwa
Johann Hari, The Independent
Ayaan Hirsi Ali was stabbed into the world's consciousness three years ago. One wet afternoon in November 2004, her friend Theo van Gogh � a film-maker, and descendant of Vincent � left his house and was about to cycle off through Amsterdam. But a young Dutch-born Muslim called Mohammed Bouyeri was waiting for him � with a handgun and two sharpened butcher's knives. Wordlessly, he shot Van Gogh twice in the chest. Van Gogh howled: "Can't we talk about this?"

Hirsi Ali: Ideological Chameleon ('Aquol)

Monday November 26, 2007 
'Awful, abhorrent' - but Oxford insists the debate must go on
Rachel Williams and Matthew Taylor, The Guardian
Hundreds of protesters are expected to gather outside the Oxford Union today to demand that the convicted Holocaust denier David Irving and BNP leader Nick Griffin are excluded from a debate on free speech. Trevor Phillips, the chair of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, yesterday branded the invitation a disgrace, and anti-fascism campaigners, who fear members of the far right will also come to the city, claimed the safety of students could be at risk.

Blair kept quiet about his faith for fear of 'nutter' jibes
Will Woodward, The Guardian
Tony Blair was reluctant to speak out about the depth of his faith while he was prime minister for fear that voters would regard him as a "nutter", he reveals in an interview. Slapdowns by Alastair Campbell, Blair's communications chief at the time, to questions on his Christianity - "We don't do God" - have commonly been interpreted as an effort to prevent the former prime minister from waxing lyrical. But Blair's comments in a BBC1 documentary suggest he himself acknowledged there was danger in such exposure.

Stepping forward on a fine line
Inayat Bunglawala, Guardian CiF (L)
The UK's 1,700-plus mosques vary quite widely in size and the facilities they provide. Some, such as London's Islamic Cultural Centre in Regent's Park are well-funded and able to employ several multi-lingual imams and host regular visits from schools. Others are much smaller affairs employing perhaps a part-time imam on a subsistence-level salary and their knowledge of, let alone compliance with statutory provisions relating to health and safety and child protection, for example, may be questionable to say the least. So the launch later this week of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (Minab)...

How did the BBC fall into the hands of right-wingers?
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, The Independent
Then came news that the unique Dateline London, a programme watched by 78 million people, is to be axed. This act of vandalism was followed by an announcement of a season of programmes on the "besieged" white working classes. Today the corruption of populism and relativism seeps under the imposing doors, fouls up a once venerated institution. The BBC we knew and trusted is no more. It is a player in the marketplace of nastiness, and I can no longer argue with any conviction for a licence fee.

British teacher faces lashes in Sudan after class teddy bear is named 'Muhammad'
Rob Crilly, The Times (L)
A British primary school teacher arrested in Sudan faces up to 40 lashes for blasphemy after letting her class of 7-year-olds name a teddy bear Muhammad. Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, was arrested at her lodgings at Khartoum's Unity High School yesterday, accused of insulting the Prophet of Islam. Her colleagues said that they feared for her safety after reports that groups of young men had gathered outside the Khartoum police station where she was taken and were shouting death threats.

Councillor Craig�s right to oppose (Openminds blogs)
Muslims, Anti-Muslims and the theatre of the absurd (Yahya Birt)
Terror detention is 'responsible' (Vince Soodin, The Sun)

Sunday November 25, 2007 
The absurd world of Martin Amis
Chris Morris, The Observer
Look, I'm busy. I'm writing a script and I won't be disturbed. Except that because I'm writing about terrorism and Islam, I keep being distracted by Martin Amis. He prowls the thickets of my research like a demented flasher. Sometimes Christopher Hitchens pops up, too, and flashes along with his friend. They rail against Muslims. They're obviously daft. But people take them seriously. No matter that they act like senile 12-year-olds on the Today programme website - smoking illegal fags to look tough and cool.

Blair's worst-kept secret is out: I'm a pretty religious kinda guy
Andrew Woodcock, Independent on Sunday
Religious faith was "hugely important" to Tony Blair's premiership, the former prime minister has revealed in an interview to be broadcast today. But he said he was reluctant to discuss it while in office for fear voters would see him as "a nutter". Mr Blair's former communications chief, Alastair Campbell, once famously told journalists "we don't do God" when asked about the ex-PM's beliefs. But Mr Campbell now says that Mr Blair "does do God in quite a big way", asking aides to find a church he can attend every Sunday...

US is �worst� imperialist: archbishop
Abul Taher, Sunday Times
THE Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the United States wields its power in a way that is worse than Britain during its imperial heyday. Rowan Williams claimed that America�s attempt to intervene overseas by �clearing the decks� with a �quick burst of violent action� had led to �the worst of all worlds�. In a wide-ranging interview with a British Muslim magazine, the Anglican leader linked criticism of the United States to one of his most pessimistic declarations about the state of western civilisation.

Saturday November 24, 2007 
March marks slavery anniversary
BBC News Online
Anti-racism protestors have marched through Glasgow to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.
The St Andrew's Day Anti-Racism March, organised by the Scottish Trades Union Congress, will remember the anniversary of the act to abolish the trade. The annual march and rally aims to focus on the racism and discrimination that still exist today. Osama Saeed, of the Muslim Council of Scotland, said: "It is vital that racism and Islamophobia are tackled head-on as much as it has ever been."

Maker of Undercover Mosque documentary considers suing police
Owen Gibson, The Guardian
The documentary maker cleared by regulators of misleadingly editing a Channel 4 programme about extreme Islamic preachers is considering legal action. David Henshaw, the managing director of Hardcash Productions which made the Dispatches film Undercover Mosque, said he was still "very, very angry". With the backing of Channel 4 he hoped to launch a libel action against the West Midlands police and a Crown Prosecution Service lawyer who was quoted in a joint press release accusing...

Darkness falls on the Middle East
Robert Fisk, The Independent
So what can a Middle East correspondent write on a Saturday morning except that the world in the Middle East is growing darker and darker by the hour. Pakistan. Afghanistan. Iraq. "Palestine". Lebanon. From the borders of Hindu Kush to the Mediterranean, we � we Westerners that is � are creating (as I have said before) a hell disaster. Next week, we are supposed to believe in peace in Annapolis, between the colourless American apparatchik and Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister who has no more interest in a Palestinian state than his predecessor Ariel Sharon.

Friday November 23, 2007 
Defending the indefensible
Steven Rose
Ronan Bennett was spot-on in his denunciation of Martin Amis's racist remarks about Muslims, in Monday's Guardian, and (not for the first time) Christopher Hitchens is way off beam in coming to Amis's defence. "To accuse Martin Amis of being a racist is to say he can't tell the difference between, say, one Irishman and another," Hitchens claims. But this is exactly what Amis does when he refers en bloc to "Muslims" - and it is exactly what Hitchens does too when he defines "Muslims" as "ululating praise for suicide" and so on. Of course, he is right when he suggests that Muslims aren't "a race" - any more than Jews or Sikhs are.

We cannot stay silent in the face of this outrage
Joan Bakewell, The Independent
There is a dilemma for women in the West regarding Islam: how to show tolerance and understanding of a different culture, how to respect a world religion that commands the devotion of millions; how not to rush in with Western judgements about a way of life we do not share ... all familiar liberal-minded points of view. But over some things there is no dilemma at all. And many of them concern the lives of women. Two such events are currently in the news. Both deserve our hearty, unqualified and strongly-voiced condemnation. The first is happening in Saudi Arabia, where a 19-year-old woman was last week sentenced to 200 lashes...

