Thursday November 30 2006
Muslim law reaches Britain
David Pilditch, Daily Express
Secret courts imposing draconian Islamic justice are operating across Britain. Last night politicians and religious leaders expressed outrage that sharia law is gaining an increasing foothold in our society. The hardline Islamic law allows people to be stoned to death, beheaded or have their limbs amputated. Critics insisted Labour was allowing a chaotic two-tier legal system to flourish in the name of political correctness. And legal experts warned that it meant the authority of British justice was being undermined. Sharia law dates back to the 10th century. In some countries women are stoned to death for adultery or giving birth out of wedlock and thieves can have both arms amputated.

Muslim girl in tears after being ordered home to Scotland
David Lister and Zahid Hussain, The Times
The schoolgirl at the centre of an international custody battle broke down in tears yesterday after a judge in Pakistan ordered that she be sent back to her mother in Britain. Molly Campbell, 12, who wants to be known as Misbah Iram Rana and to live as a Muslim in Lahore, wept as she was told that she had to go back to live with her mother while her fate was decided by a Scottish court. In traditional Muslim dress and a light blue headscarf, she looked visibly distressed as she was comforted by her sister and brothers outside the High Court in Lahore.

Liberal elitists who ignore the context of power and privilege
A Sivanandan, The Guardian
The real problem facing ethnic and religious minorities - according to the manifesto of a group of liberal secularists published on the Guardian's website and its founder Sunny Hundal on these pages - is that they have got the wrong people speaking for them. They are, it is argued, self-appointed first-generation men who "generally ignore non-religious, liberal or progressive opinions" and "are out of touch with second- and third-generation Britons". Yet is it they who have the ear of the government and politicians generally. Hence "the crisis of discourse around race and faith".

Europe diary: Turkish tensions
Mark Mardell, BBC News Online
It must be a very strange visit for the Pope. In Turkey there are none of the cheering, adoring crowds he must be used to by now. The largish figure in white robes is hustled along by men in dark suits from mausoleum to bullet-proof car, from the car into the next meeting. The lack of enthusiasm is hardly surprising in a country of 70 million where only 100,000 or so are Christians. But the atmosphere is tense rather than indifferent, because of his comments on Islam.

Britons turn off television and put down the paper as they take up broadband
Richard Wray, The Guardian
A third of British internet users watch less television once they have broadband, while 27% read fewer national newspapers and almost a fifth switch off their radios, according to new research from the telecoms regulator Ofcom. The picture is similar across France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US, highlighting the threat posed by the web to traditional media. Ofcom's first major international survey of communications trends also shows that Britons pay less for mobile phone, TV and internet services than their counterparts in Europe and the US.

Are poor whites the most oppressed people in Britain?
Simon Basketter, Socialist Worker
Poor and marginalised people living in Britain have attracted some false friends in recent weeks. The rebranded Tories sent the highly unlikely radical Iain Duncan Smith MP off to look at education, and he came back with the conclusion that the education system lets down white working people. The Telegraph waded in with a piece headlined “White, Poor, Male – And Doomed To Fail” and the Economist shed crocodile tears with an article entitled “Poor Whites: The Forgotten Underclass”.

And check out:
Blair considering veil ban, Mirror claims (Islamophobia Watch)
Gay Muslims clash with Tatchell (Islamophobia Watch)
Terrorist suspects lose extradition battle (The Times)
Council mosque decision 'flawed' (BBC Online)
UK terror suspects lose extradition battle (The Guardian)

Wednesday November 29 2006
A tradition which ridicules the clash of civilisations
Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian
One of the most striking exhibits in the current British Museum exhibition Myths of Bengal is the beautiful Gazi scroll - not just for its rich colours and vivid figures, but because it illustrates the enriching coexistence of two of the world's great faiths. Images of Hindus making puja offerings are juxtaposed with those of Muslims making similar offerings at the tombs of their saints (pirs). It shows how a remarkable, syncretic culture emerged in which the tombs of many pirs became places of pilgrimage for both Hindus and Muslims.

One in three backs total ban on wearing veil in public
Daily Mail
One in three people would support a ban on Muslim women wearing veils which cover their faces in public places, according to a new survey. The ICM survey, carried out for the BBC, asked if people would approve the introduction by the Government of such a plan. Thirty-three per cent of respondents said they would approve the introduction of such a ban, while 56 per cent said they would not and just under one in 10 said they did not know. Asked if they would support prohibition in specific circumstances, 61 per cent said they would approve a ban in airports and at passport control, 53 per cent in courtrooms and 53 per cent in schools.

War On Christmas? Don't Blame Muslims
Shahed Amanullah, Alt.Muslim
In recent years, there has been much talk of a so-called "war on Christmas" that seeks to eliminate all references to the religious nature of the holiday from the public sphere. Stores have dropped the traditional "Merry Christmas" greeting in favor of the generic "Happy Holidays", nativity scenes are being prohibited from public lands, and some cities have even tried to rename Christmas to the more generic "Winterval". While some put the blame on political correctness run amok, others pin the focus on religious minorities and the perception that they may be offended at overtly Christian references.

British Muslim tells of torture in Pakistan as US officials stood by
Ian Cobain, The Guardian
A British Muslim arrested in Pakistan during an investigation into an alleged al-Qaida bomb plot was beaten and threatened while American intelligence officials watched, the Old Bailey heard yesterday. Salahuddin Amin told the jury that he was slapped around the head by his Pakistani jailers, threatened with a whip and told he was to be sent to Guantánamo in dozens of interviews during which the US officials were present. The Americans also threatened to skin him alive if he did not cooperate, he said. He did not complain of his treatment to British security officials who also interviewed him, because he believed they were colluding with his torturers.

Preaching to the unconverted
Sarah Rainsford, BBC News Online
Ceremonial soldiers in white helmets marched into place beside a red carpet at Ankara airport as Pope Benedict's plane arrived from Rome. Moments later, the Pope emerged and made his way down the steps for the start of his first visit to a mainly Muslim country. In a last-minute change to the schedule, Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was waiting on the tarmac to meet the pontiff in person. The two men shared a warm handshake, and smiles. But this was a meeting that nearly did not happen. The prime minister, whose party has its roots in political Islam, had been accused of snubbing the Pope by insisting until the last minute that he was otherwise engaged at the Nato summit in Latvia.

Sharia law is spreading as authority wanes
Joshua Rozenberg, The Telegraph
Islamic sharia law is gaining an increasing foothold in parts of Britain, a report claims. Sharia, derived from several sources including the Koran, is applied to varying degrees in predominantly Muslim countries but it has no binding status in Britain. However, the BBC Radio 4 programme Law in Action produced evidence yesterday that it was being used by some Muslims as an alternative to English criminal law. Aydarus Yusuf, 29, a youth worker from Somalia, recalled a stabbing case that was decided by an unofficial Somali "court" sitting in Woolwich, south-east London.

And check out:
Pope's Muslim plea in Turkey (The Sun)
What Makes a Muslim Radical?  (John L. Esposito, Dalia Mogahed, F.P.)
Survey finds support for veil ban (Islamophobia Watch)

Tuesday November 28 2006
Generating more heat than light
Salma Yaqoob
I do have important points of agreement with the thinking behind the New Generation Network manifesto. But the authors are doing themselves no favours as they try to force the facts to fit their schema. First of all, let's get things in proportion. Racism is a fact in this society, and there is a wealth of data to show that ethnic minorities are more likely to live in poverty, to be unemployed, to have poor health or to experience poor housing conditions. On top of this, there is an openly racist party, which attracted more than a quarter of a million votes in the last local election. And it is right to point out - as Sunny Hundal does - the "constant demonisation of British Muslims that has become the new acceptable face of racism".

Turkish police out in force for Papal visit
By Anil Dawar , The Telegraph
Pope Benedict XVI has arrived in Ankara for the start of his controversial four-day visit to Turkey. It is his first to a Muslim country since becoming head of the Catholic church but the trip has been overshadowed by protests by Muslims enraged by comments he made about Islam. Turkish authorities have said they are determined to ensure the Pope is kept safe during his stay and a huge security operation has been put in place. Around 5,000 police have been brought into Ankara ready for his arrival and the iconic pope mobile normally used to ferry the pontiff around has been replaced by a bullet-proof limousine for the visit.

Only paranoia can justify the world's second biggest military budget
George Monbiot, The Guardian
No one noticed. Or if they did, no one complained. The government didn't even bother to issue a press release. Last week the Ministry of Defence quietly secured a £1.7bn increase in its budget. The spending for 2006-7 was allocated months ago, which means that another fund must have been raided to find the extra money. It's the equivalent of half the annual budget for the Department for International Development. But another billion or two doesn't make much difference when we are already sloshing out £32bn a year on a programme whose purpose is a mystery.

