Wednesday February 28 2007/11 Safar 1428 
How Muslim women adapted after riots
Suvojit Bagchi BBC News Online
Twenty three-year-old Firoza Sheikh has recently been elected to the local municipality in Saonli, a small town in the Godhra district of Gujarat. Though it is not uncommon for women to fight elections at every level in India, what is unusual is Ms Sheikh's background - she spent the first 18 years of her life in the confines of a conservative Muslim household. "I never did anything, just a brief nursing course," she says. But that was before the communal riots in Gujarat in 2002. After 59 Hindu pilgrims were killed when their train was allegedly attacked by a Muslim mob, Gujarat witnessed some of the worst communal riots since India's independence. At least a 1,000 people - mostly Muslims were killed in the riots.

Tuesday February 27 2007/10 Safar 1428 
Muslim cleric can be deported, says court
Philip Johnston and Joshua Rozenberg, Daily Telegraph
The Home Office won a key legal victory yesterday in a five-year battle to eject a suspected al-Qa'eda terrorist leader from Britain. A court ruled that Abu Qatada, a radical Muslim cleric described as Osama bin Laden's spiritual representative in Europe, can be deported to his homeland. Abu Qatada, a London-based imam, has been fighting Government efforts to remove him to Jordan since 2002, claiming he faces torture or death. His lawyers argued that under human rights laws, Britain was unable to deport him to a country where he could be ill-treated. But the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) said assurances received from Jordan about his treatment were enough to override human rights obstacles.

Reid wins key legal victory as judges say radical cleric may be deported, despite risk of assault
Alan Travis, The Guardian
The radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada yesterday lost a landmark legal fight in the government's drive to deport international terror suspects, when judges ruled that he faced "no real risk of persecution" if he was sent back to Jordan. The decision establishes the legal principle that foreign nationals may be deported on national security grounds on the basis of diplomatic "no torture, no ill-treatment" pledges secured in so-called memorandums of understanding' (MoU). The judges said the cleric's influence on many terrorist groups had been incalculable in providing them with the religious justification they sought for their suicide bombings and attacks. The ruling describes Mr Qatada as a significant international terrorist with extensive extremist contacts and as a "leading spiritual adviser". He has issued fatwas justifying suicide bombings and the killing of women and children.

Reid 'will lead anti-terror department'
George Jones, Daily Telegraph
Plans to split the Home Office and make John Reid, the Home Secretary, head of terrorism and security are being "actively considered" by Tony Blair. He is expected to give the go-ahead early next month for the radical shake-up of Mr Reid's department which would see him given control over security, policing and counter terrorism. Responsibilities for prisons and probation would go to the Department for Constitutional Affairs headed by Lord Falconer in what would be a Continental-style ministry of justice as his department is already responsible for the courts. Mr Reid has run into opposition within Whitehall. MI6, the secret intelligence service, is reportedly unhappy that it will report to Mr Reid and not Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary.

And check out:
Official politics in the west ignores public opinion at will (Tariq Ali, The Guardian)

Monday February 26 2007/09 Safar 1428 
Jail imams vetted by security services and Muslim books screened for code
Richard Ford, The Times
The security services are conducting background checks on imams who provide religious and pastoral care in jails. The vetting, part of the effort to prevent inmates from being radicalised, is in addition to the routine counter-terrorism checks conducted by the Prison Service and a further check by the Criminal Records Bureau. A growing number of imams are being appointed to work either full or part time at prisons in England and Wales. The checks are in response to concerns that prisons may be an ideal environment for al-Qaeda operatives to radicalise and recruit young people. Another measure aimed at countering extremism is that all imams working in jails must speak English. In addition, prison authorities are spending thousands of pounds translating all texts from Arabic to English to ensure that they do not contain hidden messages.

Faith: believers and non-believers
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian
The American journalist HL Mencken once wrote: "We must accept the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart." In Britain today, such wry tolerance is diminishing. Today, it's the religious on one side, and the secular on the other. Britain is dividing into intolerant camps who revel in expressing contempt for each other's most dearly held beliefs. "We are witnessing a social phenomenon that is about fundamentalism," says Colin Slee, the Dean of Southwark. "Atheists like the Richard Dawkins of this world are just as fundamentalist as the people setting off bombs on the tube..."

Religion isn’t the sickness. It’s the cure
William Rees-Mogg, The Times
Islam is, of course, the alarming religious issue that will not go away. In the 20th century the world failed to adjust to two major belief systems, nationalism and Marxism. Now we face a similar global challenge from Islam, which opposes Judaism in Israel, Hinduism in India, Buddhism in South East Asia, Christianity in Europe and America and modernism in the whole advanced world. We certainly cannot say that all religious influences are benign; al-Qaeda is a religious cult, but a perverted one. Religion turned William Wilberforce into a Protestant saint, but Wahhabism has turned Osama bin Laden into a devil. The rise of militant Islam in the 21st century is, however, part of a much broader phenomenon.

Cleric loses deportation appeal
BBC News Online
Radical Islamic cleric Abu Qatada has lost his appeal against a Home Office move to deport him to Jordan. Lawyers for the alleged key al-Qaeda figure had said he could face torture if sent home but the government regards him as a threat to national security. Qatada, held since 2002 under terrorism and immigration laws, has been convicted in his absence in Jordan of involvement with terror attacks. The case was heard by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac). A "memoranda of understanding" (MOU), signed between the UK Government and Jordan in 2005, aims to guarantee that anyone deported to the country would not face torture or ill-treatment. Critics claimed the MOU was meaningless but a lawyer for the home secretary, Ian Burnett QC, said it would be "extraordinary" if Jordan did not comply with its diplomatic assurances.

Muslim focus for British Council
BBC News Online
The British Council, which promotes British culture and education overseas, is cutting its budget for Europe to shift its focus to Muslim countries. The Council says it plans to close offices, libraries and information centres on the continent. It will then spent up to £20m on a three-year programme to strengthen links with the Islamic world. The Council's director general designate said the move was vital to bridge a "widening gap of trust". Martin Davidson insisted it was time to tackle the "new challenges the world faces" by forging new relationships with the Middle East and Asia. Overall, funding for European countries will be slashed by 30% over the next two years. Instead, money will be devoted to spreading British values in Islamic countries and in particular to fund projects that steer young Muslims away from extremism.

And check out:
Truth Trickles Out: The Gujarat Pogrom Five Years Later (Alt.Muslim)
NSS condemns the never-ending demands of Muslim theocrats (Islamophobia Watch)
Nation of Islam at a Crossroad as Leader Exits (New York Times)

Sunday February 25 2007/08 Safar 1428 
Race special: Racism in Britain 2007
William Leith, Independent on Sunday
I'm about to take a racism test, and it's making me uncomfortable. Why? I'm not a racist. For the record, I am an anti-racist. If you asked me, I would say that, while the races may look different, they are equal. I would say that racism, the theory that one race is superior to another, is fallacious. Also, it does nothing but harm. It harms the victim, and it also harms the perpetrator. There is no sense in it. It is, quite literally, nonsense. Oh, I know about racism. I know that, in both senses of the word, it's wrong. Wrong morally, and wrong factually. I don't know anybody who doesn't know this. And yet, as an idea, it persists. Something, somewhere, gives it power.

Met tried to 'take out' black officers
Tom Harper, Sunday Telegraph
A senior Muslim policeman is to accuse several high-ranking officers at Scotland Yard of trying to "take out" members of the National Black Police Association (NBPA), in a book to be published next month. It is understood that Ch Supt Ali Dizaei will claim that certain colleagues in the Metropolitan Police Force oversaw efforts to use an internal inquiry into claims that he had used drugs, visited prostitutes and taken bribes to incriminate his fellow members of the NBPA, a body established to protect the rights of black and Asian officers. The book will suggest that some of the Met's senior officers had been angered by NBPA claims that they had failed to embrace the recommendations of the Macpherson Report into the botched investigation of the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence.

Church to relax its marriage laws
Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Sunday Telegraph
Divorcees wanting to remarry in church will be given much greater freedom under new ecclesiastical legislation. The Church of England is planning to relax the law on where couples can get married and it is expected to also allow divorcees, who previously struggled to remarry in church, to "shop around" to find a more liberal priest. The church agreed last year the law should be changed to allow people to get married in the church of their choice providing they can prove some connection with it. Previously couples have only been allowed to use their parish church or one where they worship regularly unless they apply for a special licence - a long and costly process. The General Synod is set to enshrine the change in church law at its meeting this week.

Secret report: Terror threat worst since 9/11
Sean Rayment, Sunday Telegraph
The terrorist threat facing Britain from home-grown al-Qaeda agents is higher than at any time since the September 11 attacks in 2001, secret intelligence documents reveal. The number of British-based Islamic terrorists plotting suicide attacks against "soft" targets in this country is far greater than the Security Services had previously believed, the government paperwork discloses. It is thought the plotters could number more than 2,000. Under the heading "International Terrorism in the UK", the document - seen by The Sunday Telegraph - states: "The scale of al-Qaeda's ambitions towards attacking the UK and the number of UK extremists prepared to participate in attacks are even greater than we had previously judged."