Thursday November 22, 2007 
Allah Made Me Funny
Brian Logan, The Guardian
Concert Hall, Reading: "Most of you," says Azhar Usman, who looks as if he might be a mullah on sabbatical, "have never seen somebody who looks like me smile before." From behind his thick black beard, he grins, and we grin. This touring show from the US stars three stand-ups whose jokes show that there is no disconnect between comedy and the Qur'an. "We want you to clap," the MC, Preacher Moss, tells the largely Muslim audience, "like it's the end of Ramadan and you can eat again." So is this a comedy feast? It certainly serves up laughs, first from Moss, an African-American convert to Islam.

Translation project to bring cream of foreign writers to Arabs
Ian Black, The Guardian
Books by Stephen Hawking, Umberto Eco, Haruki Murakami and other star writers past and present have been chosen as the first works to be translated into Arabic, in a major initiative to widen access to foreign literature. The Abu Dhabi-based project, Kalima ("word" in Arabic), aims to publish 100 books in its first year and 500 titles a year by 2010, it announced yesterday. The first 100 are from 16 languages, including Greek, Japanese, Swedish, Czech, Russian, Chinese, Yiddish, Italian, Norwegian, Latin and ancient Greek. Half the candidate titles are English.

Amis and McEwan: speaking the truth or promoting stereotypes?
Letters, The Guardian
Ian McEwan's defence of his friend Martin Amis (Letters, November 21) rests on two arguments, which are conflated. The first is the freedom of speech argument. But just because one has the right to express an opinion does not mean it is right to express it. In any case, Ronan Bennett's article (G2, November 19) did not argue that one should not criticise Islam or Muslims per se; rather, it was the manner of the criticism - sweeping generalisations and stereotypes, holding all Muslims responsible for the opinions and actions of just some - that he found objectionable, and rightly so.
 

Tuesday November 20, 2007 
Police tried to 'censor' C4 expos� on extremists
Philip Johnston, Daily Telegraph
Police have been accused of trying to censor efforts to expose Islamist extremists after television watchdogs cleared broadcasters of distorting the views of "preachers of hate". Ofcom dismissed a complaint from West Midlands Police against a Channel 4 documentary, Undercover Mosque. The ruling triggered an avalanche of criticism of the police decision - backed by the Crown Prosecution Service - to refer the Dispatches programme to the regulator. David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said the police "risked impeding freedom of speech".

Channel 4 cleared of fakery (Jonathan Brown, The Independent)
Ofcom rules against 'Undercover Mosque' (Islamophobia Watch)
Ofcom makes a good call (Charlie Beckett, Guardian CiF)

Running under cover
Peta Bee, The Guardian
According to a report by the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSF), published last week, fewer than one in five women do enough exercise to stay healthy. And among many ethnic minority groups exercise rates for women were found to be lower still, with only 13.2% of Muslim women managing the recommended 30 minutes of daily moderate activity five days a week. According to the study, the situation is worsening, which, says the WSF chief executive, Sue Tibballs, "points to a real crisis".

Does Islam have a sense of humour?
Yasmeen Khan, BBC Online (L)
Muslims are often depicted as people who can't take a joke. But as a stand-up comedy tour showcasing Islamic talent arrives in the UK, is that fair? "There's nothing better than having a laugh. I love going to see comedy, but people seem to have this impression that Muslims and comedy don't go together; that somehow we can't reconcile humour with our faith." Keen comedy fan Tosifa Mustafa nails a widely-held stereotype, before dismissing it in the same breath. It's "just not the case," he says. Protests over cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad combined with images of Muslims criticising frivolous aspects of Western culture have left the impression for some that Islam and comedy are incompatible.

Embryo law causes concern for 'child's rights'
Brendan Carlin, Daily Telegraph
Government plans to make it easier for lesbian couples to become parents were condemned yesterday by one of the most senior Church of England clerics. Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, accused the proposed fertility laws of putting the rights of same-sex couples above those of children created through IVF. But the Department of Health insisted that the proposed changes simply gave same-sex couples the same rights as married couples. Lord Darzi, the health minister, also defended the proposals, saying they provided "legal recognition for different family forms".

Traditional family has all but vanished (Vanessa Feltz, Daily Express - L)

Jerry Springer 'blasphemous'
The Sun (L)
CHRISTIAN evangelists launched a High Court battle today for the right to bring a private prosecution for blasphemy over Jerry Springer - The Opera. Lord Justice Hughes and Mr Justice Collins were told that the show was said to be "an offensive, spiteful, systematic mockery and wilful denigration of Christian belief" at the High Court in London. No one would have dreamed of making the show about the prophet Mohammed and Islam, it was argued. In January, District Judge Caroline Tubbs refused to issue a summons to start proceedings against the Director-General of the BBC Mark Thompson, who allowed the controversial show to be screened on BBC2.

Jerry Springer opera puts blasphemy in dock (Jonathan Petre, The Telegraph -L)
Jerry Springer opera puts blasphemy in dock (James Slack, The Mail -L)
Christian seeks to bring blasphemy case vs BBC (Reuters)
Day of judgment (Mark Vernon, Guardian CiF - L)
Christian group demands prosecution of BBC over Jerry Springer � The Opera (Frances Gibb, The Times -L)

Fifth terrorist of the failed July 21 suicide attacks jailed for 33 years
Times Online (L)
The fifth member of the failed July 21 suicide bombers, who lost his nerve at the last moment, was jailed for 33 years today. Manfo Asiedu, 34, pleaded guilty earlier at the Old Bailey to conspiring to cause explosions. He confessed to buying all the hydrogen peroxide used to make the bombs in 2005, but said that he refused to take part in the attacks. Instead, Asiedu dumped his bomb in a wooded area in Little Wormwood Scrubs, in West London, where it was found two days later. His target had been White City tube in West London.

Failed asylum seekers 'not being deported'
Philip Johnston, Daily Telegraph
The number of failed asylum seekers being removed from the country has fallen to a five-year low, new figures have shown. Despite promises to clear a backlog of up to 285,000 foreign nationals, fewer than 1,000 were deported in September. At the same time, the number of asylum seekers arriving in the country was double that figure. In the three months to September, there were 3,120 removals - an 18 per cent fall on last year and the lowest number since the second quarter of 2002. David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said...

Monday November 19, 2007 
Artists too frightened to tackle radical Islam
Ben Hoyle, The Times
Britain�s contemporary artists are f�ted around the world for their willingness to shock but fear is preventing them from tackling Islamic fundamentalism. Grayson Perry, the cross-dressing potter, Turner Prize winner and former Times columnist, said that he had consciously avoided commenting on radical Islam in his otherwise highly provocative body of work because of the threat of reprisals. Perry also believes that many of his fellow visual artists have also ducked the issue, and one leading British gallery director told The Times that few major venues would be prepared to show potentially inflammatory works.

Shame on us
Ronan Bennett, The Guardian
What do you make of the following statement: "Asians are gaining on us demographically at a huge rate. A quarter of humanity now and by 2025 they'll be a third. Italy's down to 1.1 child per woman. We're just going to be outnumbered." While we're at it, what do you think of this, incidentally from the same speaker: "The Black community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order." Or this, the same speaker again: "I just don't hear from moderate Judaism, do you?" And (yes, same speaker): "Strip-searching Irish people. Discriminatory stuff, until it hurts the whole Irish community and they start getting tough with their children."

Martin Amis's "adumbrations" deconstructed (Indigo Jo Blogs)

Why flee immigrants and become one yourself?
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, The Independent
Since New Labour came to power � a period of extraordinary inflow, because of extraordinary economic prosperity � 1.8m Britons have chosen to emigrate. I don't think the government can be blamed for this phenomenon. It is the reality of globalisation. But whereas white Britons moving elsewhere are considered boldly enterprising and imaginative, Indians and Poles ( the largest groups currently migrating legally into Britain) are described as invidious job bandits and multicultural hooligans.