'We are just watching things get worse'
Natasha Walter, Guardian G2
Five years ago, when the US and the British arrived in Afghanistan, they sold their mission to us not simply as a way of driving out the terrorist-shielding Taliban, but also as a way of empowering women. As Cherie Blair said in November 2001: "We need to help Afghan women free their spirit and give them their voice back, so they can create the better Afghanistan we all want to see." Or as George Bush boasted in December 2001: "Women now come out of their homes from house arrest."

And check out:
Bruce Lawrence: Bringing the Qur’an to Life (Tabsir)
Jewish rant in the Telegraph (Gay Jihadi)
Imams At The Airport (Alt. Muslim)

Monday November 27 2006
Muslims oppose vast mosque plan
Sean O'Neill, The Times
The architect’s vision is of a 21st-century Alhambra, a place for prayer, education, debate and the celebration of Islamic culture. But the plan to build Europe’s biggest mosque beside the London 2012 Olympic Park is attracting opposition from the Muslim community. The concern is not the building, but the activities of Tablighi Jamaat, the ultra-orthodox sect that is behind the huge mosque. A petition against the scheme, organised by Muslims in the East London borough of Newham, attracted 2,500 signatures in only ten days and is continuing to draw support. It says that allowing Tablighi Jamaat to build the mosque would aggravate community tensions.

Police want power to crack down on offensive demo chants and slogans
Vikram Dodd, The Guardian
Police are to demand new powers to arrest protesters for causing offence through the words they chant and the slogans on their placards and even headbands. The country's biggest force, the Metropolitan police, is to lobby the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, because officers believe that large sections of the population have become increasingly politicised, and there is a growing sense that the current restrictions on demonstrations are too light. Trouble at recent protests involving Islamic extremists has galvanised the Met's assistant commissioner, Tarique Ghaffur, into planning a crackdown.

Mayor's new onslaught on 'alarmist' race watchdog
Hugh Muir, The Guardian
Ken Livingstone has launched a venomous new attack on the head of Britain's race watchdog, accusing him of harming community tensions and using inflammatory language for the sake of "alarmist headlines". In a development marking a new low in relations between the mayor of London and Trevor Phillips, chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, Mr Livingstone has penned an extraordinary letter rejecting an invitation to speak at a CRE conference beginning today on the future of race relations in the UK.

And check out:
Race is the loser (Joseph Harker, Guardian CIF)
Tackle 'stealth racism', says CRE chair (The Guardian)
Kelly addresses CRE as Tories face race row (The Guardian)
We are in a war to the death – craven concessions won't win it (Torygraph)
All things being equal (Inayat Bunglawala, Guardian CIF)
UK Muslim Leaders Support Grand Mosque (islamonline)

Sunday November 26 2006
Livingstone declares war on race equality watchdog
Gaby Hinsliff, The Observer
A furious clash over multiculturalism has erupted after the Mayor of London accused Trevor Phillips, head of Britain's race equality watchdog, of peddling falsehoods and failing victims of racism. Ken Livingstone is refusing to attend a two-day conference this week on race relations being organised by Phillips, casting a shadow over what was meant to be a celebration of 30 years of anti-discrimination law. The mayor's adviser on equality, Lee Jasper, has also signed a letter sent to speakers at the event, which takes place tomorrow and on Tuesday, urging them to stage a boycott.

Can you see them marching as to war? No, neither can I
Nigel Farndale, Sunday Telegraph
When I heard that a Church of England vicar was going on Radio 4's Today programme to urge people to boycott British Airways, I thought: this is more like it, some fighting words at last. The Rev Andy Kelso had, apparently, been provoked by the airline's refusal to allow a check-in worker to wear a small crucifix over her uniform. And rightly. It is a demented policy. What does BA hope to gain from it? Does it imagine Muslims will feel less inclined to bomb its planes just because it cravenly bans Christian crosses?

Blair: Britain's 'sorrow' for shame of slave trade
David Smith, The Observer
Tony Blair is to make a historic statement condemning Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade as a 'crime against humanity' and expressing 'deep sorrow' that it ever happened. The Prime Minister plans to go further than any previous leader in seeking to distance himself from the actions of the British Empire, nearly 200 years after the 1807 legislation that led to slavery's abolition. However, he will stop short of making an explicit apology despite years of pressure from some black campaigners and community leaders.

And check out:
Rocket fire threatens Gaza truce (BBC News Online)
Is this the last generation of British Jews? (Sunday Telegraph)
Church-goers are happiest (Independent on Sunday)
Azhar outlaws female circumcision (Eteraz)
Rats out, roaches in as Nazis try to butter up Jews (indigo Jo)

Saturday November 25 2006
School helper who refused to remove her veil is sacked
Andrew Norfolk, The Times
A teaching assistant who refused to remove her Muslim veil in the classroom has been sacked. Aishah Azmi’s dismissal from a Church of England primary school in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, followed a lengthy period of suspension over her insistence on wearing the niqab in lessons led by a male teacher. She had already failed to persuade an employment tribunal that she was a victim of religious discrimination and harassment by Kirklees local education authority. Mrs Azmi, 24, said that it was her Islamic duty to wear the black veil, which covered her face except for a narrow slit at the eyes, in the presence of adult males who were not her blood relatives.

It didn't end at Forest Gate
Victoria Brittain, The Guardian
The destruction of a reputation through the media is a tactic we have seen before when serious police errors have come into the public domain. Duwayne Brooks, the witness to Stephen Lawrence's murder, suffered years of arrests, on charges from rape to stealing a car (his own), but they were always dropped or thrown out of court. It is no surprise then that Mohammed Abdul Kahar, shot last June in his home in Forest Gate, east London, by police looking for a dirty bomb, got the full treatment. The family was reported as living it up in expensive hotels before the police let them move back into their home.

Pope on a tightrope for trickiest visit yet
Ian Traynor, The Guardian
St Sophia's is a place of dizzying magnificence. One of the most sacred sites in Christendom for the best part of a millennium, made over into the sultans' mosque of choice for almost 500 years, the Byzantine masterpiece today is a museum that testifies to centuries of feuding between Christianity, Islam, and secularism. So when Pope Benedict XVI takes to the Istanbul tourist trail next Thursday to admire the mosaics under the soaring dome of the sixth century basilica, it will be the most delicate moment of the most sensitive trip the 79-year-old Bavarian has ever made.

'Veil Wars' Reveal Europe's Intolerance
Bruce Crumley, Time Magazine
But is European tolerance more threatened by hijab head-scarf, or even the face-covering niqab — and the Islamic fundamentalism and subjugation of women critics ascribe to these symbols — or by the hypocrisy and low-grade xenophobia of those telling Muslim women that this attack on their religious practice is really for their own good? Beneath all the reminders of secularist tradition and progressive discourse cited in Europe's headscarf debate lies the mean, provincial "not in our country, you don't" attitude — even when many of the women at whom it's addressed to were born and raised in "our country". When all is said and done, the headscarf furore reflects a broader sentiment wafting across: it's fine to be Muslim, just don't remind us about it by the way you dress.

And check out:
New Generational Blogging (Eteraz Blog)
False starts and fresh beginnings (The Guardian, Work Supplement)

Friday November 24 2006
We're leaving the country after racists abused and spat at me
Daily Mail
A white Muslim mother who was spat at and abused by drunken football fans in front of her children today told of her humiliation at the hands of the "racist cowards". Mother-of-five Michelle Idrees, 27, from Luton, said she had been too scared to travel to London or use public transport since the ordeal. British-born convert Mrs Idrees was called a "f***ing Muslim slag" and told her son, then aged four, would be the "next suicide bomber" by a family of Arsenal supporters on a busy train. She is now planning to leave Britain because she feels her children have no future in this country.

Wishful thinking
Soumaya Ghannoushi
What do I think of the New Generation Network manifesto published on CIF? It is intellectually flawed and politically unproductive. The document has generated a string of articles by its signatories. But it failed to move beyond the parameters of dominant discourse on religion and ethnicity and thus brought nothing new. For the ideas that formed its core, all one would have had to do is refer to Ruth Kelly's recent statements on the subject saving us much noise and a great deal of ink. The document exhibited the same official disregard for structural inequalities, the same stress on the divisiveness of multiculturalism, the same fondness for such abstract concepts as equal citizenship, and the same dislike for such self-appointed community representatives as the MCB, the government's new baddie.

Veil row teacher sacked (The Sun)
School assistant who would not compromise over veil is sacked (The Guardian)

Thursday November 23 2006
Peace Talks
Emine Saner, Guardian G2
Despite the freezing temperature of the London hotel room, the atmosphere is far from frosty. Israelis Yoav Sucary and Moran Avital are sitting next to Aya Hijazi, a Palestinian, and we are waiting for her colleague, Odeh Awwad. The four, who are youth leaders for an organisation called OneVoice, are here to give a series of talks at universities and to meet leaders and politicians. They met in person only days ago. What is most striking is the optimism they share - that, and a sense of humour. When I stand in front of the closed door, Sucary warns me that Awwad, a strapping 25-year-old, is due to burst in and will knock me flying.