And check out:
BBC2: The Retreat (Indigo Jo blog)

Saturday February 24 2007/07 Safar 1428 
Racist gets life for shooting three strangers
Russel Jackson, The Scotsman
A RACIST gunman who wounded three strangers in a "pavement rage" shooting spree after vowing to "kill all black people", was given five life sentences yesterday. BNP supporter John Laidlaw, 24, was told he must serve at least 15 years after being convicted of three attempted murders and two charges of possessing a firearm. The former amateur boxer, who was described as "foaming at the mouth" after being arrested for a racially aggravated assault on a motorist five months earlier, opened fire on two black men in less than an hour in London in May last year. One, Abu Kamara, 44, a social worker, was left fighting for his life after being shot in the neck in a busy street, and a young white woman, 26-year-old Emma Sheridan, was hit in the crossfire when he tried to murder Evans Baptiste at a Tube station as terrified commuters cowered for cover.

Britain supports call for ban on cluster bombs
Ian Black, The Guardian
Britain has signed up to a new arms control declaration calling for an international ban on cluster bombs to protect civilians, despite having used the weapon in conflicts in Kosovo and Iraq and still stockpiling so-called "smart" versions of the munition. Its position, praised by humanitarian groups, puts it at odds with the US, Russia, China and Israel, which did not attend the Oslo conference where the declaration was agreed by 46 countries yesterday. But the Foreign Office strongly denied Britain had changed tack or would now back a blanket ban, saying the move would "complement" parallel UN-organised disarmament efforts in Geneva. Cluster bomblets are some of the deadliest of modern weapons, taking a huge toll on civilians.

First among equals
Nigel Willmott, The Guardian
William Wilberforce probably had more influence than anyone else in this place on the course of human history, Melvyn Bragg intoned reverentially from Westminster Abbey in a special radio broadcast this week marking 200 years since the abolition of the slave trade. It's a dubious claim, given that the mortal remains of Newton and Darwin are slowly evolving into dust nearby, but it may have some literal truth. Those who might challenge Wilberforce's claim to be The Man Who Abolished Slavery are not, and could not, be buried in the abbey, given that a large number were nonconformists, particularly Quakers. Of course Wilberforce, as the spokesman of the anti-slavery movement in parliament and promoter of several bills to outlaw it, played a key role, but to indulge in this canonisation of one man is a travesty of history.

Friday February 23 2007/06 Safar 1428 
Babies seized after Jehovah’s Witness mother refuses blood for sextuplets
Catherine Philp, The Times
The birth of Canada’s first sextuplets should have been cause for celebration. But their struggle for life has provoked a ferocious battle pitching Church against State and a child’s right to life against parents’ rights to practise their faith. When the four boys and two girls were born nearly three months prematurely in early January, they were hailed as a miracle. The mother, on being told that she was carrying multiple foetuses, had been offered “selective reduction”, a procedure to remove several foetuses to help to ensure the survival of the others. She refused. At birth, the babies weighed less than two pounds (1kg) each, and measured less than an outstretched adult hand. They were put into incubators but within a week two had died.

Pilot held over 9/11 fails in compensation fight
Karen McVeigh, The Guardian
The pilot who was falsely accused of training the September 11 hijackers yesterday lost his high court battle for compensation after judges ruled that his five months in a top security jail did not qualify him for payment. Lotfi Raissi, 32, an Algerian, was detained for nearly five months at Belmarsh prison after being arrested at his home in Berkshire 10 days after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. The first person to be accused of participating in the attacks, he was told he would be charged with conspiracy to murder and could face the death penalty in the US. A judge dismissed his case in April 2002, pointing out that there was "no evidence at all" to support the allegation that he had been involved in terrorism. Since his release, Mr Raissi has sought compensation and an apology for wrongful arrest and imprisonment.

Egyptian blogger jailed for four years for insulting Islam
Ian Black, The Guardian
In a landmark case for freedom of expression in Egypt, a young blogger has been jailed for insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak, drawing angry condemnation at home and abroad. Abdel-Karim Nabil Suleiman, 22, a former law student at Cairo's Al-Azhar University, was sentenced to four years in prison by a court in Alexandria yesterday after being arrested last November over eight articles he posted on his blog. Suleiman was expelled from Al-Azhar for criticising the curriculum and attacking religious extremism. At the university's urging he was then charged with spreading information disruptive of public order, incitement to hate Muslims and insulting the president.

Nobel winner starts political party to tackle corruption in Bangladesh
Randeep Ramesh, The Guardian
Muhammad Yunus - last year's Nobel peace prize winner known as the "banker to the poor" - launched his political career last night with a new party and a pledge to end the bitter infighting and corruption that has riddled Bangladesh. "Today I formally announce my party Nagarik Shakti [Citizens' Power]," Mr Yunus told reporters. "I can't keep myself away from politics. It's high time to do something." Earlier in an open letter, Mr Yunus sought the support of Bangladeshis to launch the new party, whose slogan is "Bangladesh go forward". The microcredit pioneer, whose work began by lending tiny amounts to the world's neediest people three decades ago, is a political novice.

Obituary: Mai Ghoussoub
Malu Halasa, The Guardian
A tour de force in Arab literature and letters, Mai Ghoussoub, who has died at the age of 54, was a publisher, author and artist. The controversial titles she published for Saqi Books, the company she founded 28 years ago with her childhood friend André Gaspard, and her critical essays on aesthetics, sexism, censorship and war - as well as her striking art performances - embody a vibrancy often associated with her native Beirut, a city and intellectual scene now eclipsed by the increasing Islamisation of a fractured Middle East. Ghoussoub was born into a Lebanon where, as she wrote, the doctor apologised to her Christian Arab father, a professional footballer, for delivering a girl to a family with no male heirs. She attended the secular French lycée in Beirut, with children of all religious persuasions. To please her parents she studied mathematics at the American University of Beirut, at the same time taking a degree in literature at the Lebanese University.

And check out:
Bunch of foreigners tell us how to run our schools (Rolled Up Trousers)
Rebuttal to Daily Spew and response to Harry's Place (Indigo Jo)
Islamic Artisans Constructed Exotic Nonrepeating Pattern 500 Years Before Mathematicians (Scientific American)

Wednesday February 21 2007/04 Safar 1428 
Muslim pupil loses veil challenge
Press Association, EducationGuardian.co.uk
A 12-year-old Muslim girl today lost her high court challenge to her school's ban on wearing the niqab full-face veil. Lawyers for the girl and her father had argued that the ban was "irrational" and a breach of her human rights, but Mr Justice Silber rejected their plea for a judicial review. The girl's lawyers said after the judgment that she and her family were "bitterly disappointed" and were considering an appeal. Although the judge refused the girl permission to appeal, her lawyers can still apply to the court of appeal for leave. The judge was told at a recent hearing that the girl's three elder sisters all attended the same school - two of them under the present headteacher - and all wore the niqab.

Life for racist gang who killed Asian taxi driver
Martin Wainwright, The Guardian
Four members of a gang of racists who stoned and stamped to death a British Asian taxi driver after luring him into a dead-end on a false call were jailed for life yesterday. The teenagers, some only recently out of school at the time of the calculated attack on father-of-three Mohammad Parvaiz, were given long minimum terms by Judge Dame Heather Steel, who called the crime "savage beyond belief". Jailing Christopher Murphy and Michael Hand, both 19, Graeme Slavin, 18, and Steven Utley, 17, she told Leeds crown court that the Huddersfield gang had been merciless to their 41-year-old victim.

Schools accused of failing Muslims
Richard Holt and agencies, Daily Telegraph
Islamic leaders have accused state schools of failing to accommodate the wishes of Muslim children. The Muslim Council of Britain criticised state schools for not organising sex education, changing rooms and assemblies to suit the Islamic sensibilities. They urged head teachers to build prayer rooms and individual changing cubicles and avoid scheduling exams during Ramadan, when many pupils are fasting. The MCB said schools were not taking account of "legitimate and reasonable requests" from parents and pupils. But the country's biggest heads' union warned that a long list of demands risked sparking a "backlash".

Muslim manifesto calls for headscarves in state schools
Richard Garner, The Independent
Schools will be urged today to allow Muslim girls to wear headscarves for all lessons to promote better integration of Muslim pupils into the state sector. The call comes in a detailed 72-page document compiled by the Muslim Council of Britain in an attempt to bridge the cultural gap with other pupils in state schools. The document, to be launched this evening, covers topics from dress codes to halal meat and collective worship. It says schools should allow girls to wear the hijab - headscarf - and full-length skirts leaving only their hands and face uncovered. However, it stops short of endorsing the niqab, which covers the whole face - while reminding schools that Department for Education advice says no pupil should be disciplined for wearing clothes that adhere to a cultural or religious dress code. Pupils growing a beard should also be respected.

Father killed family for being too western
Nigel Bunyan, Daily Telegraph
A  father killed his wife and four daughters in their sleep because he could not bear them adopting a more westernised lifestyle, an inquest heard yesterday. Mohammed Riaz, 49, found it abhorrent that his eldest daughter wanted to be a fashion designer, and that she and her sisters were likely to reject the Muslim tradition of arranged marriages. On Halloween last year he sprayed petrol throughout their terraced home in Accrington, Lancs, and set it alight. Caneze Riaz, 39, woke and tried to protect her three-year-old child, Hannah, who was sleeping with her, but was overcome by fumes. Her other daughters, Sayrah, 16, Sophia, 13, and Alisha, 10, died elsewhere in the house. Riaz, who had spent the evening drinking, set himself on fire and died two days later.