Plaid MP calls for debate about migrants
Martin Shipton, Western Mail
POLITICIANS should be honest and admit there has been an economic downside to mass immigration from eastern Europe, according to Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price. But, he argues, the way to tackle the issue is not to put a cap on incomers, but to raise the minimum wage. Writing in the Welsh language magazine Golwg, Mr Price says, �We need more information and an honest discussion about migrant workers if the Left is not going to yield ground to the extreme Right. �The truth is that the Westminster Government has no idea how many migrant workers are in the UK.

Lord West boasts Britain is best prepared country to handle terrorism - but MI5 says differently
Daily Mail
Lord West was under renewed pressure last night after he boasted that Britain is better prepared than any other country to handle the terrorist threat. The Security Minister appeared to contradict official warnings, led by the head of MI5, that the dangers from terrorism are worsening. MPs said the former First Sea Lord had thrown Government policy into confusion. Lord West was trying to restore his reputation after a week that saw him perform a humiliating policy u-turn. He was ordered by Gordon Brown to back Government plans to extend the 28-day limit for detaining terror suspects...

Minister sparks new row over UK security assessment (Michael Settle, The Herald)
Lord West sparks fresh row (Andrew Porter Daily Telegraph)

Terrorism: We must learn lessons of Northern Ireland
Patrick Mercer MP, Daily Mirror (L)
It is more than 30 years ago but even now I can remember how the man's face was twisted with hate. He had been released without charge after years in Long Kesh jail during the Northern Ireland's troubles. I was a soldier and, hating everything I stood for, he spat his loathing. That man became a symbol of resistance and a magnet for recruiting young men into the IRA. That is why I am passionately against the Government's suggestion that we extend the period of detention without charge for terrorist suspects. I understand why the police and security services may want more time to quiz suspects.

�There will be another terrorist attack in Scotland�
Stewart Paterson, The Herald
Another terrorist attack in Scotland is almost inevitable, the country's most senior police officer has warned as he takes up his new post. Steve House, Strathclyde Police's new chief constable, warned that his force will have to be constantly prepared to react to a similar attack to the one in which a car exploded in flames as it was rammed into Glasgow Airport in June this year. Mr House said he watched that day's events unfold from London and was impressed by the reaction of the police and emergency services.

Police chief makes terror warning (BBC News Online)

Amnesty chief rebuffs Catholic attack on abortion policy
Lucy Ward and Henry McDonald , The Guardian
The head of Amnesty International in the UK has condemned as "nonsensical" the Catholic church's attack on its decision to support abortion in the case of rape, incest or health emergencies. In her first full interview since a senior Vatican cardinal called on Catholics worldwide to stop donating to the human rights body, Kate Allen defended the change, and revealed that only 222 of the organisation's quarter of a million British members have resigned as a result. A further 105 have increased their donations in the wake of the claim last June by Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, that Amnesty had "betrayed its mission" on human rights...

Race-claims lecturer beats legal ban to carry on suing after 40 discrimination claims
Chris Brooke, Daily Mail
It was never going to be easy stopping Suresh Deman cashing in on Britain's rights culture. For a decade he sued universities - usually claiming racial bias over failed job applications - as he collected nearly �200,000 in payouts and cost the taxpayer an estimated �1million. The finance lecturer brought at least 40 cases to employment tribunals before the Attorney General last year had him declared a �vexatious litigant� and banned him from bringing further claims. That, then, should have been that. Mr Deman, however, had other ideas and this week sees him back before a tribunal, once again claiming discrimination.

Asian policeman finally clears his name
Paul Stokes, Daily Telegraph (L)
An Asian police constable who claimed he was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit after suing his force for racism has won a 13-year fight to clear his name. Sultan Alam spent nine months in prison after a jury found him guilty of conspiring to handle stolen goods. He broke down in tears and spoke of his relief after three Appeal Court judges unanimously quashed the conviction as unsafe. Mr Alam, 45, now plans to rejoin the police after being invited by the same force which is now under a new senior management team. He served with Cleveland Police from 1984 until he was dismissed in disgrace in 1997 after his conviction at Teesside Crown Court.  

Peers and church leaders oppose test-tube baby Bill plan
Nigel Morris, The Independent
A coalition of peers and church leaders will launch a campaign today to scupper plans to give lesbian couples the right to have test-tube babies. They will also oppose moves that could lead to the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos for research. The Government faces a backlash when the Lords considers the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. Critics will speak out against the Bill, marking the start of a parliamentary campaign to wreck it. Its most contentious proposal would enable lesbian couples to become joint legal parents of children conceived using donated sperm or eggs.

Church condemns lesbian IVF use (BBC News Online)
Churchmen and politicians join forces to oppose lesbians from having test-tube babies without men Simon Walters, Mail on Sunday, 18/11)
 

Sunday November 18, 2007 
Am I the demoniser� or is it Ken's 'experts'?
John Ware, Sunday Telegraph
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) claims to be "the most reasonable and most representative spokesperson for the British Muslim community". Unlike most religious organisations, it is also explicitly political. The MCB has opinions on everything, from school uniforms to the NHS; from the recall of Parliament to the extradition to the US of Babar Ahmad. And it is not shy about lobbying for them. Political Islam is relatively new to Britain. It's an important development. The MCB complains of "demonisation" when journalists criticise it, yet the MCB's response to its media critics seems often to be to "demonise" them. At least, it felt like that when it happened to me.

Ware persists in his double-standards (Rolled-up Trousers, 20/11)

Britain leads terror fight, insists Lord West
Patrick Hennessy, Sunday Telegraph
Lord West is in apologetic mode. "Mea culpa," the security minister declares, as he attempts to explain the background to his unfortunate remarks last week that threatened to undermine Gordon Brown's announcement of the next phase of the drive to make Britain as safe as possible from terrorist attack. At 8.20am on Wednesday the peer, a former First Sea Lord who was brought into Mr Brown's "government of all the talents" in June, told a Radio 4 interviewer that he was not "fully convinced" that ministers' plans should be brought in to extend the length of time terrorist suspects can be held without charge from the current 28 days. By 9.05 his ship was steaming into reverse.

UK security 'dramatically' better (BBC News Online)
Any which way but West (Neil Hamilton, Daily Express)

Carey and Tutu wade into conflict over gays
Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Sunday Telegraph
Two of the Church's most respected figures are to deepen the growing rift over gays, which already threatens the biggest split in the Anglican movement since it began four centuries ago. In attacks that will be seen as aimed at the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, both his predecessor, Lord Carey, and the South African archbishop Desmond Tutu take conflicting views on the issue. The South African Nobel Peace Prize winner accuses the Anglican movement of being "almost obsessed with questions of human sexuality". He says that under Dr Williams's leadership the church became "extraordinarily homophobic" during the debate over whether Gene Robinson, an openly gay priest, should be allowed to be the Bishop of New Hampshire.

Tutu chides Church stance on gays (BBC News Online)

Police attacked by TV watchdog over C4 mosque expose
Simon Walters, Mail on Sunday
Broadcasting watchdogs have cleared Channel 4 of wrongdoing over the controversial documentary about Muslim extremism. The programme featured footage of preachers at a number of mosques, including one who praised the Taliban for murdering British soldiers. West Midlands police rejected calls to take action against the preachers for stirring up racial hatred � and turned on the film-makers. Three months ago, the police, backed by the Crown Prosecution Service, made a formal complaint to Ofcom, alleging that the way 50 hours of videotape had been edited was 'distorted'. But The Mail on Sunday has been told Ofcom has backed Channel 4's claim that the film was fair and has criticised the police response. Last night, both Ofcom and Channel 4 declined to comment.

