Sunday November 30 2008 
Racist incidents on the increase in Highlands
Paul Kelbie, Observer
The number of racist incidents reported to Highlands police is on the increase, according to a report by the Northern Constabulary, which shows the majority of cases were directed against English and Polish immigrants. Figures reveal that, since the Highland Council launched a Race Equality Scheme in 2000, the reporting of racist abuse had doubled, with 142 incidents in the past 12 months.

Ed Husain – how long before he joins the Tory party? (Islamophobia Watch)
Mumbai terrorists were 'funded by cash raised in UK mosques' (Islamophobia Watch)
Respect calls for PCC inquiry into reckless reporting of Mumbai atrocity (Islamophobia Watch)

Saturday November 29 2008 
British architects to change the face of Mecca
Ben Hoyle, Times
Two of Britain’s most sought-after architects are at the heart of a multibillion-pound redevelopment of Islam’s holiest city. Lord Foster of Thames Bank and Zaha Hadid are among an elite group of architects and engineers who will provide ideas for an ambitious and highly sensitive construction project in Mecca. Part of the redevelopment is thought to include a new building near the Haram mosque that will be capable of holding 3 million pilgrims.

Gunmen not from UK, Foreign Office insists
Rachel Williams, Ian Black & Duncan Campbell, Guardian
British officials last night played down the possibility that Britons were involved in the attacks on Mumbai. India's first minister was reported to have claimed that two of the arrested gunmen were British-born Pakistanis, and UK authorities quickly said they were investigating the reports. But the Foreign Office later said that the deputy high commissioner in Mumbai had talked to Indian authorities, who said there was no evidence that any of the terrorists, shot or detained, were British.

Face to faith: The hajj
Kia Abdullah Guardian,
When my first husband suggested going on the hajj for our honeymoon, I recoiled in horror. I had visions of sunning myself in the Bahamas while he wanted to go on pilgrimage and purify his soul. Needless to say, the marriage didn't last very long. We were two people in completely different places mentally and spiritually. For me, the hajj has always been something that I will do "one day". It requires a change in attitude and lifestyle that I'm just not ready for.

'British Muslims behind Mumbai attacks' – though there's no evidence (Islamophobia Watch)
Saudi offer for Moscow mosque, Orthodox call for church in Arabia (Tom Heneghan, Faith World)
Yoga going underground (Musab Bora, Guardian CiF)
Mumbai and the Blame Game (Tabsir)

Friday November 28 2008 
Arrested Mumbai gunmen 'of British descent'
Tom Morgan, PA/Independent
Two gunmen arrested after the Mumbai massacre were of British descent, the country's chief minister said today. Gordon Brown said there was no mention of any of the terrorists being linked with Britain during a conversation with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But Indian Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh claims two British-born Pakistanis were among eight gunmen arrested by Indian authorities, according to Associated Press reports.

Muslims Condemn Mumbai Terror
Aamir Latif, IslamOnline
WORLD CAPITALS — Muslim scholars, politicians and organizations in India and across the world vehemently condemned on Thursday, November 27, the bloody attacks that hit splash hotels and other targets in India's financial hub of Mumbai. "The whole Indian Muslim community is saddened by the terrorist attacks on Mumbai," the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, an umbrella of all Muslim organizations in India, said in a statement mailed to IslamOnline.net.

Supping with the devil
Inayat Bunglawala, Guardian CiF
Last Saturday, I spoke at a conference held at the LSE organised by Media Workers Against War entitled Under Siege: Islam, War and the Media. Speaking at the same meeting was the conservative political commentator Peter Oborne. A few months ago, Oborne presented an edition of Channel 4's Dispatches called It Shouldn't Happen To a Muslim. He also published a report detailing how sections of the media were involved in actively inciting prejudice against Muslims...