Man jailed for insulting Muslim woman
Daily Mail
A man who spat at and religiously insulted a white Muslim woman on a train was jailed for 15 months today. Charles Adams, 23, confronted the burkha-clad mother of four as she returned home from a commemoration event for the victims of the London 7/7 bombings. Adams had just watched an Arsenal match at Highbury with his elder brother Mark Edward Adams, 26, and father, Mark Raymond Adams, 50. Michelle Idrees was told she had "sold out" her culture and that her children would grow up to be "suicide bombers", Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court heard.

'When it comes to firing the gun, it's a massive shock. It's what you don't see in the movies.'
Jeevan Vasagar, The Guardian
He grew up in suburban north London and still misses home comforts like milky British tea, the friends he left behind and the local pub. But yesterday Joe Wainer joined an elite Israeli army unit, and now he faces the prospect of active service in the occupied West Bank. The 19-year-old, one of nine young Britons who have signed up for a programme that recruits foreign Jews for the Israel Defence Forces, realised his life had changed when he fired an M16 rifle for the first time in training. "When it comes to fire the gun, it's one of the biggest shocks," he said. "The smell of the gunpowder, the kickback. It's what you don't see in the movies."

And check out:
Question time (interview with Yahya Birt) (The Guardian)

Wednesday November 22 2006
Faiths leaders in unity meeting
BBC News Online
Muslim and Christian leaders are to gather for a meeting designed to bring the two faiths closer together. The event, the largest of its kind seen in the UK, will be opened later by Prime Minister Tony Blair's envoy to the faith communities. MP John Battle will warn that young people are being neglected by religious leaders who must engage with them. The conference, in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, has been organised by the Christian Muslim Forum. The two-day event brings together imams and Christian ministers and aims to foster relationships, discover common concerns and tackle areas of difference.

New Amnesty Report: Out of all proportion - civilians bear the brunt of the war
Electronic Intifada
The 34-day war between Hizbullah and Israel in July/August 2006 caused widespread death and destruction in both Israel and Lebanon, with civilians bearing the brunt of military operations. This report, the third published by Amnesty International on aspects of the conflict, focuses on Israeli attacks in which civilians were killed as well as the impact on civilians of other attacks by Israeli forces. It also examines allegations that Hizbullah used civilians as "human shields". Previously Amnesty International focused on Israel's attacks on the infrastructure in Lebanon and on Hizbullah's rocket bombardment of northern Israel. More than 1,000 civilians in Lebanon were killed, around a third of them children, during intense Israeli bombardment of Lebanon by land, sea and air.

Tuesday November 21 2006
Reid admits foreign policy is 'radicalising' young Muslims to commit acts of terror
James Black, Daily Mail
John Reid became the first senior Cabinet figure to admit Britain's foreign policy was turning young Muslims to terrorism. The Home Secretary's remarks end at least three years of denial by the Government that the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan have been a key factor behind the alarming rise in Islamic extremism. The most stubborn refusal to accept the argument has come from the Prime Minister. Tony Blair has clung to the fact the September 11 attacks, and increased extremism in the UK, occurred before Britain and the US embarked on the so-called 'war on terror'.

Muslim prisoners at flashpoint over new imam's interpretation of Koran
Richard Ford, The Times
Rival groups of Muslim inmates have created a potentially explosive situation over the interpretation of the Koran in Britain’s biggest jail, prison watchdogs said yesterday. Deep divisions among Muslims in Wandsworth jail developed after the appointment of an imam with particular views of the Koran’s teachings. Some Muslim inmates at the jail in southwest London are also pressurising fellow Muslim prisoners to adopt more militant beliefs and lifestyle. The disclosures will fuel fears that attempts are being made to radicalise young Muslims held in jails in England and Wales.

The Dutch have reached a new level of authoritarianism
Naima Bouteldja, The Guardian
The political hubbub that greeted Jack Straw's comments on the veil seems to have inspired a new continental fashion. Latest to join the fray is the Dutch government, which in the run-up to tomorrow's general election announced plans to ban the wearing of the burka and face veil in public. By doing so, it has raised what is becoming a Europe-wide campaign to a new level of authoritarianism. Naima Azough, a Dutch Green MP, points out that the ban would apply to fewer than 100 women. "This didn't come from public pressure," she says, "but was initiated by the immigration minister, Rita Verdonk, whose Liberal-Conservative party is scrambling for far-right votes." The result will simply reinforce the perception of Muslims that they will never be accepted in Dutch society.

A bid to bring the female voice to Islamic law
Ben Arnoldy, CSM
NEW YORK – For centuries, devout Muslims have looked to the fatwa - an opinion based on religious reasoning of a learned individual or committee - for direction on how to resolve moral dilemmas ranging from the mundane to the sublime. And for centuries, Muslim women have conceded the ground, for the most part, to the men who issue these opinions. That's beginning to change. Meeting in New York over the weekend, Muslim women from 25 countries began laying groundwork for the first international all-female council formed to issue fatwas. Their idea: to ensure that women's perspectives on Islamic law become part of religious deliberation in the Muslim world - particularly on issues such as domestic violence, divorce, and inheritance.

Parents halt school mosque trip
BBC News
Parents have forced a school trip to a mosque to be abandoned because they did not want their children exposed to a religion that was not their own.  A class of 10-year-olds at Atwood Primary, Croydon, south London, were due to tour Croydon Mosque as part of their religious education lessons. But a number of parents withdrew their support saying their children were too young to learn about other faiths. The school said as a result the trip was no longer financially viable. Head teacher Alex Clark said some parents did not want their children to experience a religion that was not their own, others thought the pupils were too young and some preferred them to spend time on other subjects.

And check out:
Watchdog warns of rival Muslim factions and pressure from militants at jail (the Guardian)
A terrible legacy of hatred and death (Robert Fisk)
Beyond the Veil (Fareena Alam, Newsweek International)
'Fanatics – fit in or ship out', says Jon Gaunt (Islamophobia Watch)
It's not personal, Sunny. It's strictly business (Inayat Bunglawala, Guardian CIF)
Anti-racist groups withdraw support for CRE race conference (Blink)
So much for so little (Gary Younge, Guardian CIF)

Monday November 20 2006
Study rejects claim that Muslim areas harbour terrorists
Vikram Dodd, The Guardian
Muslims living in ghettos are no more likely to become involved in terrorism than those living in mixed areas, according to research to be published today. The study by Manchester University says that "terrorist hotbeds" are a fantasy and concludes that Islamist terrorists are as likely to come from towns and cities with small Muslim populations as from so-called "self-segregating" Muslim areas. In the wake of the July 7 bombings the government set up a special commission on integration aiming to tackle "segregation" which it has been claimed contributes to violent extremism.

And check out:
Mohammad Parvaiz murder trial begins (Huddersfield Examiner)
Livingstone decries vilification of Islam (The Guardian)
Letter from 'Terror Suspect' Detainees (UK Watch)
How Religious Movements Prolong the Arab-Israeli Conflict  (Karen Armstrong: Electronic Intifada)

Sunday November 19 2006
Muslim leader sent funds to Irving
Jamie Doward , The Observer
One of Britain's most prominent speakers on Muslim issues is today exposed as a supporter of David Irving, the controversial historian who for years denied the Holocaust took place. Asghar Bukhari, a founder member of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC), which describes itself as Britain's largest Muslim civil rights group, sent money to Irving and urged Islamic websites to ask visitors to make donations to his fighting fund. Bukhari contacted the discredited historian, sentenced this year to three years in an Austrian prison for Holocaust denial, after reading his website. He headed his mail to Irving with a quotation attributed to the philosopher John Locke: 'All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good people to stand idle.'

Working on the internet from an anonymous city office, the shadowy figures exposing Islamic extremism
Andrew Alderson, Sunday Telegraph
They are both British and in their 50s. One is a City financier, the other an ex-member of the Armed Forces. And 18 months ago they became the unlikely financiers of a secretive organisation that, alongside BBC journalists, last week revealed how a cleric banned from Britain is using pseudonyms to broadcast his support for terrorism into the UK. The two "patriots" who set up Vigil keep their identities secret, but others from the organisation agreed to talk to The Sunday Telegraph. Vigil's founders believe that the police, security and intelligence services are so overstretched that they need help.

Blair bid to ban group 'opposed'
BBC News Online
Fresh attempts by Tony Blair to ban a radical Muslim group are facing opposition from the police and Home Office officials, the BBC has learned. It is understood no direct links have been found between Hizb ut-Tahrir and a support for violence. Home Office officials are also understood to be concerned a successful legal challenge to a ban would be highly damaging. Hizb ut-Tahrir says it is opposed to violence. The political party advocates the creation of an Islamic state across the Middle East. Last year the prime minister said he would like to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir but the group has remained off the list of proscribed groups.