Ofcom rules against 'Undercover Mosque' (Islamophobia Watch, 20/11)

As a 7/7 survivor I know Gordon Brown is wrong on terror
Rachel North, Sunday Times
Terrorists and what they may or may not be capable of dominated the news agenda again last week. Extra security measures at stations were announced, which mean hundreds of thousands of commuters will face a daily reminder of what ghastly fate they may meet if Al-Qaeda gets its way. Meanwhile, the Commons home affairs committee was considering more proposed antiterror legislation, including extending the maximum period of 28 days during which a suspect can be detained without charge. As a survivor of the 7/7 bombings, I was asked to give evidence. Monstrous as the atrocities of 7/7 were, I am not sure that we need to react as we are doing. Terrorism likes publicity.

Prayers said after bodies found
BBC News Online
Special prayers have been said at a church in Margate, Kent, after the bodies of two teenage girls were found at a house in the town. The bodies of Vicky Hamilton, 15, and Dinah McNicol, 18, were found in the back garden - police are now searching the inside of the house. The Reverend Arthur Howston, of Holy Trinity Church, said many people had been affected. He said: "We're making special prayers for the families and the community." He added: "We're very concerned for the local neighbours here in this community that their lives have been so disrupted, especially the family who lived in the home."

Saturday November 17, 2007 
The Nativity as an asylum seekers' tale
Jonathan Petre, Daily Telegraph
The BBC stoked controversy yesterday by announcing plans for a "contemporary" nativity play featuring Mary and Joseph as asylum seekers instructed to report to the nearest passport office. In a move that has dismayed traditionalists, who think the story is dramatic enough without having to embellish it with politically correct themes, the action will take place in the centre of Liverpool.

New blow for PM on terror detention
Patrick Wintour, The Guardian
Gordon Brown's hopes of forging a political consensus over extending detention without charge beyond 28 days are expected to be dealt a heavy blow by the former attorney general Lord Goldsmith. In a meeting with the home affairs select committee next week, he is expected to say he has seen no evidence to justify the extension, and reveal that he was close to resignation when Tony Blair pushed for 90-day detention in 2005 before being thwarted by a backbench rebellion. Goldsmith.

UK grovels to terror suspect
Graeme Wilson, The Sun
Egyptian-born Hany Youssef. Youssef applied for asylum when he arrived in the UK in 1994 with his wife and five children. He later applied for indefinite leave to remain. A letter from the Government�s immigration chief Lin Homer stressed that Youssef was on the UN list of people �belonging to or associated with al-Qaeda�. But she added: �I am sorry that it has taken so long to process the application. I apologise for any delay or anxiety this has caused Mr Youssef or his family.�  Youssef � who is not suspected of terror offences in England � won substantial damages three years ago after claiming he was falsely imprisoned in 1999.

Council monitors jewellery row (Martin Shipton, Western Mail)
Falling off the fence (Andrew Brown, Guardian CiF)

Friday November 16, 2007 
'Hate preacher' Hamza faces life in US jail
Duncan Gardham, Daily Telegraph
The radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza can be extradited to the US on terror charges, a court has ruled. Hamza had argued that he would be separated from his family and suffer in a high-security supermax prison in Colorado if he were jailed for terrorism offences. However, the judge, Timothy Workman, ruled against 48-year-old Hamza and sent the case to the Home Secretary for a final decision. Hamza is accused of involvement in the kidnap of 16 tourists by Islamic radicals in Yemen in 1998. Four of the hostages, including three Britons, were killed in a rescue attempt. He is also accused of trying to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon, and of trafficking men, money and equipment to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Muslim Uncle Tom Hate Preacher Exposed
MPACUK
The 'phone rang. �Hello. This is Abul Taher from the Sunday Times.' I had spoken to this reporter a number of times. He was always snooping about some anti-Muslim story, but I had pretty much batted him off without insulting him. Today was going to be different. �I am going ahead with the story about a prominent Muslim who has links with MPACUK�.' I scratched my head �err ok but that was going to be one boring story. I can see the headlines now �Muslim has links to Muslim group!� �I don�t get it,� I replied. I knew this slimy looking man had to be up to no good. I mean newspapers like the Sunday Times were not going to hire a Muslim that was not willing to stitch other Muslims up. That clue alone made me realise the reptile was not to be trusted.

Opposition parties knock back Brown's terror detention plan
The Independent
Opposition parties have rebuffed Gordon Brown's latest attempt to create a cross-party consensus over his plans to extend the amount of time that suspected terrorists can be held without being charged. The Prime Minister has launched a new drive to win enough support in Parliament to increase the current 28-day maximum period and is prepared to drop his original proposal to double it to 56 days. He wants to shift the debate away from a number of days to the safeguards that would apply during detentions. Mr Brown is expected to offer additional protection for people being held. Each seven-day extension after 28 days would have to be approved by the Home Secretary as well as the Director of Public Prosecutions and a High Court judge. Further safeguards are likely to be offered in the next few weeks.

Hook preacher faces U.S. trial (George Pascoe-Watson, The Sun)
Migrant figure at record high (Graeme Wilson, The Sun)
'Try not to act gay' (Sally Howard, Guardian CiF)
520 Immigrants arrive every day in Britain (Macer Hall, Daily Express)
Illegal immigrant demands to be flown home because Britons are 'rude and unfriendly' (Daily Mail)
Losing the fight (Anas Altikriti, Guardian CiF)
Interview: Paul Sniderman | Higher | EducationGuardian.co.uk (CLOSER)
Let us pray (Theo Hobson, Guardian CiF)
Saudi gang rape sentence 'unjust' (BBC News Online)
This Triangle Has More Than Two Sides (Husain Al-Qadi, Ummah Pulse)
'I have much in common with Samina Malik' (Noorjehan Barmania, The Guardian)

Thursday November 15, 2007 
Women get 'virginity fix' NHS operations in Muslim-driven trend
James Chapman, Daily Mail
Women are being given controversial "virginity repair" operations on the NHS, it emerged last night. Taxpayers funded 24 hymen replacement operations between 2005 and 2006, official figures revealed. And increasing numbers of women are paying up to �4,000 in private clinics for the procedure apparently under pressure from future spouses or in-laws who believe they should be virgins on their wedding night. Doctors said most patients are immigrants or British of ethnic origin. One Tory MP said: "If a woman has been violated or raped and lost her virginity, clearly everything possible should be done to assist her. But what nobody would understand is if taxpayers' money is being used to fund operations of this kind for cultural or cosmetic reasons." Labour MP Ann Cryer said she was "absolutely horrified" to learn of the phenomenon.

Terror stricken
Hari Kunzru, The Guardian
I think I might be in trouble. Now that Samina Malik, the self-styled "lyrical terrorist", has been convicted for the possession of "records likely to be used for terrorism", I'm expecting a raid. When the police come to my house, they'll find a shelf full of books glorifying terrorism. In The Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla, by Carlos Marighella, they'll find detailed instructions on waging war against the state. Among the Red Army Faction communiques they'll find statements like this: "Either a pig or a man, either survival at any price or a fight to the death." There are books with practical details about bomb-making, hand-to-hand combat, chemical weapons and poisons. When they analyse my hard drive, they'll realise I've looked at all sorts of material, on sites maintained by unsavoury people - jihadists, racists, religious cults.

You couldn't make it up
Laura Smith, Guardian CiF
It has become a running joke amongst those of us used to reporting these things that Muslims are the new blacks. Given that the side-effects of this special status include increased levels of stop and search, police raids on family homes and attacks by those who hate you for what you represent, it isn't a very funny joke. On Tuesday the London mayor, Ken Livingstone, launched a report commissioned by the Greater London Authority to look at another unwelcome symptom of such status: the way people's perceptions of you and those like you are influenced by misleading news coverage, which often bears very little resemblance to the facts.