Tarique Ghaffur settles out of court with Met commissioner (Sadie Gray and agencies, guardian.co.uk)
Thai haj pilgrims find airport chaos a test of faith (Tom Heneghan, Faith World)
Condemnation of attacks from UK groups (Asian Image)
Western Muslims should not condemn Bombay attacks (Indigo Jo Blogs)
Netherlands: Face-covering Islamic robes to be banned (CLOSER)
Leeds councillors reject planning report opposing new mosque (Islamophobia Watch)
Harun Yahya dangles big prizes for creationism essays (Tom Heneghan, Faith World)
BBC pulls plug on Bible drama series ( Ben Dowell & Riazat Butt, guardian.co.uk)

Monday November 24 2008 
Islamic ruling bans Malaysia's Muslims from practising yoga
Ian MacKinnon, Guardian
First it was the insidious habit of young women wearing trousers. Now Malaysia's Muslims have been warned off the perils of practising yoga. The country's leading Islamic council has issued an edict prohibiting people indulging in the exercise, fearing its Hindu roots could corrupt them. The national fatwa council's latest decision again reflects a tilt toward an increasingly conservative strain of Islam in predominantly Muslim Malaysia.

BNP men held over 'racist leaflet'
Ian Johnston, Independent
Twelve British National Party activists have been arrested in Liverpool on suspicion of handing out racist leaflets claiming that "our people" are experiencing an "epidemic of racist violence, sexual exploitation and murder" by Muslims. The leaflet alleges the "average racist killer" is 40 times more likely to be from an ethnic minority than "a native Brit"; the Muslim community condones paedophilia; and the English are "relentlessly discriminated against by an institutionally hostile ruling class".

The Dangers of Unwitting Racism (Suspect Paki)
ABDR Eagle: Obituary (Karen Dabrowska, Guardian)
Has Jackson converted? (Do we care?) (Indigo Jo Blogs)
Vatican forgives John Lennon for “more popular than Jesus” quip (Tom Heneghan, Faith World)

Saturday November 22 2008 
'I never expected to find a member in my road'
Vie Marshall, Guardian
The moment I heard about the leaked BNP list I was intrigued to know who was on it. Was the nun at my old convent school, who forced me to stay behind when I was a teenager and clean the place on my hands and knees? She'd stood above me and demanded to inspect my hands. "Look at that," she remarked, "on one side you're black like your parents and on the other you're white in the image of God!" I wanted to know if the WPC who laughed at the mess caused by a rock thrown through my...
[List reveals bitter party infighting -Helen Carter, Guardian]
[Leicester's 80 party members are rare voices of discontent -Alexandra Topping and Paul Lewis, Guardian]
[BNP paralysis -Obsolete]

Put the BNP's hypocrisy in the spotlight
Jeremy Dear, Guardian CiF
The hypocrites at the British National party have been seeking to invoke the Human Rights Act to protect the identity of their members after names and addresses were published on the web. Never mind that the party wants to abolish the act. Or that their fellow travellers on the far right regularly publish photographs, names, and home addresses of journalists who have the temerity to investigate the BNP, in an attempt to intimidate and silence the media.

Range of Muslim views not represented in media, says Dorothy Byrne
Oliver Luft, Guardian
Broadcasters fail to fully represent the range of Muslim voices in Britain, the head of Channel 4 news and current affairs, Dorothy Byrne, said today. Byrne told the News Xchange 2008 conference in Valencia that there was a problem with the media making sweeping generalisations about Islam, which she said was "not at all helpful". Addressing a session looking at the representation of Islam in the news media, Byrne told delegates the findings of a report...

Censorship is alive and well
Terry Sanderson, Guardian CiF
A couple of weeks ago I had a rather emotional call at the National Secular Society from a young poet in Cardiff called Patrick Jones. The much-anticipated reading of his work at a local Waterstones branch had been peremptorily cancelled on the say-so of a religious activist, Stephen Green of Christian Voice. Jones was upset and seeking support. The cancellation, though, has turned out to be something of a pyrrhic victory for the nation's self-styled leading defender of Christian purity.

BNP list linked to fire-bomb attack (Andy McSmith, Independent)
Lib Dem MP to speak at event run by Moonies peace group (Riazat Butt, Guardian)
Pew report looks at media coverage of faith in U.S. election (Ed Stoddard, Faith World)
Prosecute BNP says Bruce Kent (Islamophobia Watch)
Scots jail succumbs to the Islamisation of western civilisation (Islamophobia Watch)
Religion to dominate Christmas music charts (Ruth Gledhill)
BNP protests after arrests (Islamophobia Watch)

Tuesday November 18 2008 
Court restores marriage of non-virgin bride
Lizzy Davies, Guardian
A Muslim couple whose marriage was annulled on the grounds that the bride had lied about her virginity were yesterday declared "still married" by a French court of appeal. Overturning a decision handed down in April that deemed the woman, Mademoiselle Y, had breached her wedding contract by lying about "an essential quality" of their relationship, the court in Douai ruled that virginity could not be accorded such a degree of importance...