Veils block integration in UK, warns Lord Ahmed
Ian Herbert, The Independent
The senior Muslim peer, Lord Ahmed of Rotherham, has condemned the wearing of the veil in Britain as "a barrier to integration" and called for an end to their use. Lord Ahmed told the Yorkshire Post that the veil was a "mark of separation, segregation and defiance against mainstream British culture". He said: "There is nothing in the Koran to say that the wearing of a niqab is desirable, let alone compulsory. It's purely cultural. It's an identity thing which has been misinterpreted. "They were supposed to be worn so that women wouldn't be harassed. But my argument is that women, and communities as a whole, are now being harassed because they are wearing them. They are a physical barrier to integration." Lord Ahmed, Britain's first Muslim peer, also expressed his views during a debate in Doha, Qatar, in which he backed the motion: "This House believes the face veil is a barrier to integration in the West".

And check out:
Charles and Camilla tour mosque (BBC News Online)
BBC and John Simpson are racist, say ANC (Daily Telegraph)
Mosques could outnumber churches, right-wing evangelical Christian warns (Islamophobia Watch)
MCB advocates 'Taliban-style conditions' in state schools, claims Express (Islamophobia Watch)
More bullshit from the Express (Five Chinese Crackers)

Tuesday February 20 2007/03 Safar 1428 
The moment of decision: shoot a man in the back of the head - or risk being blown apart
Sean O'Neill, The Times
One of the alleged 21/7 bombers was moments away from being shot in the head when armed police stormed his hide-out, a court was told yesterday. A policeman identified as PC 7512 said that the barrel of his sub-machine gun was pointed at the back of Yassin Omar’s neck and that he had released the safety catch and his finger was on the trigger. He was convinced that the rucksack on Mr Omar’s back contained a bomb. “To this day I still don’t know how I didn’t shoot him,” he said. Mr Omar, one of the men charged with the failed terrorist attack on July 21, 2005, was found in Birmingham six days after he allegedly fled London disguised in a burka.

West and Islam not at odds, most believe
Ian Black, The Guardian
Fears of a "clash of civilisations" between the west and Islam may be exaggerated, according to a global survey that shows a majority of people see positive links between cultures and believe that politics rather than religion is the primary cause of international disputes. A Globescan poll of 28,000 people in 27 countries for the BBC World Service found the most common view to be that tensions between Muslims and the west arise from "conflicts about political power and interests" - endorsed by 52%. Three in 10 (29%) blamed "differences of religion and culture". Asked if violent conflict was inevitable between Muslim and western cultures or whether it was possible to find common ground, an average of 56% believed the latter - the most common response in 25 countries. Some 28% thought violent conflict was inevitable.

'Politics causes divide between Islam and West'
By Damien McElroy, Daily Telegraph
The sharp division in the attitudes of Muslim and non-Muslim nations was laid bare by new research published yesterday. An international survey conducted for the BBC World Service also indicated that a global majority believes tensions between the West and Islam are rooted in politics rather than religion. A majority of respondents in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, stated that a clash of civilisations with Islam was inevitable, while India, the country with the biggest Islamic minority, returned the lowest support for peaceful co-existence. Respondents in America - a country hated by extremists who consider it the leading oppressor of Muslims - were among the most tolerant and hopeful of the nationals polled.

Muslim father can't forgive runaway bride
Daily Telegraph
A teenage Muslim who left her family in Britain to marry an Indian Hindu she met online said yesterday that her father was still refusing to speak to her even though she asked for his forgiveness. Subia Gaur, 18, caused an international stir when she married Ashwani Gupta, 21, in a ceremony near Delhi last year despite the disapproval of her parents. Such was the interest in the "Romeo and Juliet" tale that the wedding was broadcast on Indian television. Mrs Gupta, who is visiting her family in Plaistow, east London, said she was now "praying" for her father to forgive her."My mother has been fine with me, but my father will not talk to me," she told the Evening Standard." I have told him how sorry I am and I am prepared to repent, but he will not listen." Mr Gupta has now converted to Islam and changed his name to Sohail.

9/11 fantasists pose a mortal danger to popular oppositional campaigns
George Monbiot, The Guardian
'You did this hit piece because your corporate masters instructed you to. You are a controlled asset of the new world order ... bought and paid for." "Everyone has some skeleton in the cupboard. How else would MI5 and special branch recruit agents?" "Shill, traitor, sleeper", "leftwing gatekeeper", "accessory after the fact", "political whore of the biggest conspiracy of them all". These are a few of the measured responses to my article, a fortnight ago, about the film Loose Change, which maintains that the United States government destroyed the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. Having spent years building up my leftwing credibility on behalf of my paymasters in MI5, I've blown it. I overplayed my hand, and have been exposed, like Bush and Cheney, by a bunch of kids with laptops. My handlers are furious.

Monday February 19 2007/02 Safar 1428 
Anglican Church on verge of schism
Jonathan Petre, Daily Telegraph
The worldwide Anglican Church was battling to survive last night after talks broke down amid acrimony during the final stages of the primates' meeting in Tanzania. A group of leading conservatives may issue a minority statement today separating themselves from the rest of the Church if they do not win significant concessions. Such a development would be a disaster for the Communion, and it would be difficult to see how the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, could prevent it becoming a schism. But a breakthrough might still be achieved if the primates can devise a compromise that they believe will protect conservatives in America who have rejected the leadership of their liberal Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori.

Churches back plan to unite under Pope
Ruth Gledhill, The Times
Radical proposals to reunite Anglicans with the Roman Catholic Church under the leadership of the Pope are to be published this year, The Times has learnt. The proposals have been agreed by senior bishops of both churches. In a 42-page statement prepared by an international commission of both churches, Anglicans and Roman Catholics are urged to explore how they might reunite under the Pope. The statement, leaked to The Times, is being considered by the Vatican, where Catholic bishops are preparing a formal response. It comes as the archbishops who lead the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion meet in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in an attempt to avoid schism over gay ordination and other liberal doctrines that have taken hold in parts of the Western Church.

BNP case may aid reporting of allegations against politicians
Clare Dyer, The Guardian
A libel case between two members of the British National party and the anti-racist magazine Searchlight, which goes to the court of appeal this week, could make it easier for the media to report unverified allegations of misconduct against politicians without ending up in court. The BNP members, brothers Christopher and Barry Roberts, are appealing against a high court ruling last May that the magazine's report of a feud between party factions amounted to "reportage" on a matter of public interest. Mr Justice Eady ruled that the report was protected by "qualified privilege". This means that even if the allegations are untrue, the publishers cannot be held liable unless they were acting with malice - knowing they were untrue or reckless as to whether they were true or not.

Wizards and diviners abound in Britain, says psychic survey
Martin Wainwright, The Guardian
Britain's image as the home of sensible and practical types takes a knock today, with the publication of data showing just how many of us think we are wizards, time-travellers or able to divine water. Norse and Celtic influences moving down the centuries have led almost 10% of people in some areas to believe they can teleport their neighbours as well as read minds, crystal balls and tarot cards. The scale of a return to an island of ley lines and Merlin comes to light in a survey of psychic organisations backed by polling and research into cases of supposed witches, enchanters and close encounters of the third kind that have made the media, scientific and alternative journals in the past 100 years.

And check out:
U.N. Anti-Racism Panel Questions Racist State of Israel (MPACUK)

Sunday February 18 2007/01 Safar 1428 
Tories face race claim from former candidate
Melissa Kite, Sunday Telegraph
A former Tory candidate has launched a race discrimination claim against the Conservative Party. Haroon Rashid, who fought the target seat of Bradford West in the 2005 general election, is suing the party for damages after he was barred from standing again and stripped of his membership. The businessman is claiming he experienced "months of discrimination and victimisation", but the party strenuously denies the claims. According to papers lodged with the Central London County Court, Mr Rashid is being represented by a leading barrister from Matrix - Cherie Blair's chambers - in his discrimination claim.

British Library to display rare sacred scrolls for first time
Marie Woolf, Independent on Sunday
The rarest and most elaborate collection of religious manuscripts in the world, including one of the earliest Korans and a Torah from a lost community of Chinese Jews, is to be displayed at the British Library in a unique exhibition on the great religions. Sacred texts from Christianity, Judaism and Islam are to be displayed side by side in an exhibition showing what the three great faiths have in common. The exhibition includes one of the earliest surviving Korans, completed in the Arabian peninsula 160 years after the death of the Prophet Mohamed (aws), and an elaborate book of fatwas. Blasphemous and esoteric documents will also be on show.

Christians say Hirst exploiting religion to create sensation
Martin Hodgson, Independent on Sunday
Christians have accused the artist Damien Hirst of exploiting religious imagery for the sake of controversy in a new exhibition, to be displayed in a working Anglican church. The exhibition features graphic photographs inspired by the wounds of Christ, a crucifix encrusted with pills and a silver heart impaled with needles and razor blades. Many of the show's works appear to pit the spiritual against the pharmaceutical: one sculpture entitled The Eucharist takes the form of an outsized marble Paracetamol tablet. According to Mr Hirst, the works explore the tensions between religion and science. "People tend to think of them as two very separate things, one cold and clinical, the other emotional and warm and loving. I wanted to leap over those boundaries."