Muslims and the media (Angela Phillips, Guardian CiF)
The 'hearts and minds' campaign (Daily Telegraph)
Tighter security measures target railway stations (Nigel Morris, The Independent)
Anti-terror admiral does U-turn on detention (James Kirkup and Brendan Carlin, The Telegraph)
Brown seeks all-party consensus on extending detention limit (Andrew Grice and Nigel Morris, The Independent)
Mixed reception for terror plans (BBC News Online)
Deportation of Darfuris 'not unduly harsh' (Ben Russell, The Independent)
Britain's beauty industry accused of ignoring black and Asian women (Martin Hickman, The Independent)
A real peace process? (Ben White, Guardian CiF)
Minister forced into terror law U-turn (Islamophobia Watch)
Radical Muslim cleric says he stopped UK violence (Michael Holden, Reuters)
Extended terror limits proposed (BBC News Online)
Women get 'virginity fix' NHS operations in Muslim-driven trend (Islamophobia Watch)
Islam and Europe � there really is a conspiracy (Islamophobia Watch)
Brown is just a pathetic liberal says Michael Burleigh (Islamophobia Watch)
London Evening Standard: "How Ken whitewashed the Muslim extremists" (Walls Come Tumbling Down)
Philippines in 'separatist deal' (BBC News Online)
Racist graffiti plagues Ipswich  (Islamophobia Watch)

Wednesday November 14, 2007 
Government seeks to issue Islamic bonds
Reuters London
The government has said it wants to become the first Western government to launch Islamic bonds, or sukuk bonds, early next year. Treasury officials will be meeting experts from the City of London to discuss plans to issue government bonds which are compliant with an Islamic ban on interest. "This is an increasingly global and liquid market, it's worth 40 billion pounds at the moment (and) we think it could be worth around 250 billion pounds worldwide eventually," Treasury minister Kitty Ussher told BBC radio. "The potential benefits... are enormous," she added. "There are a huge number of international corporates who are issuing these types of securities. And...if we can get to the bottom of how to do it as a UK government, that will be great news for the City of London."

Brown to unveil anti-terror plans
BBC News Online
Gordon Brown is to announce measures to give better protection against terror attacks on rail stations, airports, shopping centres and sports stadiums. Security minister Lord West was asked to draw up the plans after attempted bombings in London and Glasgow Airport. The prime minister said attacks could hit "anywhere and from any place". He is also due to unveil more details of the planned border force combining immigration, customs and visa staff and a relaxation of air luggage rules. As part of his brief, Lord West has been examining ways of strengthening security in crowded public areas and has called for architects to include anti-terror features in new buildings and projects.

UK public areas 'actively antisocial to children'
Lucy Ward, The Guardian
Young people should be able to ring a hotline to report adults who are threatening their right to play outside, according to a report today warning that young people are being increasingly excluded from public spaces. A study by the thinktank Demos finds that public areas in Britain are frequently "built around the convenience of the car and the shopping trip", and are "actively antisocial to children". There should be scope for children and young people to have a far greater say in planning to ensure their needs are met, says the report, Seen and Heard, which urges adults to take a more positive attitude to children's use of public space. A more playful approach to urban life...

University's banning of Muslim comedy attacked (Fiona Macleod)
No tears, no remorse for the fallen of Iraq (John Pilger)
24 Hour Dash.com: Media report reveals 'torrent' of negative Muslim (Walls Come Tumbling Down)
Thought Crime comes to Britain (Yahya Birt)
Behind closed doors [human rights in Egypt] (Ibrahim El Houdaiby, The Guardian)
Our Loss of Authority Spawns Tragic Teens (Ann Widdecombe, Daily Express)
Children who need parents, not pills (see part 2 on Bari interview) (Allison Pearson, Daily Mail)
'Undesirables' debate (Pete Tobias, Guardian CiF)
Brown tightens security measures (Michael Holden, Reuters)
Faith and the left (Dave Hill, Guardian CIF)
Secularists accuse evangelical leader of being 'unChristian' (Ruth Gledhill)
London is good for Islam (Inayat Bunglawala, Guardian CiF)
Black boy with a big mouth (Rolled Up Trousers)
Truths We Must Face Up To (Kira Cochrane, New Statesman c/o UK Watch)
�I hope we inspire more Muslims to get involved in entertainment� (Alt.Muslim)
Uncle yammers on (Koonj)
'How Ken whitewashed the Muslim extremists' (Islamophobia Watch)
Judge's jokes rattle sheik (The Sun)
Egypt's mufti rejects criticism (BBC News Online)

Tuesday November 13, 2007 
Muslim minister sues over claim of intimidating voters
Dan Newling, Daily Mail
Britain's first Muslim Government minister yesterday launched a libel battle in the High Court over claims that he organised "gangs of Asian thugs" to intimidate voters in a local election. International Development Minister Shahid Malik is said to have "overseen and directed" up to 200 Asian Labour activists to help secure victory for a Muslim councillor. The men are said to have breached electoral rules by escorting voters to the polling station while telling them in Urdu to choose the Muslim Labour candidate. Mr Malik is also accused of encouraging ethnic division in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, by urging Asians to vote for "their Muslim brother" rather than according to their political opinion. The allegations were first made by former Conservative councillor Jonathan Scott in a letter to the Dewsbury Press newspaper, after he was unseated as a local councillor.

Media report reveals 'torrent' of negative Muslim stories
Pam Caulfield, 24dash.com
A "torrent" of negative stories has been revealed by a study of the portrayal of Muslims and Islam in the British media, according to a report today. Research into one week's news coverage showed that 91% of articles in national newspapers about Muslims were negative. London mayor Ken Livingstone, who commissioned the study, said the findings were a "damning indictment" on the media and he urged editors and programme makers to review the way they portray Muslims. "The overall picture presented by the media is that Islam is profoundly different from and a threat to the West," he said. "There is a scale of imbalance which no fair-minded person would think is right." Only 4% of the 352 articles studied last year were positive, he said.

Ofsted faces special measures on equality
Jennifer Beckles, The Guardian
All schools must have a race equality policy to tackle unfairness, and to help children to work and play in a racially harmonious environment. The policy should include all aspects of school life, such as opportunities for parents to take part; how to help children's progress; and fair ways to manage behaviour and wellbeing. The policy should also take account of admissions; methods of teaching and learning ; what children learn; and the racial backgrounds of staff. "Our policy is a living, breathing document that we integrate into everything the school does," says Horwood. Her commitment to equality of opportunity is clear - from the recruitment of staff, who represent a range of ethnic backgrounds, to the halal meat served on the school menu. But unlike Fulham primary, other schools may be failing to fully address equality issues.

Radical thinker: Dr Tahir Abbas (Chris Arnot, The Guardian)
Dromey: politicians are 'demonising' migrants (Andrew Grice, The Independent)
Going Public (Sepoy, Chapati Mystery)
John Gaunt: Only people stoking anti-Muslim feeling are idiots like Bari' (Islamophobia Watch)
'Bangle' pupil is excluded again (BBC News Online)
Dispatches 'Undercover Mosque' debate (Islamophobia Watch)
How Can the Muslim Leader Say Britain is Like Nazi Germany (Patrick O'Flynn, Daily Express)
Britons oppose Muslim veils in schools (Martin Bentham, London Evening Standard)
'Muslim stabbed lover's pregnant wife to death in jealous rage' (updated to) 'Mistress stabbed lover's pregnant Muslim wife to death in jealous rage' (Daily Mail)
Another girl victimised over religious dress (Indigo Jo Blogs)
Let's crack down on homophobia (Ken Livingstone, Guardian CiF)
BBC London: "Muslims 'demonised' by UK media" (Walls Come Tumbling Down)

Monday November 12, 2007 
UK terror detention limit is longest of any democracy
Alan Travis, The Guardian
Britain's existing 28-day limit on holding terror suspects without charge is already far longer than that for any comparable democracy, according to a study to be published tomorrow. The survey, by the human rights organisation Liberty, was carried out by lawyers and academics in 15 countries. It shows that the four-week maximum in Britain outstrips limits in countries that have also suffered al-Qaida inspired terrorist attacks in recent years, including the United States, Spain and Turkey. Although police in these countries also face increasingly complex terror plots with growing international dimensions, their maximum periods for pre-charge detention remain as short as 48 hours in the US, five days in Spain and seven and a half days in Turkey.