Children bullied because of faith
Anthea Lipsett, Guardian
One in four children are bullied because of their faith, a study has found, as the Tories criticised local authorities for not expelling more bad pupils. A lack of cohesion between faiths was to blame, said the survey by the Beatbullying charity. According to the study, those bullied because of their religious beliefs often began to question their faith, stopped talking about it, or even felt ashamed of it. And bullying led many young people to self-harm, drink alcohol or take drugs as a consequence...

Ministers urged to act on race inequality in criminal justice system
Mary O'Hara, Guardian
The government must take a fresh look at policy if over-representation of people from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities in the criminal justice system is to be addressed, according to a new study published today. Less Equal Than Others: Ethnic Minorities and the Criminal Justice System, carried out by Race for Justice, a new coalition of voluntary organisations working with BME offenders, ex-offenders and their families...

Who is a Muslim, and who isn't? (Indigo Jo Blogs)
What can American Muslims expect? (Alt.Muslim)
Friend of Israel (Tabsir)
Inayat Bunglawala – ally of Al-Muhajiroun (Islamophobia Watch)
Indonesian Ulama Council: Bali Bombers are not Martyrs (Ronald Lukens-Bull, Tabsir)

Friday November 14 2008 
Divorced - for having an affair in Second Life
Chris Green, Independent
As divorce cases go, it is as explosive and sordid as it gets: a woman catches her husband having sex with a prostitute, forgives him, but finally throws in the towel after discovering he has been unfaithful again. Yet absolutely none of it happened in real life. Amy Taylor is divorcing David Pollard, her husband of three years, on the grounds of "unreasonable behaviour" after she discovered his character in the online community game Second Life had been having an affair.

Is Obama the Muslim World's Superman?
Wajahat Ali, Washington Post
Muslims, both here and abroad, are investing their collective faith in Obama as a modern political Superman who will transform U.S. foreign policy from the abrasive "Us vs. Them" ideology of President Bush to an engaging, constructive dialogue. But as Obama begins to assemble his administration, are Muslims assuming too much about the transformative powers of the president? Certainly among American Muslims the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Where are the Muslim officers? (Asian Image)
Faith School 'Surprises' Swindon Muslims (IslamOnline)
Obama aide in 'anti-Arab' row (Al-Jazeera)
They Call Muslims Extremists After They Starve Us! (MPACUK)
Anti-terror police 'need Muslims' (Dominic Casciani, BBC)

Thursday November 13 2008 
Women shouldn't have to fight for their rights
Anna Sussman, Guardian CiF
Why is it that the crummiest ideas always seem to spread like wildfire? Less than a year ago, the Lebanese Shia Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah advised battered wives to hit their husbands back in self-defence, eliciting a collective groan-and-eyeball-roll from women's rights advocates around the Muslim world. In recent weeks, three more similar "fataweh" (the plural of fatwa, or Islamic legal opinion) have sallied forth from the lips of Turkish, Saudi and Egyptian religious leaders as well.

Just wars are possible
Ishtiaq Hussain, Guardian CiF
The question: Should we fight war to end wars? History has shown that unfortunately, due to human nature, war is inevitable. the first world war, after all, only set the scene for the bloodiest century mankind has ever witnessed. On the basis of my Muslim faith, I believe that many wars have been absolutely necessary. My grandfather, who fought under the British Empire, was a prisoner of war in Japan for five years during the second world war.