Supermosque for 70,000 'will be blocked'
Ben Leapman and Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Sunday Telegraph
Controversial plans to build a "supermosque" on the doorstep of the London Olympics will be blocked by the Government. Ruth Kelly's Whitehall department is expected to refuse planning permission for the London Markaz, which would be the biggest religious building in Britain with room for 70,000 worshippers. Backers want the £300 million mosque, in east London, to serve as a reception centre for athletes and fans from Islamic countries during the 2012 games. The group behind the plans is Tablighi Jamaat, a Muslim missionary sect whose charitable trust, Anjuman-e-Islahul Muslimeen, has owned the 18-acre site since 1996. Tablighi Jamaat was called "an ante-chamber for fundamentalism" by French security services.

And check out:
Police investigate death of Jewish baby who fell ill after circumcision (Mail on Sunday)

Saturday February 17 2007/29 Muharram 1428 
Honoured at 80: the race activist who stood by Mandela
Andy Smith, The Independent
There were two separate public galleries in the old Synagogue courtroom in Pretoria when Nelson Mandela was on trial for his life 43 years ago - one for whites, one for blacks. On some days, the "whites only" gallery was empty, except for one brave woman. Mandela would turn to her to her as he entered the dock, and they would exchange clenched fist salutes. She was Adelaine Hain, whose 80th birthday yesterday was celebrated at South Africa House in Trafalgar Square. She is now less well known than her son, Peter, who is vying to be the next deputy leader of the Labour Party, but she is not forgotten by veterans of the battle against apartheid.

Friday February 16 2007/28 Muharram 1428 
Muslim fanatic works on trains
The Investigator, The Sun
A MUSLIM fanatic who dressed as a suicide bomber at a rally threatening terror attacks has got a job on TRAINS. Sick Omar Khayam cleans carriages unsupervised for rail giant First Group. And he has even got keys to onboard electrical cupboards. Furious train drivers last night claimed the safety of staff and passengers is being put at risk. One driver added: “It’s an astonishing security breach. “We cannot believe this man is employed in a job giving him access to locked places on trains where bombs could be hidden and never be found. “He has keys that could be passed on to others for the electrical cupboards in carriages. It is a risk too far.”

Islamic cell is accused of 191 Madrid murders
Daily Mail
A radical Islamic cell has been accused of carrying out al Qaeda's most deadly attack in Europe by planting bombs on rush-hour commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people and injuring more than 1,800. Twenty-nine people went on trial amid high security in the Spanish capital almost three years after the devastating blasts on 11 March 2004. The gang's method of setting off bombs by remote control with mobile phones was said to have been copied in the 7/7 attacks in London. Twenty Arab men, mostly Moroccans, are charged with providing drugs to pay for explosives, helping suspects escape and preparing the bombs that blew apart four trains. Nine Spaniards, including one woman, are charged with supplying and delivering explosives to the bombers.

Anglican leaders avoid church split over homosexuals
Stephen Bates, The Guardian
The primates of the worldwide Anglican communion appeared last night to have stepped back from moves to exclude the US Episcopal church over its liberal position towards gay people. A report by a group headed by Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, given to the churches' archbishops and presiding bishops at their biannual meeting in Tanzania yesterday said the Americans had largely done everything required of them in reining back on consecrating gay bishops and expressing their regret for straining relations. The Rev Colin Coward, a gay English Anglican who was lobbying the meeting on behalf of the pressure group Changing Attitude, said: "We are very pleased and delighted.."

And check out:
Circumcision is Biblical rite of passage (Daily Telegraph)
Primates consider 'parallel' Church  (Daily Telegraph)
Huge influx of migrants 'could make Catholicism main religion in Britain' (Daily Mail)
Tory doormats (Rolled Up Trousers)

Thursday February 15 2007/27 Muharram 1428 
Catholics set to pass Anglicans as leading UK church
Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
Roman Catholicism is set to become the dominant religion in Britain for the first time since the Reformation because of massive migration from Catholic countries across the world. Catholic parishes will swell by hundreds of thousands over the next few years after managing years of decline, according to a new report, as both legal and illegal migrants enter the country. It says that the influx of migrants could be the Catholic community’s “greatest threat” or its “greatest opportunity”. While in some places the Catholic Church has responded positively, in others it has been “overwhelmed” by the scale of the challenge.

This scapegoating is rolling back the gains of anti-racism
Martin Jacques, The Guardian
Predictably enough, the action of the police in last year's Forest Gate raid has been excused with the mildest of rebukes. Out of more than 150 complaints, only a tiny number were upheld. The whole operation, you will recall, was a figment of the security services' imagination. A fortnight ago, there was another spectacular anti-terrorist operation, this time in Birmingham, concerning an alleged plot to kidnap a Muslim member of the armed forces. The pattern of these operations is now well established. The police swoop on an area, make dozens of arrests, accompanied by lurid media reports about the would-be plotters' intentions. There have now been charges, although an innocent party who was arrested and then released has given a disturbing account of his experience in custody.

Euro MPs condemn UK over rendition flight 'collusion'
Daily Mail
Euro MPs today joined condemnation of the UK and other European governments accused of colluding in secret CIA operations in the wake of the terrorist attacks on America on September 11 2001. A report approved in Strasbourg after a year-long inquiry says more than 1,000 covert flights operated by the CIA have flown into European airspace or stopped over at European airports since then. The so-called "extraordinary rendition" flights have been taking alleged terrorists all over the world for interrogation - including to countries not bound by any human rights code in the treatment of suspects. The UK Government is singled out for co-operating with the CIA in sending three UK residents on rendition fights for questioning in connection with alleged terrorism.

And check out:
'The race is on' – to demonise mainstream Muslim organisations (Islamophobia Watch)

Wednesday February 14 2007/26 Muharram 1428 
Opera expert says Puccini's Butterfly is 'racist'
Amy Iggulden, Daily Telegraph
One of the world's most popular operas opens in Covent Garden today amid fresh claims of racism, colonial misadventure and outmoded, "sordid" morals. Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly, the tale of an American naval lieutenant who takes and discards a young Japanese wife, has become accustomed to political criticism. But yesterday's attack, from a renowned opera scholar intending to cause mischief, stirred the soul of opera fans across the country. Professor Roger Parker, a teacher of music at King's College London and a Puccini specialist, suggested that opera audiences could be unwitting participants in racism because of the stereotypes Madama Butterfly contains.

'We can't keep saying sorry for Forest Gate', say police
Daily Mail
Scotland Yard refused to publicly apologise to two brothers arrested over claims that a chemical bomb was stored at their home. Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, and Abul Koyair, 21, were held during an anti-terrorist raid on their home in Forest Gate, East London. But no device was found and the scale of the raid in June last year further damaged relations between police and sections of the Muslim community. A report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission largely cleared police of blame despite their 'very aggressive tactics' and upheld only two of 153 complaints. These related to the lack of painkillers provided to Mr Kahar to ease his pain after he was shot by police in the raid, along with the standard of food served to the brothers while in custody.

Former BNP candidate wanted to shoot prime minister, court hears
Matthew Taylor, The Guardian
A former British National party candidate who believed the country was teetering on the brink of civil war built up a stockpile of chemical explosives and weapons and told his wife that he wanted to shoot the prime minister, a court heard yesterday. Robert Cottage, 49, had become increasingly radical since joining the far right party four years ago and was preparing for the political and financial crisis that he believed would engulf the country. Manchester crown court heard that between January and September last year he and another BNP supporter, David Jackson, bought a large number of chemicals over the internet which if mixed correctly could create a powerful bomb.

Minority report
Patrick Barkham, Guardian G2
It is not Livia Jaroka's youth or talent that mark her out in the beige corridors of the European parliament, but her skin. Jaroka, a centre-right MEP for Hungary, was nominated for a parliamentary award for her conscientious work last year. The response? A Bulgarian objected, arguing that she did not deserve it. "In my country, there are tens of thousands of Gypsy girls way more beautiful," Dimitar Stoyanov wrote in an email to MEPs. "In fact, if you're in the right place at the right time you even can buy one (around 12-13 years old) to be your loving wife. The best of them are very expensive - up to €5,000 a piece, wow!"

And check out:
Met urged to apologise over Forest Gate raid (The Independent)
Britain's children: unhappy, neglected and poorly educated (The Independent)
Islam Channel drop Ridley (iWitness)

Tuesday February 13 2007/25 Muharram 1428 
Swim centre bars two-year-old girl because she isn't Muslim
Daily Mail
When Lee Williams saw a parent-and-toddler session advertised at his local pool, he thought it was the perfect chance to teach his young daughter to swim. Arriving at the leisure centre already in her swimming costume, two-year-old Darby was desperate to get into the water. But she was left in tears when staff said they were not allowed in the pool because the session was for Muslim women and their children only. Mr Williams, 34, bitterly criticised Manchester City Council yesterday after it admitted that advertising for the session, on its website and on leaflets, had been misleading. 'I can understand why Muslim women need to have this kind of session, but the council should not be advertising it as parent and toddler,' he said.

How Policy Exchange twists the facts
Marie Breen Smyth and Jeroen Gunning, Blink
Right-Wing Policy Exchange, who dominated the headlines with their study on Muslim radicalisation, are typical of a new breed of think-tank who twist research to fit a political agenda. As political parties set out their stalls of new ideas in preparation for a general election, the increasing influence of privately funded research on political discussion will demand closer scrutiny. Private thinktanks are increasingly shaping national debates in the media, something made possible through the private funds required for high-profile launches, websites and email campaigns. A striking example of this symbiotic relationship is Policy Exchange's report Living Apart Together, on Muslim social attitudes, which is officially launched today.