And check out:
The Halal Haribos for Muslim children (Halal Haribos)
Burqa ban splits Holland (Sunday Times)

Saturday November 18 2006
Universities focal points for radical Islamists, says minister
Tania Branigan, The Guardian
Universities have become focal points of Islamist extremism and are potential recruiting grounds for radicals of all kinds, the higher education minister, Bill Rammell, said as he published new campus guidance on tackling Muslim extremism. Campaigners warned that the government was risking "Islamic McCarthyism" after the Guardian revealed last month that lecturers and library staff would be urged to spy on "Asian-looking" and Muslim students, informing special branch if they were suspicious about individuals. Those references are excised from the guidance issued by the Department of Education yesterday, which says: "This document is concerned with recognising and tackling this form of extremist behaviour and protecting students, not with targeting or monitoring particular individuals or groups of individuals."

'Tutors, imams and police must unite to spot extremists'
Alexandra Blair and Sean O'Neill, The Times
Students should be taught how to spot extremist infiltrators to prevent them from preying on vulnerable young people, according to official guidelines published yesterday. Radical speakers with a history of inciting racism could be banned from campuses, say the guidelines, and tutors should work more closely with mosques and imams to prevent “extremism in the name of Islam” taking hold. Lecturers should also work with the police, learning to recognise the signs of violent extremism and being more vigilant when students disseminate or preach radical Islamist views.

Extremist Muslims recruit in universities
By Graeme Paton, The Telegraph
Britain faces a sustained threat from extremist Islamic groups recruiting in British universities, the Government warned today. Releasing new guidance designed to root out suspected terror cells, Bill Rammell, the higher education minister, said there was evidence that undergraduates were being "groomed" by groups infiltrating campuses disguised as ordinary students. The document, released to all universities today, warns lecturers to be vigilant of students suspected of circulating extremist literature and extremist speakers visiting campuses. It outlines a series of "scenarios" based on real events reported by university and college staff to illustrate the kind of threat being posed.

How radical preachers turned a young man into a suicide bomber
Sean O’Neill, The Times
Islamist groups first identified Britain’s universities as a fertile recruiting ground almost two decades ago. They followed the example set by the far Left, which had been hugely successful in the 1980s in attracting young people with impressionable minds to simplistic utopian ideologies. The Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT) organisation - which at the time was under the control of the radical cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed - was active on a number of campuses. Over a period of weeks in 1988, as a young journalist reporting on the radicalisation of Muslim youth, I often accompanied one of Bakri Mohammed’s organisers as he criss-crossed London arranging and talking at meetings in university rooms and mosques.

And check out:
Campus radicals 'serious threat'  (BBC News)
Here is the lesson: persecution helps them all flourish (The Times)
Read the new guidance on tackling extremism on campus here (pdf)

Friday November 17 2006
The primacy of politics
Anas Altikriti, Guardian CIF
It goes without saying that unless a problem is properly diagnosed, chances of solving it become extremely remote. Thus when Peter Preston wrote in the Guardian on Monday on the roots of terrorism, quickly followed by a report heavily endorsed by the United Nation's general secretary, confirming that at the heart of the conflict that seems to be increasing in intensity and in scope, is the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one had hope that at last the problem was being properly diagnosed. Finally, there was a growing realisation that it wasn't Islam that was the problem, or even "radical Islam" or "Islamofascism", that was the central cause of the strife that engulfs the world today. Rather, it was an essentially political problem that needed to be addressed through political means.

Newsnight's own-goal
Inayat Bunglawala, Guardian CIF
I have known about Hizb ut-Tahrir ("the party of liberation") since I left school for university in 1987. Its dedicated and earnest members were active at several London campuses trying to gain recruits among future British Muslim professionals. Their message was simple, insistent and, to some, convincing: Muslim majority countries were in a backward condition due to a combination of incompetence on the part of their rulers and ruthless political and economic exploitation by western governments. They proposed that the creation of an Islamic super-state, the Caliphate, run by devout Muslims, would remedy these ills and help Muslims regain the respect they had lost in recent centuries.

A project of dispossession can never be a noble cause
Ahdaf Soueif, The Guardian
Before Donald Rumsfeld departed from the Pentagon, the "Transformation Group" he headed worked with an Israeli army team to develop ideas for controlling the Palestinians after Israel withdraws from the occupied territories. Eyal Weizman, an Israeli academic who has written about this cooperation, tells us that they decided to do this through an invisible occupation: Israel would "seal the hard envelopes" around Palestinian towns and generate "effects" directed against the "human elements of resistance". We saw this concept being implemented in Beit Hanoun last week when the Israeli army killed 19 sleeping people with a missile attack.

Holland bans burkas and veils
George Pascoe-Watson
Women are to be banned from wearing burkas and veils in Holland. The Dutch government last night confirmed plans to outlaw the wearing of traditional Muslim gowns in public places. It declared that it was acting out of concerns for national security. Immigration minister Rita Verdonk — dubbed Iron Rita for her tough stance on immigration — said: “We will act as soon as possible, banning burkas and other clothing that covers a person’s entire face in public places. “The Cabinet finds it undesirable that face-covering clothing, including the burka, is worn in public places for reasons of public order, security and protection of citizens.” Holland’s move is bound to reopen the debate in Britain about the wearing of traditional Muslim dress.

Extremism advice 'could backfire'
BBC News Online
Universities, teaching staff, students and unions have warned advice urging them to target Islamic extremism on campuses could be counter-productive. Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell issued practical guidance on Friday about tackling the promotion of "extremism in the name of Islam". Officials believe there is a serious, although not widespread, threat of violent extremism on campuses. But unions warn that "demonising Muslims is unacceptable and dangerous".

Universities providing 'recruiting ground' for terror – report
Daily Mail
Universities provide a "recruiting ground" for the violent Islamic extremism that poses a serious threat to Britain, a Government report warns today. Lecturers are told to look out for impressionable students who could fall under the influence of extremists and radical preachers on campus. The report details cases including students watching bomb-making videos on the internet in a college library and using prayer rooms for radical meetings. The Department for Education has set out guidance urging university staff to be ready to contact the police if they fear that students have been "groomed" by extremists.

And check out:
Death Row Brit returns home (The Sun)
Muslim convert wins tribunal case (BBC News Online)
Why Islamic hate on campus needs to be tackled (The Times)
Briton jailed for first "web-rage" attack (Reuters)
Tougher vetting of students needed to combat campus extremism (The Guardian)

Thursday November 16 2006
So, Mr. Islam Has A New Album Out...
Zahed Amanullah, Alt.Muslim
Before famed musician and Muslim activist Yusuf Islam released his long anticipated and well received new album An Other Cup this week, he remarked how he was inspired to pick up the guitar again four years ago after his then 17-year old son, Muhammad Islam, left his where he could see it. Since then, Yusuf has made his full transition from a tentative post-9/11 live performance of Peace Train at a benefit concert, to the full musical embrace (Cat Stevens-era collaborators included) we see today.

Muslim group posts videos on YouTube
Duncan Gardham, The Telegraph
Muslim fundamentalists have harnessed the technology of mainstream internet sites to produce a huge growth in propaganda videos, experts say. Among those taking advantage of the internet is the group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which has a number of its videos on the popular site YouTube. HuT was caught in controversy yesterday after an informant claimed that it was showing violent videos and teaching young people to attack non-believers in Croydon, south London. HuT denies promoting the use of violence or criminal activity. However, many of its well-produced videos are available to young people across the world at a click of a mouse.

Extremist at the Home Office will keep his job
James Slack and Gordon Rayne, Daily Mail
A Home Office official exposed as a leading member of an Islamic extremist group will keep his £40,000 job because Tony Blair has failed to ban the organisation. In the wake of the July 7 bombings last year, the Prime Minister promised to outlaw Hizb ut-Tahrir, who refuses to condemn suicide bombers and has called for the destruction of Israel. But nothing has been done. As a result, Abid Javaid's bosses at the scandal-hit Immigration and Nationality Directorate are powerless to sack the 41-year-old.

Church urged to ban BNP supporters from communion
Hugh Muir, The Guardian
Supporters of the racist philosophies of the British National party should be banned from taking communion because their beliefs conflict with key tenets of the Christian faith, the head of Britain's race watchdog said yesterday. Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, used a speech to church leaders to criticise their silence over the BNP's depiction of itself as a Christian-based party. Mr Phillips told the Temple Address, a high-profile interdenominational gathering, that the BNP's policies against people of other races and other religions using the cloak of Christianity demanded a robust response from established churches.

Here are two signs of hope for the world's secret superpower
Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian
You may not realise it, but you are at this moment looking at a weapon more powerful than most in the possession of the US army. A cluster bomb can kill or maim thousands of people but this weapon can bring millions to allow their rulers to start new wars. This weapon is called a newspaper. These days, though, much of its impact comes from its dissemination through electronic screens. Beside it in the new arsenal are radio, television, blogs, webcasts and text messages.