Saudi king basks in praise at UN interfaith forum (Faith World)
Plans for small Islamic centre threaten 'traffic chaos' (Islamophobia Watch)
Man who firebombed community centre escapes jail (Islamophobia Watch)
Archbishop and Chief Rabbi at Auschwitz (Ruth Gledhill)
The shameful silence: abuse and repression between tradition and lack of education (Islam, Muslims and an Anthropologist)
Anti-Muslim bigot opposes ... anti-Muslim bigotry (Islamophobia Watch)
UK: MP praises Muslims for bringing faith to Britain (Islam in Europe)
How credible is a Saudi initiative on interfaith dialogue? (Tom Heneghan, Faith World)
Sharia scholars oppose more regulation on Islamic finance (Tom Heneghan, Faith World)
The plot thickens over Qatada (Obsolete)

Wednesday November 12 2008 
Making the most of the blogosphere
Asim Siddiqui, Guardian CiF
The internet – and by extension the blogosphere and online discussion groups – has empowered those who otherwise would not have had a platform to be heard. This means that the views that previously existed in insular communities now also exist in the blogosphere. All that diversity, from prejudice to open-mindedness, is now on display for all to read. Blogs are available to be read by anyone with digital access and therefore have multiple audiences.

The language of opposition
Bill Whitson, Guardian CiF
In 1953, just before my first term at university, I was invited to join the film club. I expressed interest. As he was starting to write down my name, the canvasser said, "We meet on Sunday mornings." "Sorry," I apologised, "I go to church on Sunday mornings". "Oh, a religious type!" he said, and flounced off. I didn't think I was "a religious type". Going to church was, for me, just something I did. It was no big deal. "Religious types" were people who were constantly urging me to "get right with God"... [ardent rubbish]

'Marriage is a form of prostitution'
Julie Bindel, Guardian G2
Prostitution had been legalised in Australia in 1984 and, looking through the newspaper one day, she realised with horror that women were being advertised for sale alongside their photographs. In line with the government, many Australian feminists had come to view prostitution simply as a form of work, and [Sheila] Jeffreys found herself appalled by this "neo-liberalism" - the complete lack of moral outrage about the buying and selling of women's bodies.

Yes, we can … chew qat (Tabsir )
Clarence Mitchell bursts Paul Dacre's bubble (Obsolete)
On the new American President (Bradford Muslim)
Man disguised as bird nest attempts escape, news at 11... (Obsolete)
Fake ‘Convert’ Scholar - Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (Mind, Body, Soul)
Muslim Fifth Column seeks to 'advance the seditious program they call Sharia' (Islamophobia Watch)

Tuesday November 11 2008 
Maldives swears in new president
Agencies/Al-Jazeera
Mohamed Nasheed, a former political prisoner, has been sworn in as the first democratically elected president of Maldives. Nasheed, 41, took his oath of office on Tuesday at a ceremony televised live from a convention centre in the capital Male. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the former president who had led the nation for 30 years and was Asia's longest-serving leader, was beaten by Nasheed in an October 28 run-off election held in line with democratic reforms launched in August 2005.

Qatada held after 'attempts to flee UK'
ITN News Online
Radical cleric Abu Qatada is being held by police after allegedly trying to flee the country. The 47-year-old will appear before an immigration hearing on Tuesday for allegedly breaching his bail conditions and could return to prison permanently. UK Border Agency officials allegedly discovered the Jordanian was planning to escape to the Middle East - despite having his passport taken away. They convened a hearing on Friday and a judge ruled bail should be cancelled.

City firm pays millions to Muslim twins over sensational racism and drug abuse claims
Julie Moult, Tom Kelly and Emily Andrews, Mail
Two Muslim sisters have won a multi-million pound settlement on the verge of an explosive tribunal which threatened to make public claims of widespread drug abuse and racial bigotry in the City. Samira and Hanan Fariad, 31, had made sensational claims that top brokers used cocaine, and subjected them to unbearable levels of race and religious discrimination. They alleged that former bosses at Tradition Securities and Futures turned a blind eye to the deplorable behaviour.