'Learn English or lose benefits'
George Jones, Daily Telegraph
Unemployed immigrants will have to show they are learning English or risk losing benefits from April, Jim Murphy, the welfare minister, announced yesterday. About 40,000 jobless people from ethnic minorities say their poor English is a barrier to finding employment – and £4.5m is spent on translators in job centres. The Government believes that this money would be better spent on teaching them English so they could get jobs rather than claim benefit. Mr Murphy told a Work Foundation seminar that it was "unacceptable" that ethnic minorities in Britain earned on average a third less than their white counterparts.

Home Office says sorry for memo on race killings
Daily Mail
The Home Office has apologised over an internal memo which described race hate killings as "low impact" crimes. The leaked document, sent to probation staff, says the racist murders of Stephen Lawrence in Eltham and of Feltham Young Offender Institution inmate Zahid Mubarek, were less harmful to the department's reputation than policy reversals or other blunders. It says the most serious "high impact events", which should be reported immediately to ministers, include the release of foreign prisoners or of inmates who subsequently go on to kill. By contrast, it says, insufficient protection for vulnerable individuals — such as the two dead teenagers — should be classed as only a "low impact" event which has less potential to embarrass ministers.

Kenya frees Britons held on suspicion of fighting in Somalia
Lee Glendinning, The Guardian
Four Britons who were seized in Kenya on suspicion of fighting alongside an Islamist militia in Somalia are to return home after being handed to British authorities, the Foreign Office said last night. The men, who were detained on the Somali border on January 20 after escaping from Ethiopian troops, were deported to Somalia on February 10. The Foreign Office said last night they had been flown to Kenya's capital, Nairobi, and officials were facilitating their return to the UK. "These four men are in Nairobi in the care of UK officials," the spokesman said. "The consul has been to see the men, they are in good physical condition and the high commission is facilitating their return to the UK."

Musharraf confronts militants in standoff over religious school
Declan Walsh, The Guardian
A children's library in Pakistan's capital Islamabad has become the frontline of a tense standoff between President Pervez Musharraf's government and Islamist extremists. Scores of burka-clad female students are occupying the public library in protest at plans to demolish Jamia Hafsa, a religious school that houses 7,000 students but was illegally built on public land. The protesters, aged between seven and 30, have threatened to violently resist any police operation to end their sit-in; some have threatened to become suicide bombers. Yesterday the library was closed to the media but a white flag with a pair of crossed swords fluttered from the roof.

And check out:
Report: British police justified in 'aggressive' raid, but should apologize (CSM)
Beheading videos ‘kept at homes of 21/7 bomb plotters’ (The Times)
Street-Porter cleared of racist abuse allegation (The Independent)

Monday February 12 2007/24 Muharram 1428 
Unemployed 'must learn English'
BBC News Online
Unemployed people who cannot speak English will have to show they are learning the language or face losing their benefits, under government plans. About 40,000 jobless people say their poor English is a barrier to them finding employment - and £4.5m is spent on translators in job centres. Ministers say this money would be better spent on teaching them English. Welfare minister Jim Murphy will announce the measures, to come into effect in April, in a speech in London. Ethnic minorities workers earn on average one-third less than other people. The government says that is unacceptable, and believes that bridging the language gap is a step towards redressing the balance.

The Death Of "Progressive Islam"
Ali Eteraz, Alt.Muslim
In 2004, a Progressive Muslim movement swept into mainstream North American press and claimed to stand up for the "moderate majority" of Muslims. Yet, less than three years later the same "moderate majority" has almost completely sidelined the Progressive Muslim community. Even those who previously identified themselves as Progressive Muslims do not now wish to be so affiliated. The flagship organization of the movement Progressive Muslim Union of North America has lost almost 90% of its board members. MuslimWakeUp!, the primary organ of the movement, is neither frequented nor active, often going weeks without publishing new content.

Will The Police Arrest The Terror Supporting Radical Extremist?
MPACUK
London Mayor Ken Livingstone attacked the Daily Mail newspaper on Sunday after a columnist appeared to endorse letter bombing offices connected with the congestion charge. Populist ranter Richard Littlejohn wrote in Friday's edition of the newspaper: "Be honest, until you heard that a woman had been injured, how many of you suppressed a cheer at the news that someone had sent a letter bomb to the company which runs London's congestion charge? "Even after we learnt that two men were treated for blast injuries, I'll bet that there were still plenty of motorists who thought: 'Serves the bastards right'." Police are probing seven mail bomb attacks on businesses since January 18 – three of which took place last week.

And check out:
Trevor Phillips has it all to prove as he takes on this most delicate of tasks (Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian)
An attack on the idea of communities (Indigo Jo Blog)
'Niqab school is fighting for girls' equality', Torygraph claims (Islamophobia Watch)
Can one woman beat Islam's hate mongers?' asks Sun (Islamophobia Watch)

Sunday February 11 2007/23 Muharram 1428 
Our leading Muslims: Power list celebrates the top 100 players boosting the nation
Jonathan Thompson, Independent on Sunday
Last night, the inaugural Muslim Power 100 list was announced at a glittering ceremony in the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane in London. Established to recognise Muslims who have made "significant contributions to the social, cultural and economic well-being of Britain", the awards have been praised by commentators as a timely public reminder of the positive contribution the vast majority of Britain's 1.8 million-strong Muslim community. On the list are cricketer turned politician Imran Khan, Labour peer Lord Patel of Blackburn, and actor Art Malik, along with boxer Amir Khan, singer Yusuf Islam, formerly Cat Stevens, and Harrods boss Mohamed al Fayed.

Race killings 'low impact' for Home Office
Ben Leapman, Sunday Telegraph
Racist murders such as those of Stephen Lawrence and Zahid Mubarek should be regarded as "low impact" events, according to a Home Office memo that tells staff how to protect the department's image. The internal document, sent out this month, says the killings of the teenagers - and the damning inquiries that followed - were less harmful to the department's reputation than policy U-turns or missed performance targets. A friend of the Lawrences called the memo "offensive". Imtiaz Amin, Mr Mubarek's uncle, said he was "upset and disappointed". A document was sent from the Home Office to regional probation managers, asking them to report risks that could embarrass ministers.

The tiny airline spy that spots bombers in the blink of an eye
Christopher Leake, Mail on Sunday
Tiny cameras the size of a fingernail linked to specialist computers are to be used to monitor the behaviour of airline passengers as part of the war on terrorism. Cameras fitted to seat-backs will record every twitch, blink, facial expression or suspicious movement before sending the data to onboard software which will check it against individual passenger profiles. Scientists from Britain and Germany are spending £25million developing a system which they hope will make it virtually impossible to hijack an airliner by providing pilots and cabin crew with an early warning of a possible terrorist attack such as 9/11.

And check out:
Samih Ahmed apology (Sunday Telegraph)
The onus is now on Muslims to integrate' (Islamophobia Watch)

Saturday February 10 2007/22 Muharram 1428 
Failing Islamic school says closure is unfair
Hugh Muir, The Guardian
The founder of an Islamic school shut down yesterday by the government has claimed he is a victim of demonisation of the Muslim community in the media. Bilal Patel told the Guardian that unsubstantiated claims that Jameah Islameah had links with notorious extremists such as Abu Hamza so debilitated the institution that it struggled to attract staff and pupils. The school was also the subject of a high-profile raid last September. The Department for Education closed the school, near Crowborough in East Sussex, saying it had failed to follow an improvement plan after a poor Ofsted inspection in 2005. But Mr Patel said its difficulties were compounded by the anti terrorist operation when officers carried out a dawn raid and remained on site for more than three weeks. No charges have been laid.

Islamic school for boys is closed
Philip Johnston, Daily Telegraph
An Islamic school raided by anti-terror police last year has been closed, the Government said yesterday. The Jameah Islameah School, near Crowborough, East Sussex, has been deleted from the Register of Independent Schools and faces prosecution if it continues to operate. Ofsted conducted a series of inspections at the school after concerns were raised about standards. The school then had to follow an action plan to address failings. But it failed to do so and has been judged "no longer good enough to operate". Ofsted said the school, which is not currently operating, had significant "major weaknesses". It also "prevented pupils making the progress of which they are capable".

Five men appear in court on terror plot charges
Vikram Dodd and Steven Morris, The Guardian
A man accused of plotting to seize and kill a member of the British armed forces appeared in court yesterday for the first time. Parviz Khan, 36, is accused together with Amjad Mahmood, who is charged with knowing of Mr Khan's plan and thereby committing a terrorist offence by failing to tell the police. The crown alleges that between November 1 and January 31, Mr Khan intended to commit terrorist offences and "engaged in conduct to give effect to his intention to kidnap and kill a member of the British armed forces". Both men are from Birmingham, and are married with children. In all, five men arrested over the alleged plot in raids by police in Birmingham on January 31 stood in the dock for the first time yesterday.

Man due in court on terror charge
BBC News Online
A sixth man is due to appear in court on charges related to an alleged plan to kidnap and kill a British soldier. Basiru Gassama, 29, will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court accused of withholding information about a potential act of terrorism. Five other men appeared at the court on Friday and were remanded in custody. Among them was Parviz Khan, 36, who was charged with plotting the kidnap. All six men were arrested during raids on properties in Birmingham in January. Mr Khan and the four other accused were remanded in custody until 23 February, when they will appear at the Old Bailey. All five men are charged with supplying equipment and funding for terrorism under the Terrorism Act.