And check out:
Death-row Briton wins reprieve (The Times)
'Heavyweight' Brown gets nod as Blair lays out his final battleground (The Guardian)
Migrants' AIDS epidemic threat (The Sun)
Sikh boy's hair cut off in racist attack by knife gang (The Times)
6000 hidden images of a colonial past go on show (Daily Mail)
Watchdog warns against 'rush to judgment' on extending 28-day detention (The Guardian)
Weather in Arabia, crisis in Gaza, and no sign of Sir David's Through the Cavehole (The Guardian)
Muslim convert wins tribunal case (BBC News Online)

Wednesday November 15 2006
Hate videos of Muslim group they failed to ban
Duncan Gardham, The Telegraph
A Muslim organisation which the Government chose not to ban is preaching hatred and has infiltrated the Home Office, an investigation has revealed. Hizb ut-Tahrir is showing inflammatory videos to small groups of followers then encouraging them to attack non-believers. An HuT member has gained a job as an information technology worker in the Immigration and Nationality Directorate of the Home Office and been given a grant to organise an event for the radical group, it has been claimed in an undercover investigation by Vigil, a group campaigning against religious extremism. In a mocked-up video shown to new recruits, a woman interrogator at Guantánamo Bay was shown wiping blood over the face of a prisoner to make him confess. A student in his twenties, who posed as a recruit to HuT, said: "The reaction was shocking."

Man still quizzed on mosque fire
BBC News Online
Police are continuing to question a 36-year-old man about a suspected arson attack at Wales' biggest mosque. The committee of the Madinah Mosque in Cathays, Cardiff, which was badly damaged in the attack, are hoping to be to inspect it later. About a quarter of the building was destroyed in the fire which broke out early on Tuesday. Fire-fighters spent hours bringing it under control, managing to save copies of the Koran and religious artefacts. The mosque remains closed while forensic examinations are carried out. Mosque leaders have been told that access depends on advice from a structural engineer and a health and safety report. Police said they would be holding a meeting later with mosque leaders to update them on the investigation.

Blair pushes US on Palestine conflict
Philip Webster and Tim Reid, The Times
Tony Blair sought yesterday to increase the pressure on the US Government to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a way of preventing moderate Muslims from being exploited by extremists. Appearing by video link before the Iraq Study Group, set up by President Bush to chart a new course for the country, the Prime Minister said repeatedly that the biggest factor in getting moderate Muslim countries to support the new Iraq would be progress on the Palestinian issue. His demand coincided with growing signs that the bipartisan group was increasingly concerned over expectations that it could plot an end to the war. Privately members concede that no “magic solution” exists.

The millions of reasons to see Islam in a new light
Simon Fanshawe
This is a conversation I had recently with a young Muslim woman. It started off at a conference in front of an audience of youth workers and continued on the phone. I know few practising Muslims. Which is hardly surprising. After all, they constitute only 3% of the population. She has profoundly opened my mind about her faith.
Simon Fanshawe: If we were on the radio and I said to the listeners that you were wearing the hijab, they wouldn't see in their minds who I see in front of me now. (This is because she is wearing a bright pink hijab, a white jacket, pink flowing skirt and jewelled slippers).
Isra Jawad: I know. My friends and I call ourselves the Hijabi Barbies.

Hook son's job at Westminster
Nick Parker, The Sun
The terrorist son of extremist cleric Abu Hamza rubbed shoulders with ministers and MPs after getting a job working around Parliament. Mohammed Kamel Mostafa — jailed in Yemen for plotting to bomb British and US targets — was employed to re-turf Westminster’s Abingdon Green. It is the spot where politicians are often interviewed for TV. In telly footage obtained by The Sun, Mostafa can be seen strolling past former cabinet minister Robin Cook. Mostafa, 25, did not mention he was jailed for three years in 1999 for plotting terror attacks when he applied for the £220-a-week labouring job with Westminster City Council. Criminal record checks made by his employers — council contractors Vista Landscape Management — failed to spot his past crimes. Incredibly, it was because they were committed overseas. But check out this link here.

And check out:
Leading member of Muslim extremist group working at the Home Office (Daily Mail)
I love Britain not terror, says son of Abu Hamza (The Times)
Hizb ut-Tahrir responds to Newsnight allegations (Islamophobia Watch)
Newsnight/Vigil/Hizb Update (Shiraz Socialist)

Tuesday November 14 2006
Hamza's son 'proud to be British'
BBC News Online
The convicted terrorist son of jailed cleric Abu Hamza has sought to distance himself from the radical Islamic views of his father. Mohammed Kamel Mostafa, 25, who served three years in jail for spearheading a bombing campaign in the Yemen in 1999, has said "I'm proud to be British". Mostafa sparked anger last month when it emerged he had had a job working on the London Underground. He told the BBC: "To defend myself, I've got nothing against this country." Mustafa was sacked from his job working for a sub-contractor on the Tube network, when his identity was uncovered. Mostafa was jailed after being convicted of plotting to sabotage economic and tourist sites in the Yemen, but claims he was innocent.

BBC frightened of criticising Islam, says archbishop
Jonathan Petre, Daily Telegraph
The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has accused the BBC of bias against Christianity and says the broadcaster fears a terrorist backlash if it is critical of Islam. The archbishop, the second most senior figure in the Church of England's hierarchy, said Christians took "more knocks" than other faiths at the hands of the BBC. "They can do to us what they dare not do to the Muslims," he said. "We are fair game because they can get away with it. We don't go down there and say, 'We are going to bomb your place.' That is not in our nature." In flat contradiction to this statement  vis-à-vis Christian threats to the BBC, see here.

William Montgomery Watt: Obituary
Richard Holloway, The Guardian
Professor William Montgomery Watt, who has died aged 97, was a legendary figure among Islamic scholars. He dedicated his life to the promotion of dialogue between Christians and Muslims. Of his many publications, he is most famous for three books on the Prophet Muhammad, acknowledged by experts to be classics in the field. William discovered Islam in 1937. He said of his commitment to the study of Islam that he always had an ability to see the other person's point of view - "indeed, almost a tendency to prefer the other's point of view". He became fascinated by the historical prejudice of the west against Islam, which Norman Daniel, author of Islam and the West: the Making of an Image, made clear to him had been created by 12th to 14th-century scholars as war propaganda in support of the crusades.

Family outraged by murder payment
BBC News Online
The family of an Asian prisoner murdered by a racist cellmate have described the government's offer of £25,000 in compensation as "paltry". Zahid Mubarek, 19, died in 2000 after psychopathic killer Robert Stewart bludgeoned him to death at Feltham Young Offenders' Institution, London. A spokesman for the family, Suresh Grover, said the money offered was "a slap in the family's face". Earlier this year, an inquiry found the murder could have been prevented. The public inquiry, led by Mr Justice Keith, named 19 individuals and 186 failings. It concluded that Stewart should have been identified as a risk.

Luxury timeshares on offer at Islam's holiest pilgrimage site
Riazat Butt, The Guardian
It is the holiest site in Islam, the birthplace of the prophet Muhammad and the place the world's Muslim population turns and prays to five times a day. Millions of people make a pilgrimage to Mecca every year to wash away their sins, but muddying the waters of this spiritual experience is a $390m (£205m) luxury timeshare development looming over the House of Allah.Timeshare, a concept more usually associated with Torremolinos and the Algarve, has spread to Mecca and divided opinion in the Muslim world. Built by the Binladin Group, the construction firm founded by Mohammed bin Laden, the father of Osama, the ZamZam tower offers five-star accommodation, a shopping centre, restaurants and a car park.

Also check out:
Al-Qaida plotting nuclear attack on UK, officials warn (The Guardian)
Poor lab controls increase risk of bioterrorism, experts warn (The Guardian)
Blair speech on a 'whole Middle East strategy': full text (The Times)
Another anti-Muslim rant from Jon Gaunt (Islamophobia Watch)
Bishops asked to help Christian students (The Times)
Vatican enters Muslim veil debate (BBC News Online)

Monday November 13 2006
Religious hatred is no more than a variety of racism
Soumaya Ghannoushi, The Guardian
After his acquittal on the charge of inciting racial hatred, Nick Griffin was asked whether he was a racist. He replied that he was no longer one, that he is now a "religionist". But should we believe that Griffin has really abandoned the racism that frames his ideology and that of the party he leads? Of course not. All Griffin has done is stretch from one category of racism to another - without breaking with the former: from a discourse founded on racial hatred to one based on religio-racial hatred. In the speech for which he and his assistant, Mark Collett, were taken to court, the two shifted effortlessly from referring to Islam as "this wicked, vicious faith" that "has expanded from a handful of cranky lunatics about 1,300 years ago", to speaking of Asian "muggers", "rapists", "bastards", "cockroaches" and "ethnics" who need to be "shown the door".

Archbishop questions role of veil
Daily Mail
One of the Church of England's most senior figures has questioned whether Muslim women should expect public acceptance for wearing the veil in Britain. The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, said he did not think the veil conformed to "norms of decency". In an interview with the Daily Mail, the Archbishop said he never wore a cross when visiting a synagogue or mosque and covered his head in temples, explaining: "Because I am going into someone else's home. And I can't simply say: 'Take me as I am, whether you like it or not.' The implication, of course, is that Britain is not a Muslim's home.