UN: World Leaders Should Press Saudis on Intolerance (AlertNet)
'Racism' row BBC host is replaced (BBC News Online)
Cardinal sees possible “favoured channel” in dialogue with Islam (Tom Heneghan, FaithWorld)
India, Muslims and a new anti-terrorism fatwa (Alistair Scrutton, FaithWorld)
In the shitter with Gary Glitter (Obsolete)
Mad Mel on the Islamisation of Manchester City Football Club (Islamophobia Watch)
You can't force patriotism on a people (Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Independent)

Sunday November 09 2008 
Islam's other half
Margot Badran, Guardian CiF
There is a growing movement among Muslims, especially women, away from the inherited patriarchal Islam toward an egalitarian Islam. The move is occurring in both older Muslim societies and in the newer Muslim communities in the west. Female scholars have been talking for two decades now about the gender equality they find in Qur'an. Activists use these egalitarian readings to push for new practices within families and societies, and to support reform of Muslim family laws.

Black and middle class: now there’s a threat
India Knight, Times
Not long ago I was introduced to a middle-aged lady at her home on a housing estate somewhere north of Newcastle. I’d gone with a friend who was from the area and was keen to catch up on local news. What’s so-and-so up to, he asked. “Oh, her,” said our hostess, smiling pleasantly and passing round biscuits. “She ran off with a dirty Paki.” There was pin-drop silence for about three seconds and then my friend said: “India is half Asian.”

Al-Qaeda has support 'in large parts of the country' says Tory MP (Islamophobia Watch)
Obama and Islam (Tabsir)
The Face of Irish Islamophobia (MPACUK)
Election Analysis: Why Qaradawi Wanted McCain? (MPACUK)
Spain: Imams recalled by Morocco (Islam in Europe)
Of Mullahs and Cardinals (Tabsir)

Friday November 07 2008 
Exceeding expectations
John Hooper, Guardian CiF
It is hard to imagine a more promising context for talks between Muslims and Christians than a week in which Americans elected as their president a Christian with Muslim relatives who once attended a predominantly Muslim school. As three days of talks in and around the Vatican wound up last night, it looked as if the "Obama effect" had played its part in what the Islamic delegation at least regarded as a very fruitful exercise.

Creationism should be taught as science, say 29% of teachers
James Randerson, guardian.co.uk
Twenty-nine per cent of teachers believe that creationism and intelligent design should be taught as science, according to an online survey of attitudes to teaching evolution in the UK. Nearly 50% of the respondents said they believed that excluding alternatives to evolution was counter-productive and would alienate pupils from science. The survey, by the website and TV station Teachers TV, also found strong support for the views of Prof Michael Reiss...
[Creationism survey is not all it seems - James Randerson, Guardian CiF]

Catholic-Muslim Forum ends on upbeat note (Tom Heneghan, Faith World)
Is Pope Benedict’s Regensburg speech now history for Muslims? (Tom Heneghan, Faith World)
Did Muslim rumours, terrorism DVD actually help Obama? (Tom Heneghan, Faith World)
Will we ever see a British Obama? (Guardian)

Thursday November 06 2008 
Women lose out in race to be an MP
Andrew Grice
Being a woman is more of a barrier to becoming an MP than being black or Asian, according to a survey of the candidates being chosen to stand at the next election. The study suggests a crucial "tipping point" has been reached in the number of non-white candidates that the political parties are choosing. The conventional wisdom is that it would take 75 years for Parliament to reflect Britain's ethnic mix. There are 13 Labour and two Tory MPs who are black or Asian, but no Liberal Democrat MPs.

Muxlim Pal (Closer)
Offended about offence (Obsolete)
Black Muslim teen attacked by "Obama"-screaming thugs (Akram's Razor)
The high cost of three bullets: how to create martyrs (Islam, Muslims and an Anthropologist)
Media Workers Against the War conference (Islamophobia Watch)
'Political correctness' allows Muslims to control prison (Islamophobia Watch)
Overwhelming hope of a global turning point (Guardian)
No news is good news at Catholic-Muslim Forum (Tom Heneghan, Faith World)
Obama may have tricky relations with the Vatican (Tom Heneghan, Faith World)
A long way from Rome (John Battle, Guardian CiF)
Muslims & Obama - Will It Work? (MPACUK)
Obama and the Gay Bishop: 'Three Private Meetings' (Ruth Gledhill)

Wednesday November 05 2008 
Muslim and Vatican leaders hold talks to ease religious tensions
John Hooper, Guardian
Papal officials, Islamic leaders and scholars began a historic summit in the Vatican yesterday, aimed at laying the foundations for better understanding between Catholics and Muslims, and averting future crises in relations between the world's biggest religions. The three-day meeting is a direct outcome of the Muslim reaction to the Pope's controversial address in 2006 in which he appeared to link Islam with violence and irrationality.