Parents protest at school's 'Halal-only' lunch
Daily Mail
Furious parents staged protests outside a school over its decision to serve up only halal meat at lunchtimes. Staff were forced to call the police after one father strode into the school in North London to challenge the new meals policy. Kingsgate Primary in West Hampstead is among growing numbers of schools with high Muslim populations to use halal-only meat in cooking. But the menus, which will feature only meat that has been slaughtered in the halal way with a single cut to the throat, have not always been well received. At Kingsgate, parents carrying placards congregated at the school gates to demand a reversal of the policy, claiming their children would be denied a choice. But the protests triggered claims of racism from parents of Muslim children, who make up three quarters of the school population.

86 percent of Muslims say British media biased
Daily Times, Pakistan
London: An overwhelming 86 percent of Muslims surveyed by the Islamic Human Rights Commission considered British daily newspapers and TV news to be biased. The report found the media lacked scope when dealing with matters concerning Islam and Muslims. Words such as terrorism, hijack, bombings and extremism are manipulated in generating a public perception that Muslims are somehow related to these attacks.The authors have called for a fairer and freer representation of Muslims in the media. The report also showed when analysing the news channels on the 7/7 bombings they largely concentrated on the subject of ‘loyalty’.

And check out:
Police fight running battles with al-Aqsa protesters (The Guardian)
An explosion of disbelief - fresh doubts over 9/11 (Daily Mail)
BBC Radio - The British Mosque (Indigo Jo Blog)

Friday February 09 2007/21 Muharram 1428 
School veils ‘could allow a new Dunblane’
Daily Mail
Allowing Muslim girls to wear full-face veils to school could make Dunblane-style massacres more common, a judge suggested. Judge Stephen Silber was hearing a case brought by a 12-year-old Muslim girl against her headmistress’s ban on her veil. The judge suggested veils would make it hard to identify intruders in schools, making murderous attacks more likely. In the 1996 Dunblane massacre, Thomas Hamilton, 43, burst into a Scottish primary school and shot dead 16 children and their teacher … A liberal Islamic group has offered to help meet the school’s bill. The case continues.

Five charged with terror offences
Nick Hodgson, PA, The Independent
Five men will appear in court today charged with terrorism offences following a series of police raids in Birmingham. Eight suspects were picked up in a series of dawn raids on Wednesday last week over an alleged plot to behead a Muslim soldier. A ninth suspect was stopped on a motorway in the city hours later. Two of those suspects were freed without charge in the early hours of Wednesday. Today, West Midlands Police said five of the men, all from Birmingham, had been charged overnight. They will appear at Coventry Magistrates Court. Another suspect - a 38-year-old  - was released without charge.

Cleric who called for Muslim soldiers to be killed is arrested
Nigel Morris and Colin Brown, The Independent
A radical cleric who said Muslim members of the British armed forces should be executed has been arrested by police, sparking claims of a " witch-hunt" against his community. Scotland Yard said Abu Izzadeen, 31, who gained notoriety when he denounced John Reid as "an enemy of Islam" when the Home Secretary visited east London last year, was being questioned on suspicion of encouraging terrorism. In a video made in 2004 and broadcast by ITN this week, Mr Izzadeen is heard preaching: "So those so-called enemies to Allah who join the British Government ­ because remember the British Government, my dear Muslim brothers, are crusaders ­ crusaders come to kill and rape Muslims. Whoever joins them ­ he who joins the British Army, he is a mortal kaffir. And his only hukum (sic.) [punishment] is for his head to be removed."

Protest over school’s stand on halal meat
Ruth Gledhill, The Times
Angry parents have staged a demonstration outside a London school after its decision to serve only halal meat. The change over to halal meat was made after a consultation with parents, which showed that 77 per cent of those were in favour of the decision. Fewer than six out of ten parents responded. Muslim parents at Kingsgate Primary School in West Hampstead, where three quarters of the pupils are Muslim, accused the protesters of racism. Solveig Francis, a parent, said: “This is just naked racism, it’s got nothing to do with choice. They talk about keeping up English values but the most important value we have is democracy. It’s about time that was upheld.”

Islamist extremist who barracked Reid arrested on suspicion of inciting terrorism
Vikram Dodd, The Guardian
Inayat Bunglawala, the assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "Abu Izzadeen is a character who has made some incendiary remarks in the past. He is someone who the mainstream Muslim community has kept at a distance because of his attempts to create mischief.""I think there will be some cynicism about the timing of this arrest, coming 24 hours after two men arrested last week were released without charge." Ahmed Versi, the editor of Muslim News, a newspaper for British Muslims, said: "I'm surprised at the arrest, after such a long time. It's important that there is evidence, if they charge him, of what he said, otherwise the credibility of the police will be tainted once again."

Our mosques are importing jihad
Mary Ann Sieghart, The Times
Gina Khan is a very brave woman. Born in Birmingham 38 years ago to Pakistani parents, she has run away from an arranged marriage, dressed herself in jeans and dared to speak out against the increasing radicalisation of her community. “There are mosques springing up on every street corner,” she says, pointing them out to me as we drive to her tiny house in Birmingham, near the district where nine men were arrested last week on suspicion of plotting to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier. Two suspects have since been released without charge. Khan is particularly worried about how mosques are brainwashing children and young people: “To me, it is starting to look like a cult.”

And check out:
12 year olds in niqab could lead to mass murder! (The Fountain)
Preacher of hate 'who praised 7/7 bombers' is arrested (Daily Mail)
A courageous voice against the Muslim bullyboys (The Times)
Littlejohn says: Why not bomb Red Ken? (Islamophobia Watch)
Britain 'is now a police state' (Islamophobia Watch)
BBC: Only Mention "Muslim" If it's A Bad Story (MPACUK)
Melanie Phillips: Liar or Ignoramus? (Indigo Jo Blog)

Thursday February 08 2007/20 Muharram 1428 
Freed kidnap suspect: my terror at police raid
Steven Morris, The Guardian
One of the men arrested during the Birmingham terror raids launched a blistering attack last night on the authorities for the way he was seized, held for a week and questioned for barely four hours about apparently trivial matters. Abu Bakr, a 27-year-old English teacher and bookshop worker, told the Guardian how his wife screamed in terror as police burst into their house at dawn on January 31 and took him away in handcuffs. At no point during his detention did officers question him about the alleged plot to kidnap and behead a Muslim soldier, he said. He added that he was friends with only one of the eight other men arrested in the high-profile raids last week and believed he and the other men were "pawns" in a higher political game.

School veil ban 'irrational', court told
Press Association, EducationGuardian.co.uk
A school's decision to ban a 12-year-old Muslim girl from wearing a full-face veil was condemned as "irrational" by her lawyers in the high court today. A judge heard that the girl's three elder sisters had all attended the same school in the past - two of them under the present headteacher - and had all worn the niqab with no objections. The three young women had participated fully in school activities and the school was "very supportive of them as devout Muslims and the way they expressed their faith", said Dan Squires, counsel for their sister. The decision not to allow the youngest girl to wear the niqab was against the principles of rationality, he told Mr Justice Silber in London.

Reid heckler held under Terrorism Act
Mark Oliver, Guardian Unlimited
Abu Izzadeen, the man who barracked the home secretary at a press conference last year, was today arrested for allegedly encouraging terrorism, Scotland Yard said. Mr Izzadeen, 31, is well known in the UK for his radical Islamist views. Today, he was detained at around 9.30am in Leyton High Road, east London, under the Terrorism Act 2006 and taken to a central London police station, where he remains in custody. It is understood today's arrest of Mr Izzadeen is linked to alleged offences last year in the West Midlands area. The arrest does not relate to an ITV News report earlier this week which carried allegations about a sermon he is said to have made at a London mosque in 2004.

Kelly's £5m to help councils tackle 'pernicious' extremism
Tania Branigan, The Guardian
The government must rely less on Muslim leadership organisations, Ruth Kelly said yesterday as she launched a £5m fund to help councils tackle extremism. Around 50 local authorities are seeking cash to support their work with Muslim communities, under an initiative which Tony Blair this week promised would "confront [extremism] in a more radical and head-on way". Specific local programmes could include working with those excluded from schools, colleges and mosques, who may be vulnerable to extremist messages and promoting greater interfaith understanding.

Warning over 'beheading plot' arrests
Nick Britten, Daily Telegraph
Muslim leaders yesterday warned police of a backlash after two men arrested over an alleged plot to kidnap and behead a Muslim soldier were released without charge. Community figures said they feared irrevocable damage had been done to local relations. The men immediately went into hiding and declined to comment. Their solicitor, Gareth Peirce, said: "They have left the police station without any better understanding of why they were there than when they first arrived seven days ago. "Not a word was ever mentioned to either of them about a plot to kidnap or the grisly suggestion of a beheading or even of a soldier at all."

The Nashville Qur'an
Brian Whitaker, Guardian CIF
For several years now, a book has been circulating in the Middle East which closely resembles the Qur'an. It isn't actually the Qur'an, though its style and presentation are very similar. Its title is al-Furqan al-Haqq ("The True Furqan") and there have been occasional complaints from Muslims that it might be mistaken for an Islamic text when, in reality, it's a cunning bit of Christian propaganda. A rather more sinister bit of anti-Muslim propaganda comes from the Centre for the Study of Political Islam which is based, somewhat curiously, in Nashville, Tennessee.