Ministers 'exploit terror fears'
BBC News Online
Tony Blair's anti-terror policy is being "submerged" by party political interests, a report says. The Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust said ministers could be accused of "exploiting the politics of fear". And by trying to win "the white working class vote" they risked alienating Muslims who could help defeat terror. The Home Office, which makes "no apology" for bringing in tough laws, is preparing fresh anti-terror measures to be unveiled in the Queen's Speech. These might include a new effort to extend to 90 days the time that terror suspects can be held by police before being charged. The director of public prosecutions Ken Macdonald told the BBC on Monday he backed a fresh review if there was evidence that a longer time limit would prove useful. Link to report.

Annan Says Mideast Key To Bridging Islam-West Gap
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
November 13, 2006 -- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today the gap in understanding between Islamic and Western societies will not be bridged until the Arab-Israeli conflict is addressed. He said no other conflict exerts such a powerful force over Muslims around the world. "We must start by reaffirming and demonstrating that the problem is not the Koran, or the Torah, or the Bible," he said. "Indeed, as I have often said, the problem is never the faith; it is the faithful and how they behave toward each other." Annan was speaking in Istanbul after receiving a report from a high-level group of scholars and religious leaders on ways to alleviate Muslim-Western clashes and misunderstandings.

Leave Christmas alone, say Muslims ( The Telegraph)
Pensioner marries terror suspect (BBC News Online)
Prayers at school 'lead to abuse' (BBC News Online)
Arson attack 'racially motivated' (BBC News Online)

Sunday November 12 2006
Reid prepares 'script of British values' to win over Muslims
Francis Elliott & Sophie Goodchild, Independent on Sunday
John Reid is crafting a "script of British values" to fight a propaganda war with al-Qa'ida for the hearts and minds of a "lost generation" of Muslims. The head of MI5 revealed last week that at least 1,600 young Britons are under surveillance for plotting terrorist violence. Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller said that she was alarmed at the scale and speed of the radicalisation of Muslim youths, some still at school. But while al-Qa'ida and similar organisation make sophisticated use of the internet, DVDs and even board games to recruit terrorists, the Government is still struggling to find the language it should use in response.

Muslims are not doing enough to help this country fight terror, says Met Chief
Ben Leapman, Sunday Telegraph
Muslims are not doing enough to help police crack terrorist plots, says Britain's top policeman. Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Force Commissioner, says Muslims initially went into denial over the problem of terrorism. He believes that encouraging greater co-operation will be a "slow" and "delicate" process. His remarks follow last week's warning from Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the head of MI5, that more than 1,600 people in Britain are actively involved in plotting Islamic terrorism. Sir Ian was speaking during a visit in Berlin, where he delivered a speech calling for an extension to the 28-day limit for the detention without charge of terrorist suspects.

My week: Rageh Omaar
The Observer
All my weeks begin earlier than I want them to. Half an hour or more before my bedside radio is due to leap into life and rouse me from an all too brief sleep, one of my children will gingerly creep into our bed, despite dire warnings about what will happen if they wake me before the alarm. As soon as I am compos mentis on Monday I tell my daughter Loula, five, that I will have to remove a star from her star chart and this will mean no yoghurt raisins (a particular addiction of hers) at all for the rest of the week or pancakes with maple syrup at the weekend. I say this with a tone that so lacks conviction that my feisty daughter completely ignores me. I vow to work on a more assertive and scary dad voice.

And check out:
UK 'ministry of propaganda' will take fight to al-Qa'ida (IoS)
Churches to unite at historic summit against rise in anti-religious public feeling (Sunday Telegraph)

Saturday November 11 2006
Islamic hip-hop artists are accused of indoctrinating young against the West
Sean O’Neill, The Times
Hip Hop and rap artists are teaching young Muslims the ideology of radical Islamism through songs about the war in Iraq, the oppression of Muslims and the creation of an Islamic state governed by Sharia, or religious law. Intelligence agencies have identified music as a “tool for indoctrination”. The phenomenon began with an American group called Soldiers of Allah. The group has since disbanded but its music and lyrics remain popular on the internet. Other groups in Britain, France and the US have been identified as giving cause for concern. Many use the derogatory term “kufur” to describe non-Muslims. Madeleine Gruen, an American intelligence analyst, highlighted the lyrics of a British group called Blakstone as a possible gateway to extremist politics.

Racist bullying 'rising at schools'
Graeme Paton, The Telegraph
Pupils are being urged to help protect Muslim children from bullying in the playground amid claims that racist attacks have increased since the July 7 bombings. The move, by the Department for Education and Skills, comes after the Muslim Council of Britain warned that racist bullying was being swept under the carpet in many state schools. Last week, a group of 13 Muslim girls were allegedly attacked by white pupils while praying in the playground at Manning comprehensive, an all-girls school in Nottingham. The school said a room had now been provided for prayers. Tahir Alam, the chairman of the MCB's education committee, said: "Islamophobic bullying is an increasing problem. In many mainstream schools Muslims are marginalised and we need to start recognising the significance of Islamophobic bullying as a symptom of this bigger problem."

Blair backs MI5 warning over increasing threat of terrorism
Graeme Wilson, The Telegraph
The war against Islamic terrorism will "be with us for a generation", Tony Blair said yesterday after the head of MI5 warned that militants posed an increasingly grave threat to Britain. The Prime Minister said he fully endorsed Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller's warning and said the country faced a "long and deep struggle" to win the battle against al-Qa'eda. He urged people to confront the "poisonous propaganda" that was warping the minds of young Muslims. His message was echoed by Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, who described Dame Eliza's intervention as a "wake-up call for the British people". But Baroness Uddin, a Muslim Labour peer, voiced concern that the head of MI5 was trying to "up the ante" on the threat posed by terrorism.

Grandad dies after race hate fire bomb
Northern Echo
Community leaders last night appealed for calm after an Asian grandfather died following a racist arson attack on his daughter's home. Syed Sorafot Ali, 76, who lived in the next street, collapsed and died after rushing to the scene and seeing the terraced house ablaze. Bangladeshi couple Abul Kalam Azad and Syeda Sanaz Begum, and their five children, aged between two and 21, escaped. Police said a brick was thrown through a front bay window of their Sunderland home shortly before the fire was started in the hallway. Tensions are running high in the tightly-knit Bangladeshi community - where people say they are living in fear after this latest in a spate of attacks in the area.

And check out:
Race-hate laws to be changed after BNP case fails (The Times)
Netherlands moves toward total ban on Muslim veils (Guardian)
MI5 chief says Iraq war is driving British Muslims into terrorism (Independent)
Met plea for longer detention (Telegraph)
Blair: I'll beef up terror laws (The Sun)

Friday November 10 2006
1600 young British Muslims under MI5 surveillance for plotting terror
by Benedict Brogan, Daily Mail
At least 1600 young British Muslims are under surveillance for plotting terrorist violence against Britain, according to the head of MI5. Eliza Manningham Buller delivered a stark assessment of the threat facing the country from 200 terror networks stretching from the UK to Pakistan, including 30 "Priority 1" plots. In August Home Secretary John Reid claimed to know of 24 "major conspiracies", suggesting the dangers posed by organised terrorists is growing. Delivering the Government's latest assessment of the terror threat, the Director General of the Security Service revealed that her agency's caseload has increased by 80 per cent since January.

Head of immigration tribunals gives legal staff the OK to wear the veil in court
Steve Doughty, Daily Mail
Lawyers can wear the Islamic veil in court, senior judges have ruled. The ruling comes after an immigration judge refused to allow a lawyer to appear in his court wearing a full-face niqab earlier this week.  The immigration case was postponed after Muslim Shabnam Mughal said removing the veil would go against her religious beliefs. Yesterday, the country's most senior immigration judge said that legal representatives should be allowed to wear the veil because "it is important to be sensitive in such cases". Mr Justice Hodge, president of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, said: "The representative in the recent case has appeared veiled previously at hearings without difficulties."

Asians thrown off flight
John Troup and John Reilly, The Sun
Cops marched four Asian men off a plane after a passenger said their behaviour made him nervous. The men — in Islamic robes — were arguing in a foreign language and then all went to the toilet, one after the other. A fellow traveller on the Luton to Glasgow easyJet flight demanded they be kicked off — just as the plane was to taxi to the runway. Cabin crew alerted the captain and cops were called, who took the men, all in their 20s, off the plane. “The men were all wearing jackets over long Islamic robes. They had beards and looked like Muslims." In August Asian students Sohail Ashraf, 21, and Khurram Zeb, 22, were thrown off a jet as passengers wrongly thought they were terrorists.