New Bible highlights green message
McClatchy newspapers guardian.co.uk
Did you know that the Bible contains 1,000 references to the planet but only 490 references to heaven and 530 references to love? Could this mean God is the supreme tree-hugger? Publishers of the Green Bible seem to think so. The new Bible, which hit shelves this month, prints God's word on partly recycled paper in soy-based ink. It indexes all mentions of animals, land and water and highlights, in green ink, all verses of the New Revised Standard Version that speak to stewardship of the planet.

Plugging the knowledge gap
Yahya Birt, Guardian CiF (04/11)
This week, 48 Muslim and Catholic theologians meet in Rome, to find common ground between their two great faiths. The approach of the Common Word initiative is to find areas of shared belief – a love of God, love of one's neighbour – in order to generate the goodwill and mutual respect that might allow a practical working together to uphold human dignity. Common Word is the first large-scale Muslim interfaith initiative in modern times.

Obama achieves decisive win in US presidential election ( Ekklesia)
UK: New airline catering to Muslims (Islam in Europe)
Sweden: Muslim show stirs controversy (Islam in Europe)
George Bush - To Do The Right Thing? (Beau Bo D'Or)

Tuesday November 04 2008 
The legacy of Kristallnacht
Paul Oestreicher, Guardian G2
Berliners went wild that day, 19 years ago. The impossible had happened. The Wall had come down. It was November 9 1989. I wasn't there. But I was there on that same date in 1938, 70 years ago. Germans went wild on that day, too. They let loose an orgy of destruction. The synagogues were set ablaze. Jewish shops were smashed up and pillaged. Jewish men were rounded up, beaten up, some to death, many sent to concentration camps.

De Menezes police 'were out of control'
Tom Morgan, Independent
A commuter sitting on a Tube train near Jean Charles de Menezes when he was mistakenly shot dead by police said officers were "out of control". Anna Dunwoodie told the inquest into the death of the Brazilian electrician that she was "very, very clear" officers did not shout "armed police" before opening fire in July 2005. But she described scenes of panic among police, insisting she was "very, very clear" officers did not shout any warnings before shooting him dead.

The fun never stops on the Mail rollercoaster of hate (5CC)
Islamophonic: Preventing violent extremism (R Butt, Guardian)
Everybody's Doing It (Andrew Brown, Guardian Blogs)
Royal Mail puts secular stamp on Christmas (Josie Clarke, Independent)
Islamofascist slanders (Anne Karpf, Guardian)
Pakistan warns US general to stop attacks on its soil (Saeed Shah, The Guardian)
US Treasury submits to Shariah (islamophobia Watch)

Monday November 03 2008 
University tour promotes links between faiths
Anthea Lipsett, guardian.co.uk
A cross-party group of Jewish and Muslim MPs is beginning a tour of English university campuses today to promote better relations between students of different faiths. The Coexistence Trust tour will address identity and integration of Muslim and Jewish student communities in Britain. It aims to draw parallels between the two communities' experiences in British society. Led by Lady Sayeeda Warsi and Lord Parry Mitchell, the tour begins today at the London School of Economics.

Why do Home Secretaries turn into such monsters?
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Independent
After the defeat in the Lords over 42 days, my anxiety is that Jacqui Smith will push through other draconian laws to prove she is undefeated by namby-pamby, bleeding-heart softies. She already tried to push secret inquests under the command of a special appointee (not an independent coroner), keeping out family members and lawyers. That Stalinist idea went the way of 42 days. But it ain't over. ID cards are coming; Smith's "emergency bill" is worse than anything passed to contain IRA violence.

Recession will hit UK hardest, says EC
David Gow, guardian.co.uk
Britain will suffer a deeper recession than any other mature EU economy, with a contraction of 1% next year and only 0.4% growth in 2010, the European commission said today. The EC's latest half-yearly forecast predicts UK unemployment will rise from 5.3% in 2007 to 7.1% in 2009 — which would bring the number out of work to about 2.25 million. It expects the budget deficit to jump to 5.6% next year, which would be around £80bn, and 6.5%, or £94bn, in 2010.