Autism-like disorder 'reversible'
BBC News Online
The symptoms of a severe brain disorder similar to autism, which affects around 10,000 UK children, could be reversed, scientists believe. A team at Edinburgh University made symptoms of Rett syndrome disappear in mice by activating a single gene, the magazine Science reports. The condition, which mainly affects girls, was previously thought to be irrevocable. It can leave children mute and with multiple disabilities. Rett syndrome is a complex neurological disorder. Although present at birth, it becomes more evident during the second year of a child's life.

And check out:
'Britain is a police state for Muslims' (Daily Mail)
'Bomber' told me of jihad fight (The Sun)

Wednesday February 07 2007/19 Muharram 1428 
Muslim protests as Israel digs at holy site
Rory McCarthy, The Guardian
Israeli archaeologists began digging up a stone ramp near the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem's Old City yesterday, bringing immediate protests from Palestinians and condemnation from the king of Jordan. The work is the first stage in a scheme to build a new, raised walkway up to the site, which is known as the Haram al-Sharif to Muslims and the Temple Mount to Jews. Next to the walkway is the Western Wall, which dates from the time of the Second Temple and is the holiest site in Judaism. Israeli archaeologists say the work is necessary on safety grounds, but Muslim leaders fear damage to the foundations of the site.

Kelly unveils new plan to tackle extremism
Matthew Tempest and agencies, Guardian Unlimited
The government is to launch a £5m "hearts and minds" battle to tackle Muslim extremism, Ruth Kelly announced today. The communities secretary said local councils would bid for the money to fund initiatives aimed at stopping the grooming of young Islamists. It is part of a wider government effort to prevent a repeat of the July 7 2005 attacks in London, when 52 commuters died in suicide bombings during the morning rush hour. The announcement came as two out of nine of the men arrested in Birmingham last week in connection with an alleged plot to behead a British Muslim soldier were released without charge.

Muslims sue over France cartoons
BBC News Online
Two French Muslim groups have begun a lawsuit in a Paris court against magazine Charlie Hebdo over cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad. The groups say the magazine "insulted people on the basis of religion" in a case seen as a test of free speech. Charlie Hebdo reprinted Danish cartoons that provoked a violent backlash in the Muslim world a year ago. The newspaper Liberation republished the cartoons on Wednesday in solidarity with the magazine. But the Union of French Islamic Organisations and the Paris Grand Mosque said Charlie Hebdo's decision to publish the cartoons "was part of a considered plan of provocation aimed against the Islamic community..."

And check out:
Another plug for Taj Hargey (Islamophobia Watch)

Tuesday February 06 2007/18 Muharram 1428 
Not the UK... it's Saudi Arabia
Gary O'Shea, The Sun
A BRITISH Muslim school is teaching children that Jews are “repugnant apes” and Christians “pigs”, a former teacher claims. Colin Cook, 57, says when he raised his concerns to chiefs at the Saudi government-funded King Fahad Academy in West London he was told: “This is not England. It is Saudi Arabia.” Some of the 1,250 pupils at the faith school are alleged to have been heard idolising Osama bin Laden, praising 9/11 and saying they want to “kill Americans”. Mr Cook — himself a Muslim — warned yesterday: “The school could produce a dangerous harvest. “It is clearly racist and very divisive. It’s deeply immoral to put such ideas into the heads of young children.

Islamic school 'is poisoning minds'
Caroline Davies and Graeme Paton, Daily Telegraph
An Islamic school in London has been accused of poisoning the minds of pupils as young as five years old with a curriculum of hate. Colin Cook, 57, claims that text books used by children at the Saudi-funded King Fahad Academy in Acton, west London, describe Jews as "repugnant" and Christians as "pigs". The father-of-three, a Muslim convert, also expressed concerns about fundamentalist attitudes among children at the school. He said some of them had allegedly been heard saying they wanted to "kill Americans" and idolising Osama bin Laden. Mr Cook, who taught English for 18 years at the academy, was sacked from his £35,000-a-year post in December for alleged misconduct relating to exams.

UK army Muslims 'must die'
Tom Reilly, The Sun
PREACHER of hate Abu Izzadeen has called on all Muslims serving in the Army to be killed. In a vile sermon delivered at a mosque he rages against Muslims that work for the Government — and says they should be beheaded. A recording of the rant has emerged just days after police uncovered a terrorist plot to kidnap and murder a 20-year-old British Muslim serving in the Army. On the recording uncovered by ITN News, Izzadeen, 30, shouts: “Whoever allies himself with the Kaffirs (non-believers) against the believers — he is one of them. “Remember the British Government, my dear Muslim brothers, are crusaders — crusaders come to kill and rape Muslims.

And check out:
Muslim organisation offers to help school ban full-face veil (Daily Mail)

Monday February 05 2007/17 Muharram 1428 
We find Muslim 'handshake' cop
Nick Parker, The Scum
THIS is the Muslim WPC who sparked a row by refusing to shake top cop Sir Ian Blair’s hand. Natalie Smart, 26, wears the Metropolitan Police’s regulation hijab on the beat. And our exclusive photos show she takes breaks to pray towards Mecca. Met Commissioner Sir Ian was said to be “bloody furious” when the WPC asked not to shake his hand at a passing-out parade of 200 recruits in December. The devout Muslim convert said she could not touch a man who was not her husband — and also declined a photo with Sir Ian to avoid “propaganda”. Do you know WPC Natalie Smart? Give the Sun news desk a call on 020 7782 4105. Don't worry about the cost, we'll call you straight back. And yes, we can get away with this kind of incitement to public harassment - even of cops.

Muslims to pay school's legal fight to uphold niqab ban
Philip Johnston, Daily Telegraph
A Muslim group has offered to help fund a school's legal battle over its refusal to let a pupil wear the niqab in class. In an unprecedented move, the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford (Meco) has written to the head teacher to say it is prepared to contribute to a fighting fund. Taj Hargey, Meco's chairman, said he was also willing to organise a campaign among Muslims nationally to resist "this largely Saudi-driven campaign to make the niqab a compulsory requirement for Muslim women". Dr Hargey's offer comes as the school, which cannot be identified because of a court order, faces the prospect of an expensive legal fight without any backing.

60 SECONDS: Ayaan Hirsi
Andrew Williams, The Metro
You were brought up a devout Muslim. What made you turn against the religion?
I knew no better than to follow the path my parents had laid out for me. I didn’t question it seriously until after 9/11. Bin Laden defined the world into Muslims and non-Muslims, and these had to either be converted or killed. I asked myself where I stood after I saw the pictures of people jumping out of the World Trade Center. As a Muslim I had to ask if I agreed with that. I was saddened to see Bin Laden’s citations were from the Koran and were consistent with the Islam I grew up with.  It is just that we (we?) were passive until then.

Muslim extremists 'no better than criminals'
Steve Doughty, Daily Mail
The Archbishop of York has condemned Muslim extremists as no more than criminals - and told them to cherish British traditions and respect the law. Dr John Sentamu said religion, poverty or prejudice were no excuse for killing. "It doesn't matter what god you worship - if your god is sending you to maim and kill people, I say to myself, 'what kind of a god is that?'" he said. Dr Sentamu added: "I am quite sure some people feel alienated from main, successful Britain, but again I would like to say alienated people do not necessarily resort to acts of violence." The tough line from Dr Sentamu - number two in the Church of England hierarchy - amounted to a ringing rejection of the arguments that terrorism is inspired by "Islamophobia" or by British military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Can we really let students skip drama classes on religious grounds? It's time liberals fought back
Mark Ravenhill, The Guardian
Not so long ago, I spent a term teaching at a university in California. I turned up, heavy with jet lag, on the day British universities call the freshers' fair. But while here such events are all about the chance to join Beer Soc or Queer Soc or Rugby Soc, things looked rather different on the carefully watered lawns of Californian academe. There, the majority of groups vying for the freshman's attention were Christian and other faith-based groups. It was a timely warning that I was in a country very different from my own. I soon forgot the warning...

Prominent Jews call for open debate on Israel
Julian Borger, The Guardian
A group of prominent British Jews will today declare independence from the country's Jewish establishment, arguing that it puts support for Israel above the human rights of Palestinians. Independent Jewish Voices will publish an open letter on the Guardian's Comment is Free website calling for a freer debate about the Middle East within the Jewish community. Among the more than 130 signatories are Stephen Fry, Harold Pinter, Mike Leigh, Jenny Diski and Nicole Farhi, as well as leading academics such as Eric Hobsbawm and Susie Orbach.

And check out:
The Jewish school where half the pupils are Muslim (The Independent)
14-year-olds studying al Qaeda propaganda at school (Daily Mail)

Sunday February 04 2007/16 Muharram 1428 
Muslim leaders must rescue the young
Joan 'unbelievable' Smith, Independent on Sunday
The sequence of events has become wearily familiar: first the arrests and claims of a chilling terror plot, then the furious denials by community "leaders". It happened last week in Birmingham, where nine men were detained in connection with an alleged plot to kidnap and execute a British Muslim soldier. The chairman of the Birmingham Central Mosque, Dr Mohammed Naseem, inflamed feelings by comparing Britain to Nazi Germany and Stalin's Russia - just the kind of paranoid nonsense you'd expect from a man who was a Respect candidate. It plays straight into the hands of the BNP and is a triumph for political Islam, which seeks to divide the country between aggrieved Muslims and the rest of us.