Our liberty depends on defending Muslims
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, The Independent
British civil rights and freedoms are now more restricted than they ever were under Margaret Thatcher, the PM we love to hate for her centrist, authoritarian, monetarist policies. Today, the state slices away, shaves off layer after layer from our tree of liberty in the name of liberty � an insult added to grievous injury. The tree will soon shrivel and leave us to the winds. Using the war on terror, our state is now ready to bend all citizens to its will. But remember unacceptable tactics approved for use on us Muslims today will be used on others tomorrow. And the terrorists will have achieved their biggest ambition � the death of British democracy.

An attack on liberty
Inayat Bunglawala, Guardian CiF
The conviction last Thursday of the self-styled "Lyrical Terrorist", 23-year old Samina Malik, marks a further dramatic erosion of our liberties in the United Kingdom. In the wake of the guilty verdict, several newspapers printed extracts from her attempts at poetry, including gems such as How to Behead, and The Living Martyrs. The court had heard that on an online social networking group known as Hi-5 Samina Malik had listed her interests as "helping the mujahideen any way I can" and, in the section for her favourite TV shows, she entered "watching videos by Muslim brothers in Iraq, yep, the beheading ones".

The scribblings of dreamers are catharsis, not crime (Boyd Tonkin, The Independent)
Rich urged to bear climate change costs (Jeremy Lovell, Reuters)
Dipso fatso bingo asbo Tesco (Greg Hurst, The Times)
Scores Hurt as Iran Militia Clashes with Sufis: Report (Asharq Alawsat)
No place for Sufism in our Shia country: official (Sufi News)
Government accused of cover-up over immigrant security staff (H�l�ne Mulholland, The Guardian)
The Strange Journey of Ayaan Hirsi Ali: From Devout Muslim to Outspoken "Feminist" Critic of Islam (Joshua Holland, AlterNet)
Terrorism? you won't find it here (Islamophobia Watch)
Blair isn't to blame for Islamist terror (Islamophobia Watch)
Shocking (Indigo Jo Blogs)
Call to ban council staff from wearing the burka (Islamophobia Watch)
Poetry That Affects Us All (Shazia Patel, Ummah Pulse)

Sunday November 11, 2007 
Sins of the father
David James Smith, Sunday Times
Ari Mahmod held his head up when he went to prison. He felt no embarrassment. And why should he? After all, he said, it was not as if he was locked up for something as inconsequential or shameful as theft. He was sure that, back in the real world of suburban Mitcham, south London, among his own people, they would be thanking his family for what he had done, taking pride in the decisive way he had acted. Many people might find it hard to comprehend that any man could take pride � pleasure, even � in the brutal murder of his niece. In Kurdistan, honour crimes are still being committed at the rate of three or four a week and, despite a recent tightening of the law, offenders are still going unpunished or receiving light sentences.

Religion: Another sacrifice paid in blood
Susie Mesure, Independent on Sunday
For Rachel Underhill, a 32-year-old mother of two, the news that Emma Gough, a Jehovah's Witness, had died last month after refusing a potentially life-saving blood transfusion following the difficult birth of her twins, brought back memories of her own near-death experience in the operating theatre. Like Mrs Gough, Mrs Underhill had a traumatic labour. Mrs Underhill was also a Jehovah's Witness and therefore bound by the movement's strict doctrine on blood � which, as the life-force, belongs to God and is not for human use. This rules out eating meat from animals that have not been properly bled before dying and, crucially for the grieving Gough family, blood transfusions.

War heroes remembered in papers (BBC News Online)
Andi and the Hypocrites (Austrolabe)
The surprising truth about Rage Boy, America's hated poster-boy of Islamic radicalism (Mail)
Islamophobia on the internet � even the Mail draws the line at Jihad Watch (Islamophobia Watch)
Iranians named over Buenos Aires bombing (Tim Shipman and Philip Sherwell, Sunday Telegraph)
Oxford pitches for black students (BBC News Online)
Sunday Spew on Abdul Bari: see the irony? (Indigo Jo Blogs)
Muslim brands Britain 'Nazi' � according to the Express (Islamophobia Watch)
Social ties and Human environment (Abenyusuf's Weblog)

Saturday November 10, 2007 
Dr Bari: Government stoking Muslim tension
Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson, Daily Telegraph
There is fear and loathing in Britain. This week, the head of MI5 claimed there were 2,000 people involved in terrorist activity and children as young as 15 were being "groomed" to be suicide bombers. Gordon Brown announced plans to require immigrants to learn English and Downing Street said the Prime Minister wanted to double the number of days that terrorist suspects can be detained without trial. Then, just as the Metropolitan Police was being censured for shooting the Stockwell One, the Lyrical Terrorist became the first woman to be convicted of terrorist crimes. Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, the leader of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), thinks the Government is stoking the tension.

Westerners 'should stop making films about Islam'
Ciar Byrne, The Independent
Parvez Sharma, whose documentary about what it means to be gay and Muslim had its European premiere at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival last night, said Western non-Muslim film makers were jumping on the "Islamic bandwagon". Sharma added: "Post 11 September, [Islam] is suddenly very hot", and he cited the "plane-loads" of documentary makers who flew from New York to Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. "I always knew Islam was diverse. It was important for me to present the diversity of the religion. I'm gay and Muslim, so it was an intensely personal film. So many films about Islam are mediated through Western eyes. It's really important for me as a Muslim to take up a Muslim camera. So few of us have taken responsibility to change the discussions about our own religion."

Civil servants to take bank holidays on religious days of their choice
Daily Mail
Civil servants will be able to take bank holidays on the religious days of their choice under moves to introduce "cultural flexitime". Officials in the education department will be allowed to work from home on statutory days off and take the time owed to mark their own religious traditions. It means staff will be able to work at home on Christmas Day for the first time this year and swap it for a different religious festival such as Eid or Diwali. The pioneering arrangements also apply to cultural traditions, meaning a Welsh employee could move a bank holiday to St David's Day. Staff could also choose to mark St George's Day on April 23. Staff choosing to swap bank holidays for other key dates will not be required to prove that they follow a different faith.

UK terror tactics 'create unease' (BBC News Online)
Out of Body Experience - Part II (Darvish)
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam: Tariq Ramadan argues for an intensive debate on citizenship and identity (CLOSER)
When small is not beautiful (Ian Buruma, Guardian CiF)
"Physician, Heal Thyself" (Dunner's)
Pakistan: Is the '79 Iran analogy appropriate? (GustavoMustafa, ProgressiveIslam.org)
Poetic (in)justice? (CLOSER)
We Need Answers, Minister (Richard and Judy, Daily Express)
Infidel ('Aquol)

Friday November 09, 2007 
Prisons �breed Islam extremists�
Graeme Wilson, The Sun
BRITAIN�S jails risk becoming breeding grounds for Islamic extremists after Muslim lag numbers doubled in ten years, prison officers warned yesterday. Figures obtained by The Sun show there are 8,000 Muslims in our jails � up from just 3,700 in 1997. And the number of Muslim inmates � from both Britain and abroad � is growing FOUR TIMES faster than the prison population as a whole. Warders yesterday warned that impressionable young Muslim prisoners are left vulnerable to brainwashing by Islamic extremists. Brian Caton, general secretary of the Prison Officers� Association, said his members were struggling to cope.