An Other Cup message of peace
Simon Cosyns, The Sun
“I LIKE to take a walk out in the midday, checking life out in the park.” On paper, these words don’t sound that special, rather humdrum in fact. But wait till you hear them being sung. The living, breathing voice. The first line of the first track on the first album of new songs in 28 years by a true icon of contemporary music . . . Yusuf Islam, once known to millions across the world as Cat Stevens. And for anyone who knows and loves his music, it’s a magical moment. Something that didn’t seem possible after his conversion to Islam and rejection of the music business.

The banished voices of Muslim women
Soumaya Ghannoushi, CIF Guardian
I had intended to continue on the subject of the dangers of certain forms of secularism this week, particularly since it generated a stream of comments, some of which appeared to miss the point of the article entirely. But as I sit at my desk my thoughts seem occupied with a different topic altogether. Whatever I do these days, I seem unable to shake off the scenes of the women confronting the Israeli army unarmed in the occupied Palestinian town of Beit Hanoun. I do not know what it is about them that intrigues me so much, and keeps their images engraved in my memory.

And check out:
On feminism and fundamentalism (Samira Ahmed, Channel 4 Blog)
Reporting British Muslims: death cults and misogyny (Charlie Beckett)
More Britons are turning to terror, says MI5 director (The Times)
Cartoon protester stirred race hate (The Times)
MI5 boss: 200 terror cells in UK (The Sun)
Racist rabble-rousers let off (Indigo Jo Blog)

Thursday November 09 2006
Racial gap in employment 'will take 45 years to close'
Tania Branigan, The Guardian
A young black jobseeker will be facing retirement by the time he has the same job prospects as a white counterpart, a minister will warn today. Figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal the gulf in employment between white Britons and black or ethnic minority citizens - a gap that on current progress will take 45 years to close. Last week's report from the government's child poverty tsar, Lisa Harker, underlined the need to improve adult job prospects. Poverty rates among black African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi children are more than double the rate among white children, and are up to 10 percentage points higher for those living in black Caribbean and Indian households.

We overcame our fear
Jameela al-Shanti in Beit Hanoun, CIF Guardian
Yesterday at dawn, the Israeli air force bombed and destroyed my home. I was the target, but instead the attack killed my sister-in-law, Nahla, a widow with eight children in her care. In the same raid Israel's artillery shelled a residential district in the town of Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, leaving 19 dead and 40 injured, many killed in their beds. One family, the Athamnas, lost 16 members in the massacre: the oldest who died, Fatima, was 70; the youngest, Dima, was one; seven were children. The death toll in Beit Hanoun has passed 90 in one week.

Wednesday November 08 2006
Community pain after Kriss trial
Stephen Stewart, BBC Scotland news website
The scars run deep. Many people would rather forget the raw emotions and community tensions highlighted by the Kriss Donald trial. As one of Scotland's most high profile racially-motivated murder trials, it has raised issues which many find difficult to deal with. In many ways, Pollokshields, the area where Kriss was abducted, should have been a leitmotif for multiculturalism. But beneath the seemingly peaceful surface, tales have surfaced of mainly Asian gangs terrorising businesses and families.  But  local shopkeeper said: "In other parts of the city where the community is mostly white, the gangs will be made of white people. It's not a black, white or Asian issue, its a youth issue."

Lawyer refuses to take off veil
Joshua Rozenberg, The Daily Telegraph
A senior judge has been asked to decide whether female Muslim advocates may wear the veil in court. The question was referred to Mr Justice Hodge, president of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, by an immigration judge at Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, who had difficulty in hearing a veiled legal executive. Shabnam Mughal was dressed completely in black with a full-face veil leaving only her eyes visible. The judge, George Glossop, asked Miss Mughal on Monday if she would "kindly remove her veil to assist with communication". He told her: "It will allow me to see your face and I cannot hear you as well as I would like." She declined to do so and Immigration Judge Glossop briefly adjourned the case.

How young Hindu turned to Islam and Abu Hamza
Sean O’Neill, The Times
Dhiren Barot's conversion to Islam began as a revolt against his strict father but it brought him under the corrupting influence of the extremist cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri. The young convert, brought up in a Hindu family in Kingsbury, northwest London, met Abu Hamza soon after the firebrand preacher returned to Britain from Afghanistan, where he had lost both his arms and an eye while mixing explosives. It was 1994, long before the cleric achieved worldwide notoriety as the imam of Finsbury Park mosque. Abu Hamza was preaching violent jihad to audiences of young Muslims in mosques and community halls in London, Luton and other parts of Britain. [Yesterday, Barot was told he would have to serve at least 40 years before being considered for parole].

A holy huddle
Madeleine Bunting, CIF Guardian
Initially, I thought the idea of Theos, a thinktank with a Christian perspective drawing on theology to make a distinctive contribution to public debate, could be an interesting new venture. I spoke at the launch yesterday, curious to see if some old debates could be properly aired - such as the nature of a secular public sphere and how having a religious faith needn't preclude having a commitment to a separation of faith and state. These are issues that always get muddled. Religious belief and secularism are too often posited as opposites, yet the Victorian Christian Lord Acton argued, "the separation of church and state is the foundation of all political liberty".

Tuesday November 07 2006
Muslim officer sacked from guarding Blair
Robert Verkaik, The Independent
An experienced Muslim firearms officer has begun race and religious discrimination proceedings against the Metropolitan Police after he was removed from a close-protection unit guarding senior dignitaries, including Tony Blair. Amjad Farooq, 39, a father of five, was told he was a threat to national security because his children had attended a mosque associated with a Muslim cleric linked to a suspected terrorist group.  The officer was also told that his presence might upset the American secret service which worked closely with the Met's close-protection group.

Majority views religion as force for good
Jonathan Petre, The Daily Telegraph
Most people believe that religion is a force for good and should play an important part in national life, according to research published today at the launch of a counter-attack against secularism. The survey by Theos, a newly-formed religious think tank backed by the leaders of the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches, also found young people were less hostile to faith than their elders. Launching its initiative, which will refuel an already inflammatory debate over the role of Christianity and the State, Theos attacked "public atheism" and called for a "fight-back" for faith. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the head of Catholics in England and Wales, said that religion had rarely been so significant or so misunderstood.

Diary of Tube bomb plotter
Simon Hughes and Neil Syson, The Sun
Crazed Dhiren Barot planned to kill thousands of innocent people in Britain and America — with his Thames Tube horror the centrepiece of his plot. The attack formed part of an horrific blitz on the UK that included the Heathrow Express rail link and possibly top London hotels, a court heard yesterday. In a chilling document, the Al-Qaeda commander GLOATED about the prospect of his Thames outrage. Muslim convert Barot intended to use a dirty bomb in one of the strikes — where radioactive material is wrapped around a conventional explosive. Barot, who sat impassively in the dock, admitted conspiracy to murder at an earlier hearing. He is due to be sentenced today.

At the crossroads of secular tolerance and militant Islam
Jeremy Seabrook, The Guardian
A country torn by a low-intensity cultural civil war has seen at least 25 people die in this conflict in the last 10 days; its capital city is strewn with overturned cycle rickshaws, rocks and broken glass. A tense and watchful calm has since returned to Dhaka, one of the fastest-growing cities in the world, although sporadic violence continues in some outlying districts. This is Bangladesh, the country of origin of about 300,000 British people, with the fourth-largest Muslim population in the world. The disturbances at the end of October followed the end of the five-year mandate of the Bangladesh National party and its religious-party allies, Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikya Jote. These allies never believed in the existence of Bangladesh; they fought on Pakistan's side in the 1971 liberation war, in which at least a million Bengalis died.

And check out:
A quiet, middle-class boy who turned into a jihad warrior bent on killing (Telegraph)
Dhiren Barot: The Hindu boy who grew into an Islamic extremist (Independent -RN)
Your Saddam Hangman Kit  (The Sun)
The struggle for belonging (Billy Bragg, The Guardian)

Dundee Muslims urged not to help police unit (The Courier)    
...and...
Helping the Tayside police (Rolled-up Trousers)

And on the Radio:
Humphrys in Search of God (Radio 4)

Monday November 06 2006
British Muslim 'wanted to blow up Tube train under Thames'
Adam Fresco and Sean O’Neill, The Times Online
A terrorist plotted to explode a series of bombs in Britain, causing "the loss of innocent human life on a massive scale", including blowing up a train while it travelled underneath the Thames and using a dirty bomb. Dhiren Barot, 35, wanted to fill three limousines packed with gas cylinders, explosives and shrapnel and then blow them up in car parks under key buildings. Reconnaissance on well known London hotels and mainline railway stations were found by anti-terrorist police.

Why Muslims love the royals
Urmee Khan, Guardian G2
In the wake of Prince Charles's visit to Pakistan, now is an apt time to reflect on the strange hold that royals, and he in particular, have over Muslims. It may sound paradoxical, but it's not surprising that when Labour ministers queue up to tell modest women to take their veils off, there is a special affection for a prince whose public utterances on the subject have been marked by a sort of bumbling Islamophilia. Charles and Camilla's visit to Pakistan was a really important trip for my mum. She is obsessed with the royal family. Lots of mums are but, really, you have no idea how big the royals are with Bangladeshi women.