Why I'm going to meet the Pope
Tariq Ramadan, Guardian CiF
Now that the shock waves touched off by Pope Benedict XVI's remarks at Regensburg on September 12 2006 have subsided, the overall consequences have proven more positive than negative. Above and beyond polemics, the Pope's lecture has heightened general awareness of their respective responsibilities among Christians and Muslims in the west. It matters little whether the Pope had simply mis-spoken or, as the highest-ranking authority of the Catholic church, was enunciating...

Homophobic GP banned for a year
BBC News Online
The head of the Islamic Medical Association (IMA) has been suspended from medical practice after sending an "offensive and homophobic" letter. Dr Muhammad Siddiq has been suspended for 12 months over the letter he sent to the GPs' magazine Pulse last July. He wrote gay people needed the "stick of law to put them on the right path", the General Medical Council was told. When confronted by Walsall Primary Care Trust, he apologised at first but later wrongly blamed his son, the GMC heard.

The dark side of Hindu nationalism? (A. Scrutton, Reuters)
Showcasing Palestinian cinema (Tabsir)
The odds on God (Ruth Gledhill)
London evicts congregation from church (Ruth Gledhill)
First pregnant 'Catholic' priest (Ruth Gledhill)
They've banned Christmas - it's PC Gorn Mad (5CC)
Progressive Jewish organization skewers "Obsession" (Akram's Razor)
Israel To Build Hate Museum On Sahabah's Graves! (MPACUK)
Bin Laden's video-maker gets life (BBC News Online)
'Delivering the west into dhimmitude' – Mad Mel loses what remains of her marbles (islamophobia Watch)

Sunday November 02 2008 
Caterer sues police over sausages
BBC News Online
A Muslim catering manager has accused the Metropolitan Police of religious discrimination as he was told he may have to handle sausages and bacon. Hasanali Khoja was told he would be expected to handle pork products at his new job at the Empress State Building in Earls Court, west London. His lawyer said Mr Khoja was excused from pork meat in his previous job at Hendon Police College in north London.

Black. Beautiful. Barely seen
Louise France, The Observe
It's been the biggest fashion story of the year and it's had nothing to do with harem pants, the coat versus the cape, or the alluring comeback of the brogue. An industry not known for its crises of confidence has been forced to ask itself some uncomfortable questions. Might there be something nearing apartheid inside the pages of the glossy magazines and on the runways of the international designer collections? Is fashion racist?

Christmas is axed in Oxford
Rowan Walker, The Observer
Council leaders in Oxford have decided to ban the word Christmas from this year's festive celebrations to make them more 'inclusive'. But the decision to rename the series of events the 'Winter Light Festival' has been criticised by religious leaders and locals said it was 'ludicrous'. Sabir Hussain Mirza, chairman of the Muslim Council of Oxford, said: 'This is the one occasion which everyone looks forward to in the year. Christians, Muslims and other religions all look forward to Christmas. I'm angry..."

Saudis build world's biggest women-only university (Riazat Butt, Guardian)
Dirty foreigners - come over here, purge foreign words from our language (5CC)
Alan Craig's call to CPO Abbey Mills mosque site rejected (Islamophobia Watch)

Saturday November 01 2008 
No charges but US may never release Guantánamo Chinese
Duncan Campbell and Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian
Seventeen Chinese prisoners who have been held for nearly seven years in Guantánamo Bay will be informed on Monday that they could spend the rest of their lives behind bars, even though they face no charges and have been told by a judge they should be freed. No country is willing to accept them and the US justice department has now blocked moves for them to be allowed to go to the US mainland, where they had been offered a home by refugee and Christian organisations.

Truth booth: Headscarfs and stares (Melek Yazici, Guardian Films)
Sarah Maple loves jihad: it makes money (Islam, Muslims and an Anthropologist)
Terrorism is based on Qur'an, convert to Catholicism tells pope (Islamophobia Watch)
Ross, Brand and Freedom of Speech (MPACUK)
Jewish school told to admit other faiths (Riazat Butt, Guardian)

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