British Muslim woman convicted of penning poems about beheadings
Arthur Martin, Daily Mail
An airport worker who wrote poems about beheadings is the first woman to be found guilty under new terror laws. Samina Malik, who liked to call herself a "lyrical terrorist", called for attacks on the West and described "poisoned bullets" capable of killing an entire street in her poetry. The 23-year-old Muslim wrote of her desire to become a martyr and listed her favourite videos as the "beheading ones". Yesterday a jury found her guilty of possessing documents likely to be used for terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2000, by a majority of ten to one, after deliberating for 19 hours. Malik, who wore a black head scarf, wept as the verdict was read out.

Trust Me, I'm an Expert
Karima Hamdan, Ummah Pulse
In the English language few words elicit as much unconditional acceptance from listeners as the words "expert", "research", "statistics" and "think-tank". It therefore stands to reason that when confronted on news programmes by an "expert" from a "think tank" quoting "statistics" that he discovered in his "research", the critical reasoning centres of one's brain stall and listeners go into "infantile acceptance" mode. One such Islam "expert", Dr Denis MacEoin from the "think tank" the Policy Exchange, concluded through "research" that 25% of British Mosques had "radical material" on their bookshelves. The premise of this report, entitled "The Hijacking of British Islam", is quite simple.

Refugee child rights action urged (BBC News Online)
"All theft is property!" (Jews sans frontieres)
Hairdresser sued over Muslim headscarf ban (Islamophobia Watch)
Episode 24: Pakistan is Doomed! (Bored Kidz)
God is not dead (Soumaya Ghannoushi, Guardian CiF)
Dr MacEoin clarifies his methodology and the real reasons behind the report (Islam, Muslims, and an Anthropologist)
Potterow mosque in terror row (Islamophobia Watch)
In music, I insist on sincerity (Sufi News)
The Revolt of the Comic Books (Julian Sanchez, Prospect)

Thursday November 08, 2007 
I fear for my life, says raid victim
Nigel Morris, The Independent
Two Muslim brothers held at gunpoint in a bungled anti-terror raid are living in fear after armed officers threatened to shoot them in a second incident, MPs were told yesterday. Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, and Abul Koyair, 20, were giving evidence to the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, which is examining plans to tighten anti-terror laws. The 2006 raid on the brothers' home in Forest Gate, east London � in which Mr Kahar was shot � was criticised for heavy-handed policing. The pair were freed without charge but have recently lodged a claim for compensation from the Metropolitan Police after being stopped by armed officers in August.

The lost wars: Britain's Malayan campaigns
Andy McSmith, The Independent
Ask someone to list countries in the world where a Western army fought a Communist army at any time during the Cold War, and the first answer will almost certainly be Vietnam; after that, Korea, and then perhaps someone with a decent knowledge of post war history might say Greece. Very few would think of Malaya. Fewer still would be able to put a name to the island in Asia where the bodies of hundreds of British soldiers lie lost in the jungle, killed in a conflict about which the British public was told almost nothing. In one incident, British soldiers moved into a village called Batang Kali in December 1948, slaughtered 24 Chinese inhabitants, and set the village on fire.

Chuka in conversation with Polly
Chuka Umunna, TMP
CU: The blogosphere seems to be a whole new body of comment that seems to be quite male dominated but, ironically, very bitchy. What do you make of it? PT: It�s a nightmare. I only really see the Guardian�s Comment Is Free blogs which attract some of the most right wing people � my entries certainly do! On the other hand, if you look at the responses George Monbiot gets, perhaps because he�s a man, he doesn�t get the same vitriol. I get these people who are not in a million years Guardian readers! Jackie Ashley gets the same. CU: I�ve had it with my own Guardian blog entries too. PT: Hmm�you have - well there is this nasty group of men, who often seem to get up at 5am waiting for your column...

Scrapped asylum centre cost �28m (BBC News Online)
Round Up III (Chapati Mystery)
Racist attacks on the rise in Northern Ireland (Channel 4 News)
Hairdresser sued for refusing to hire Muslim woman in a headscarf (Daily Mail Online)
Jailhouse blog (Khaled Diab, Guardian CiF)
A pointless attack on liberty that fuels the terror threat (Seumas Milne, The Guardian)
Terror detention 'a kind of modern torture' (Islamophobia Watch)
The lyrical non-terrorist (Islamophobia Watch)
Blair will be a Catholic 'by Christmas' (Ruth Gledhill)

Wednesday November 07, 2007 
YouTube asked to curb terror videos
Duncan Gardham and Caroline Gammell, Daily Telegraph
The YouTube website is facing calls to crack down on extremist videos promoting violence after it emerged it was being used to post footage of Islamic fighters with guns and rocket launchers. Videos were available on the site which had been posted by the British group ASWJ, an off-shoot of al-Muhajiroun, an organisation once led by the radical preacher Omar Bakri and now banned in Britain. The films are part of a growing wealth of extremist material being found on video-sharing sites and the internet which promote a radical agenda to young Muslim men. IslamBase - which is registered in Glasgow but uses a server in the Netherlands - carries speeches by radical preachers such as Abu Hamza, Omar Bakri and Abu Qatada.

City high-flyer sues firm over 'Guantanamo detainee' jibes
Robert Verkaik, The Independent
A City high-flyer who worked on an innovative Islamic policy for a leading British insurer has brought a claim for racism against the company after he was welcomed to the office as "Guantanamo detainee 948". Anwar Khan, 24, who shares his name with a Afghan man held by the Americans at the Cuban naval base since 2002, says that he was greeted on 18 September by a colleague with the words: "So they have released you from Guantanamo Bay." When Mr Khan logged on to his computer, he opened an email with a link to the Wikipedia page for detainee 948. Mr Khan, from central London, has now begun grievance proceedings against the Royal & Sun Alliance (R&SA) insurance company after what he describes as one of the most distressing episodes in his life.

These fear factory speeches are utterly self-defeating
Simon Jenkins, The Guardian
There can be only two results from this abuse of publicity. One is that the public demotes such scares to wolf-crying and treats them as background noise. The other is that, as all scare stories stereotype communities, the host nation distances itself from whatever group allegedly harbours the threat. The latter in turn retreats and denies the police the intelligence required for public safety. In other words, speeches such as those from the head of MI5 are wholly self-defeating. Scaring the public as an act of policy may win a few headlines but it is stupid. It worked short term in 2003 and may prop up yet another terrorism law in yesterday's Queen's speech, a law presumably requested by MI5. But it can only damage British liberty in the long term.