Sunday November 05 2006
Bishop attacks 'victim' Muslims
Christopher Morgan, The Sunday Times
The Church of England’s only Asian bishop, whose father converted from Islam, has criticised many Muslims for their “dual psychology”, in which they desire both “victimhood and domination”. In the most outspoken critique of Muslims by a church leader, Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, said that because of this view it would never be possible to satisfy all their demands. “Their complaint often boils down to the position that it is always right to intervene when Muslims are victims, as in Bosnia or Kosovo, and always wrong when the Muslims are the oppressors or terrorists, as with the Taliban or in Iraq,” said Nazir-Ali.
Muslims demand respect - but not for Christians
Michael Nazir-Ali, Telegraph (26/03/06)
Multiculturalism is to blame for perverting young Muslims
Michael Nazir-Ali, Telegraph (15/08/06)

Bishop attacks 'Muslim hypocrisy'
BBC News Online
A senior Anglican bishop has accused many Muslims of being guilty of double standards in their view of the world. The Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, told the Sunday Times some had a "dual psychology" in which they sought "victimhood and domination". The bishop, whose father converted from Islam, also said there were situations in which society could require Muslim women not to wear full-face veils. Society required recognition and identification in teaching, he said. Mr Nazir-Ali argued it would never be possible to satisfy all of the demands made by Muslims because "their complaint often boils down to the position that it is always right to intervene when Muslims are victims... and always wrong when Muslims are the oppressors or terrorists".

How veil remarks reinforced its support
Nasreen Suleaman, BBC News Online
Jack Straw's comments on veils have been good news for the owner of The Hijab Centre in the MP's constituency of Blackburn. Nadeem Siddiqui tells me he is selling more veils than he did before his local MP made his controversial remarks. Mr Siddiqui is the largest seller of veils in the area. "I used to sell two or three a week but now I am selling five to six. They are mainly being bought by young, British-born Muslim women," he said. "These women are experimenting with the wearing of the niqab. Their mothers often do not cover themselves but they seem to want to do it." It is probably not the impact that Mr Straw intended when he wrote in his local newspapers that he felt uncomfortable when dealing face to face with veiled women.

And check out:
Bishop hits at Muslims' 'victim mentality' (The Independent on Sunday)
Bishop: Many Muslims have victim mentality (Mail online, 14.40hrs)

Saturday November 04 2006
Veiled Muslim stopped from boarding a bus
Manchester Evening News [RN], James Ferguson and Alan Salter
A Muslim woman was prevented from getting on a bus in Greater Manchester because she would not remove her veil. The 22-year-old Manchester University student from Oldham says other passengers laughed when the driver refused to let her on because he could not check her identity with her bus pass. Now the driver’s bosses at First Manchester are to meet with their trade association, the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT), to seek advice on how to deal with the problem if other passengers with photo passes refuse to lift their veils. They say they have received no complaint from the woman and have been unable to track down the driver concerned.

Muslims may join Holocaust Day
Ruth Gledhill, The Times
Senior members of the Muslim Council of Britain are planning to end its boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day, The Times has learnt. Members of the council will meet next month to vote on whether to rescind the boycott. Increasing numbers of moderates on the council believe a boycott is no longer tenable. One senior insider said there was an increasing likelihood of the boycott coming to an end because it risked doing more harm than good to Britain’s 1.6 million Muslims.

Army wants more Muslim recruits
BBC News Online
The Army is hosting its first recruitment drive solely for young British Muslims. About 40 teenagers from Birmingham will be taught infantry skills and endure an army obstacle course. The forces are suffering a shortage of recruits and have been unable to attract many from the Muslim community. Those taking part in the event come from the same part of Birmingham as Jabron Hashmi, the only Muslim British soldier killed in Afghanistan. A report on Friday from the National Audit Office said the UK armed forces were 5,170 troops under strength. The strain of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan at the same time was one reason for shortages, the report said.

Friday November 03 2006
Prince devotes day to three faiths
Alan Hamilton, The Times
There are three million Christians in Pakistan, many more than there are Muslims in Britain. But in a population of 150 million they are a small minority and, according to a leading Roman Catholic churchman, an increasingly oppressed one. Lawrence Saldahna, Archbishop of Lahore, was among the leaders of the Muslim, Christian and Sikh faiths that the Prince of Wales met yesterday. The Prince spent the afternoon at a seminar discussing ways to bridge the gap between faiths. But the Archbishop believes that, despite the best efforts of the Prince and others, the gap is widening. “Christians are now discriminated against in Pakistan,” he told reporters during a reception for the Prince and the Duchess of Cornwall at Lahore Anglican Cathedral.

Coup regime backs Islamic law
Agencies and The Times
Surayud Chulanont, Thailand’s Prime Minister, has publicly apologised for the former government’s hardline policies against an Islamic insurgency. In an unexpected initiative, Mr Chulanont also said that he would urge the limited use of Islamic law in the Muslim- majority south to settle some disputes, especially over inheritance and family affairs. Named interim leader after a coup ousted the Government of Thaksin Shinawatra, the Prime Minister was speaking to about 1,000 Muslim teachers, local officials, students and villagers in the southern provincial capital. The southern provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat are the only ones with Muslim majorities in predominantly Buddhist Thailand.

Defiant Straw defends comments on veil
Riazat Butt, The Guardian
Jack Straw said last night it was "absurd" and "ridiculous" to suggest that his comments on the veil made him directly responsible for a rise in Islamophobic attacks. In his first speech since the furore caused by his remarks, the leader of the Commons and former home secretary stood by his local newspaper article in which he said he preferred his constituents to remove their veils when they came to see him, and insisted that he would write the same column again.

And check out:
Protester 'called for beheadings'  (BBC News)
BNP leader 'said Islam is wicked' (BBC News)

Thursday November 02 2006
Muslims must feel British - Straw
BBC News Online
Commons leader Jack Straw says he wants to avoid a situation where "the Muslim community, or any of our communities, feel isolated and defensive". A "stronger sense of shared British identity" was needed among all ethnic groups and religions, the Blackburn MP told an inter-faith conference at University College London. Some groups have criticised him for saying he asked Muslim women if they would remove their veils in meetings. But Mr Straw said a "frank debate" on the state of society was needed.

Usual suspects in 'rent-a-mob'
Thomas Whitaker, The Sun
Two of Britain’s most notorious Muslim fanatics spouted hate yesterday as protesters clashed with cops outside a court. Ranting preacher Anjem Choudary issued a chilling warning of further UK terror attacks after four people were arrested. He and trouble-stirrer Omar Brooks — who hurled abuse at Home Secretary John Reid in September — had joined an angry mob of 100 at London’s Old Bailey. They were protesting about the trial of Mizanur Rahman, 23, who was held during a hate demo against cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

French eject 70 terror suspect airport workers
Daily Mail
Scores of Muslim staff at France's main airport have been barred from working there over security fears. More than 70 workers at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris including baggage handlers have been stripped of security clearance by airport bosses for allegedly posing a risk to passengers. They are said to have visited terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan. A total of 72 people had their passes allowing access to secure areas withdrawn after 100 baggage handlers and aircraft cleaners had been under surveillance for months.

And check out:
Gonnae lay off the Muslim stuff? (Rolled Up Trousers)
Muslims arrested in Old Bailey demo (Telegraph)
Fury over 'PC' Guy Fawkes ban (The Scum)
Muslim graves damaged in cemetery (BBC News)
Priest burns himself to death over Islam (The Times)

Wednesday November 01 2006
One Friday
The Guardian G2
Criticised for their beliefs, clothing and attitudes; accused of not being British enough; reviled as the enemy within - not a day passes without Muslims being attacked in the media. So how does it feel to be Muslim in Britain today? Guardian writers asked people around the country - from a rear admiral to an organic farmer, a rapper to a gay rights campaigner, an accountant to a niqab-wearing teacher - to tell us how they spent last Friday. A G2 special. Read part two here.

Griffin makes anti-Islam speech outside race hate trial
Andrew Norfolk, The Times
The leader of the British National Party denounced Islam as "a vicious and wicked faith" today as he went on trial accused of trying to incite racial hatred. Nick Griffin clutched a cross and compared himself to fallen World War Two soldiers as he pledged that he, like them, was willing to die to keep the country "free, Christian and British". His speech was made with a megaphone to more than 500 cheering supporters of the far-right party outside Leeds Crown Court shortly after a jury was sworn in for the trial of Mr Griffin, 47, and another senior BNP member, 26-year-old Mark Collett. Each denies conduct which was intended or likely to stir up racial hatred.

And check out:
Government's plan to spy on Muslim students 'ridiculous' & 'racist' (Islamophobia Watch)
'Racism is the cause of segregation in society' (Islamophobia Watch)