Is justice served by these tales of beheading?
Nick 'shit-wit' Cohen, The Observer
The modern media shock anyone who worked in or reported on the criminal justice system of the late 20th century. Every month, another news bulletin breaks the rule banged into us from the first time we phoned a police officer or went to magistrates' court. Once detectives arrest a suspect, no one can say a word that might prejudice his or her trial. Freedom of speech stopped when the handcuffs went on. Legal sanctions must protect the minds of jurors from contamination by the outside world so they can assess the evidence in a state of virginal purity.

Dirty little secret of who is behind the rise in antisemitism
Rod 'the bigot' Liddle, Sunday Times
Good news for Britain’s Jewish community — antisemitic attacks have decreased sharply in the past year. Racist attacks on blacks, Asians and Arabs are “far higher than the level of antisemitic attacks”. So mazeltov then, you lucky, lucky Jews. Stop that whining. You’ve never had it so good. That, at least, is the view of Lee Jasper, “race adviser” to Ken Livingstone and also on the board of the National Black Alliance, National Black Caucus and Operation Black Vote. (Indeed, if you were to choose two words at random and put the word “black” in between, you’d probably hit on an organisation run by Lee and funded, somewhere along the line, by your wallet.)

And check out:
Police blame government for terror leaks - to divert attention from cash-for-honours (Rolled Up Trousers)
What goes on in mosques (Rolled Up Trousers)

Saturday February 03 2007/15 Muharram 1428 
We're vilified like Jews by the Nazis, says Muslim leader
Steve Bird & Russel Jenkins, The Times
Birmingham’s most senior Muslim leader yesterday compared the political situation in Britain to that of Nazi Germany. Mohammad Naseem, chairman of the Birmingham Central Mosque, said that Muslims were being labelled as a threat like the Jews were under Hitler. Speaking outside the mosque before Friday prayers, Dr Naseem said that Britain was turning into a police state, and accused the Government of “picking on” the Muslim community to pursue a political goal. “The German people were told Jews were a threat. The same thing is happening here,” he said. Dr Naseem described the terror arrests in the city as an example of the Government justifying its political agenda and anti-terrorism laws.

Kidnap plot suspect 'had threatened to have soldier's head cut off before'
Daniel McGrory, The Times
Police are investigating claims that one of the terrorist suspects held over the alleged plot to execute a British soldier recently threatened to kill a Muslim serviceman after a public fight. During the skirmish in a Birmingham snooker hall the suspect is reported to have described the young soldier as a traitor, adding that “he should have his head chopped off”.Material recovered from properties searched by police after raids in the West Midlands is understood to include extremist literature that condemns British Muslims joining the Army to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. Detectives are also checking computer files that are said to contain images of western hostages being executed by al-Qaeda sympathisers.

Terror stress effect 'widespread'
BBC News Online
Terrorist attacks have widespread effects on people's mental health even when they are not directly involved or are far away at the time, experts say. A team from University College, London, reviewed existing studies into the effects of attacks. They found that after an attack in an urban area, 11 to 13% of the general population may suffer post-traumatic stress during the following six weeks. Experts said the study showed it was vital to assess the impact of attacks. In the review, Chris Brewin, professor of clinical psychology at University College London found that 30-40% of people directly affected by terrorist action are likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and at least 20% still experience symptoms two years later.

Friday February 02 2007/14 Muharram 1428 
Plots and paranoia are mainstream views for Muslims of Sparkbrook
Andrew Norfolk, The Times
To wander the streets of Sparkbrook yesterday, from shabby corner shop to proud, white-domed mosque, was to enter a world where conspiracy theories are the breath of life. Many ordinary Muslims did not believe that Wednesday’s arrests were an act to foil a terrorist plot aiming to visit unspeakable barbarity on a young British soldier. Rather the entire operation was a giant con trick. This fits a growing perception of a post-9/11 world in which innocent Muslims are demonised, and the terror threat manufactured to suit the dark designs of the West’s Judaeo-Christian elite.

Terror hitlist named 25 Muslim soldiers
Daniel McGrory, Russell Jenkins and Steve Bird, The Times
Defence chiefs have launched an urgent investigation into how a gang of suspected Islamic terrorists obtained a list of names and addresses for 25 serving British Muslim soldiers as part of an alleged plot to kidnap and behead a serviceman. Senior officers are alarmed that the hitlist includes home addresses as far apart as Glasgow and the West Country. A priority will be to ensure that no Ministry of Defence “mole” provided the suspected terror cell with such top-secret personal information. All those on the hitlist are understood to be serving members of the regular Army. The main targets identified by the gang are understood to have served a recent tour of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan.

'How I was brainwashed by the Tank Girls'
Matthew Hickley, Daily Mail
A white British woman who was sucked into an extremist Muslim terror group warned yesterday of the dangers of "brainwashing" by radical groups operating in the UK. Anne Singleton said ordinary British Muslims were increasingly vulnerable to recruitment by extremists, who use psychological tricks to turn them into unquestioning followers prepared to carry out atrocities for their cause. The 48-year-old mother of one, who lives in Leeds, became involved with fanatics while studying at Manchester University in the 1970s. Her boyfriend at the time, an Iranian called Ali, was interested in a radical group known as the People’s Mujahideen of Iran, or MKO, which was formed a decade earlier and aimed to free Iran from ‘capitalism, imperialism, reactionary Islamic forces and despotism’.

Muslims are now getting the same treatment Jews had a century ago
Maleiha Malik, The Guardian
Migrants fleeing persecution and poverty settled with their children in the East End of London. As believers in one God they were devoted to their holy book, which contained strict religious laws, harsh penalties and gender inequality. Some of them established separate religious courts. The men wore dark clothes and had long beards; some women covered their hair. A royal commission warned of the grave dangers of self-segregation. Politicians said different religious dress was a sign of separation. Some migrants were members of extremist political groups. Others actively organised to overthrow the established western political order.

Being Muslim is not a barrier to being British
Munira Mirza, The Guardian
Inevitably, media coverage of the report Living Apart Together: British Muslims and the Paradox of Multiculturalism, which I co-authored, focused on its more alarming poll statistics. The Guardian correctly reported that "support for sharia law, Islamic schools and wearing the veil in public is significantly stronger among young Muslims than their parents" (More young Muslims back sharia, says poll, January 29). However, the research revealed a broad diversity of opinions and experiences within the most intensely scrutinised group in Britain.

Thursday February 01 2007/13 Muharram 1428 
Al Qaeda was behind 'plot' to behead soldier
Stephen Wright and Ben Taylor, Daily Mail
A foiled plot to kidnap, torture and behead a British Muslim soldier was orchestrated by Al Qaeda, police sources have said. Officers suspect the mastermind behind the appalling attempt to bring the horrors of Baghdad to the streets of Britain is a senior Al Qaeda terrorist with close links to Osama Bin Laden. The alleged plan was to abduct a Muslim soldier, mirroring the murders of British hostages Ken Bigley and Margaret Hassan. The victim would have been made to plead for his life to Tony Blair, denounce the war and ultimately be executed - all on film.

How al-Qaeda 'tried to bring Baghdad to Birmingham'
Russell Jenkins and Daniel McGrory, The Times
Not long back from his six-month tour in Iraq, the young Muslim soldier was puzzled when police called at his family home in Birmingham. What they had to say left him speechless with disbelief. Officers described how a gang from his home town was allegedly plotting to abduct the soldier, aged in his 20s, and then force him on film to “apologise” for what he had done in Iraq. After this propaganda coup, the gang intended to video themselves executing their hostage. His murder would be seen worldwide on the internet as a warning to other British Muslims regarded by the kidnappers as “traitors”.

Police raids 'foiled plot to behead soldier'
By Philip Johnston and Nick Britten, The Telegraph
In what was described as an "Iraqi-style" conspiracy, the suspects allegedly planned to film the atrocity and post it on the internet as a warning to Muslims not to help the Armed Forces. There are about 330 Muslims in the services and officials said the new guidance would apply to all forces' members who might be targets. Security experts said targeting a Muslim soldier would be a signal from the extremists that they considered themselves at war. "They are saying: you are at war in our countries so we will bring the war to your streets," said one. The suspected plot is said to have involved abducting an identified soldier, aged 20, who has served in Afghanistan. Measures were taken to protect him and he was at a safe location last night.

Birmingham's Muslims fear reprisals after anti-terror raids
Terri Judd, The Independent
It was before dawn when members of Birmingham's Asian community awoke to the sound of smashing glass and splintering wood as anti-terror police broke into 12 addresses across the eastern districts of their city. Outside the blue-and-white police cordons, locals gathered to stare with a mixture of bafflement and horror as forensics officers combed through the properties. Many expressed amazement that apparently upstanding members of the community had been arrested. As the details of the alleged plot to target a Muslim in the British armed forces emerged, shock turned to bewilderment. Anxiously, locals insisted that they were as horrified by the work of terrorists as any other British nationals, that Islam was a religion of peace and that they would never condone violence in the name of faith.

Bookshop is well known to the police
Steve Bird and Dominic Kennedy
The Maktabah bookshop, notorious for stocking incendiary works offering romantic notions of jihad, is a regular target for police raids. The store was co-founded by Moazzem Begg, one of the Britons freed from the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, and Imran Khan, an enterprising Muslim journalist. It has since changed premises and names and passed through several hands. In spite of numerous searches and arrests, nobody from the business has been charged with an offence. One neighbouring businessman said yesterday: “We are always seeing MI5 types around here. You can spot them easily.”

And check out:
Mirror images of the BNP (Rolled Up Trousers)
Do as we say, not as we do (Jeremy Seabrook, Guardian CIF)