School sends girl, 14, home for wearing a Sikh bracelet (Nick McDermott, Daily Mail)
Sikh schoolgirl excluded for wearing bangle (Alexandra Topping, The Guardian)
Gay row after evangelical leader is appointed to human rights watchdog (Kim Sengupta, The Independent)
Independent Investigation Demanded by Yarl�s Wood Women (Women Against Rape, c/o UK Watch)
Firm denies racism as Asian man fakes CV (Rachel Williams, The Guardian)
A difficult diagnosis (Anas Altikriti, Guardian CiF)
Emergency Telegraph (Chapati Mystery)
'Islamism' and 'political Islam' are not monolithic ideas � Tariq Ramadan (Islamophobia Watch)
�Worse than Salman Rushdie� (Tabsir)
Christianity was a given - video (Jack Straw, Guardian CiF)
You Answer Violence with Love (Sufi News)
A Gift From God to Me (Sufi News)
The Failure of Modernity (Ummah Plus)
'Take your bloody veil off' (Islamophobia Watch)
'I will regret it till the day I die' (Eric Allison, Guardian Society)

Tuesday November 06, 2007 
Al-Qaeda 'recruits' discussed
BBC News Online
Comments by the new director general of MI5, Jonathan Evans, about the extent of the terror threat facing the UK have made headlines in the nation's press. The Daily Telegraph reports on how Mr Evans said Muslim children as young as 15 are being recruited by al-Qaeda to wage "a campaign of terror". Al-Qaeda is grooming British children to carry out terrorist attacks across the country, says the Daily Express. The Daily Mirror claims children under 10 are being groomed for terror acts. The Daily Mail highlights new research that suggests how breastfeeding can boost a child's IQ by seven points. The paper says health campaigners have seized on the study to call for Britain to do more to encourage mothers to feed their babies breast milk.

English tests for migrants are 'lace curtain racism'
Alan Travis, The Guardian
The introduction of English language tests for skilled migrants from outside Europe next year was last night branded "lace curtain racism" by community leaders. The tests are to be introduced alongside a new draft immigration bill to be unveiled in today's Queen's speech that is designed to simplify the confusing jigsaw of rules and regulations that have been introduced over the past decade. The language tests will be phased in from next spring as part of the introduction of an Australian-style immigration points system. It will mean that most migrants coming to Britain to do skilled or highly skilled jobs will have to demonstrate that they have an acceptable level of English before they come. Home Office ministers are also considering whether similar language tests should be applied in family reunion cases.

'Honour' foe Nazir is Mirror champion
Rosa Prince, Daily Mirror
MUSLIM lawyer Nazir Afzal was yesterday crowned YOUR choice as the Daily Mirror People's Award winner at the 2007 Justice Awards. The senior prosecutor's truly impressive work tackling so-called honour killing inspired you to vote for him in your thousands to bestow him with prestigious accolade of people's champion. He was presented with his prize by Justice Secretary Jack Straw at a glittering ceremony at London's Merchant Taylor's Hall hosted by Crimewatch presenter Fiona Bruce. Afterwards, the 45-year-old father-of-four, who also receives a �1,000 cheque to donate to his favourite justice charity, thanked Daily Mirror readers for voting for him.

Al-Qaida recruiting teenagers to attack targets in Britain, warns MI5 chief (Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian)
MI5 boss: Al-Qaeda UK boys (The Sun)
Episode 23: Models are Humans, too! (Bored Kidz)
Fire investigators interview migrant workers (Caroline Gammell and Nick Allen, Daily Telegraph)
Revealed: how multinational companies avoid the taxman (Felicity Lawrence and Ian Griffiths, The Guardian)
Muslim group attacks 'irresponsible MI5' (Islamophobia Watch)
Dying to Win (Tabsir)
Sikh pupil excluded over bangle (BBC News Online)
End of mutual Respect (Derek Wall, Guardian CiF)
�It was more important he was Muslim than where he was from� (Wajahat Ali, Alt.Muslim)

Monday November 05, 2007 
Muslim superstar
Aida Edemariam, The Guardian
It's a nondescript place, where Sami Yusuf is staying, a muted Quality Hotel in a west London suburb, but its neighbour rather makes up for it - Wembley Stadium, arching silver into clear, cold autumn air. And next to it, Wembley Arena, which Yusuf filled, a few nights ago. His concert, organised by Islamic Relief in aid of Darfur, was sold out: 10,000 people came to hear him sing. "It was amazing," he says. He is courtly, friendly, but obviously entirely strung out on sleeplessness and adrenaline. "Really amazing. I mean, I've performed for big crowds - 13,000 people in Cologne Arena, 200,000 people in Istanbul. It's not about crowds. Wembley is very symbolic."

The Iraq war has become a disaster that we have chosen to forget
Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian
In the meantime, the biggest human displacement crisis in the Middle East for 60 years is unfolding, the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world. One in six Iraqis has now been displaced, 60,000 a month are leaving the country, spilling into Syria (1.4 million) and Jordan (750,000). In an uncanny magnification of our own anxieties about migration and the strain on public services, the capacities of these two Middle Eastern countries to educate thousands of traumatised children or provide basic healthcare have been swamped. The UN's budget for refugees in Syria for 2007 is $700,000 - less than a dollar per person. But this crisis offers no telegenic vistas - people are crammed into the apartments of friends rather than tents on a windy African plain. So it gets even less attention.

Parties row over Tory candidate's race remarks
Brendan Carlin, Daily Telegraph
Nigel Hastilow, a candidate in a West Midlands seat, quit Sunday night after senior party figures distanced themselves from his comments. But Cabinet ministers seized on the remarks as a way of denting the Tory offensive on immigration. Peter Hain, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said that it exposed the Tories' "racist underbelly", while Harriet Harman, Labour's deputy leader, said it showed the Tories were still "the same old nasty party". But George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, hit back by implying that Gordon Brown was himself sailing close to playing the race card with his recent promise of "British jobs for British workers". Phrases like that "are particularly nasty and are trying to play to a particular chord", he told BBC1's Sunday AM programme.

Sudanese officials 'were allowed to interview Darfuri refugees in UK' (Ben Russell, The Independent)
Britons 'squeezed out of workforce by foreigners', says Treasury (Matthew Hickley, Daily Mail)
�Rivers of blood� candidate forced to resign (Francis Elliott, The Times)
Terror links in UK rise to 2,000 (The Sun Online)
Tory in Enoch Powell race row: 'I could have survived if I had signed gagging order' (Daily Mail)
Immigration is Causing Depths of Poverty Last Seen in Dicken's Time (Leo McKinstry, Daily Mail)
The toxic Powell legacy (Sunder Katwala, Guardian CiF)
Ask (Chapati Mystery)
A coup within a coup (Muqtedar Khan, Alt.Muslim)
No man's land (Jeremy Seabrook, Guardian CiF)
The scandal of blood and the Watchtower (Ruth Gledhill)

Monday November 05, 2007 
Muslim superstar
Aida Edemariam, The Guardian
It's a nondescript place, where Sami Yusuf is staying, a muted Quality Hotel in a west London suburb, but its neighbour rather makes up for it - Wembley Stadium, arching silver into clear, cold autumn air. And next to it, Wembley Arena, which Yusuf filled, a few nights ago. His concert, organised by Islamic Relief in aid of Darfur, was sold out: 10,000 people came to hear him sing. "It was amazing," he says. He is courtly, friendly, but obviously entirely strung out on sleeplessness and adrenaline. "Really amazing. I mean, I've performed for big crowds - 13,000 people in Cologne Arena, 200,000 people in Istanbul. It's not about crowds. Wembley is very symbolic."

The Iraq war has become a disaster that we have chosen to forget
Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian
In the meantime, the biggest human displacement crisis in the Middle East for 60 years is unfolding, the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world. One in six Iraqis has now been displaced, 60,000 a month are leaving the country, spilling into Syria (1.4 million) and Jordan (750,000). In an uncanny magnification of our own anxieties about migration and the strain on public services, the capacities of these two Middle Eastern countries to educate thousands of traumatised children or provide basic healthcare have been swamped. The UN's budget for refugees in Syria for 2007 is $700,000 - less than a dollar per person. But this crisis offers no telegenic vistas - people are crammed into the apartments of friends rather than tents on a windy African plain. So it gets even less attention.

Parties row over Tory candidate's race remarks
Brendan Carlin, Daily Telegraph
Nigel Hastilow, a candidate in a West Midlands seat, quit Sunday night after senior party figures distanced themselves from his comments. But Cabin