It’s hard to believe that the founders of a U.K. nationalist group infamous for its anti-Muslim street brawls are really defecting to the forces of ‘anti-extremism’ when their close ally is Pamela Geller. By Daniella Peled 11 Oct 2013 It was a sensational news story. Two leaders of a far-right nationalist anti-Muslim protest faction […]
Topical and Current Affairs
Have the U.K.’s leading nationalists really repented?
Egypt: getting away with murder
By Brian Whitaker 5 Oct 2013 The Raba’a massacre and Operation Schmooze On August 14, hundreds of Egyptians died when security forces violently dispersed sit-in protests against the military takeover that ousted President Morsi. One week later, hundreds of Syrians died in the chemical attacks near Damascus. Both these massacres were on a similar scale, and […]
Human chain formed to protect Christians during Lahore mass
By Web Desk / Aroosa Shauka 6 Oct 2013 The gathering outside the Lahore church. LAHORE: The Muslim and Christian communities came together during Sunday mass in a show of solidarity in Lahore. Hand in hand as many as 200-300 people formed a human chain outside the St Anthony’s Church adjacent to the District […]
What Happened to Egypt’s Liberals After the Coup?
Precious few political parties have spoken out against the military or its assault on the Muslim Brotherhood. Sharif Abdel Kouddous 1 October 2013 Khaled Dawoud worked hard to remove Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, from office. As the spokesperson for the National Salvation Front, a loose coalition of non-Islamist parties and groups formed […]
Egypt’s ‘revolution’ is over as people accept imposition of military rule
By Nancy A. Youssef 3 Oct 2013 CAIRO — Three months after the Egyptian military ousted the country’s first democratically elected president, Egypt now resembles the kind of police state whose oppressive policies gave rise to an iconic Arab Spring. Nearly three years and many protests, elections and governments later, it seems only the […]
The Mail on Miliband: What does it mean to call a Jewish person “un-British”?
We are not so far from a time when Jews were treated as undesirables, when right-thinking people preferred to ignore what was happening to them. We must not ignore the plight of those – the illegitimate, the rootless, the “illegal” – who fall on the wrong side of the line today. By Daniel Trilling […]
Zac Goldsmith Attacks Daily Mail’s ‘Nazi’ Links, Defends Ed Miliband
By Mehdi Hasan 1 Oct 2013 Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith has launched an outspoken attack on the Daily Mail for its founder’s support for “the Nazi cause”, in the wake of the newspaper’s relentlessly hostile coverage of Ed Miliband’s late father. Speaking at the Huffington Post UK’s fringe event at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Tuesday, the […]
Muslim Women Don’t Care If You Feel Uncomfortable
By Shaheen Sattar 30 Sept 2013 And neither should anyone else who decides to dress in a way that is subjectively unnerving to another person. The ridiculous subjugation of the veil as a cloth of oppression and regression truly highlights that Muslim women are not taken seriously in contemporary society. They are recognised with their […]
Civil society pleased but not satisfied with partial headscarf freedom
By FATMA DİŞLİ ZIBAK, İSTANBUL 1 Oct 2013 A group of headscarved women in Balıkesir are seen holding a demonstration to demand complete freedom to wear headscarves in the public sector in this 2012 file photo. Members of Turkish civil society have welcomed partial freedom granted to covered women who want to work in […]
When it comes to hypocrisy, Rohani is no challenge for Netanyahu
Maybe the sanctions really worked and Iran is reconsidering? But no, it’s automatic: Rohani is lying. Let’s bomb. By Gideon Levy 29 Sept 2013 This is how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to Iranian President Hassan Rohani’s speech at the UN General Assembly: The speech was full of hypocrisy. Tehran is playing for time. Netanyahu […]
By Khin Maung Win 2 Oct 2013 Totally blackened pillars stand among debris of a burnt building Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013, in Thandwe, Rakhine State, western Myanmar. Terrified Muslim families hid in forests in western Myanmar on Wednesday, one day after rampaging Buddhist mobs killed a 94-year-old woman and burned dozens of homes despite […]
Blackburn faith school tops new league table
29 Sep 2013 The Taheedul Islam Girls High School scooped the accolade for its astonishing success in terms of academic results A faith school in Blackburn has come top of the class in a new league table of secondary schools. The Taheedul Islam Girls High School scooped the accolade for its astonishing success in terms […]
Does al-Shabab Really Threaten the U.S.?
By Stephen M. Walt 26 September 2013 Sometimes you read a news story that brilliantly illuminates just what is wrong with the basic U.S. approach to national security these days. Case in point: today’s New York Times story headlined “U.S. Sees Direct Threat in Attack at Kenya Mall.” Of course we do. When was the last time […]
He’s back! Benedict XVI speaks out on sex abuse – and calls Richard Dawkins ‘science fiction’
By Tim Stanley 24 Sept 2013 We’ve heard very little from Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI since his retirement, but he’s made a surprise return to public life. Benedict has written a letter to the atheist mathematician Piergiorgio Odifreddi, covering subjects from the sex abuse scandal to evolution – and extracts have been released by Italy’s La Repubblica […]
Obama to World: Bad News. The American Empire Is Dead.
By Colum Lynch 24 Sept 2013 President Barack Obama, presented world leaders at the United Nations with an image of America as a reluctant superpower, ready to confront Iran’s nukes and kill its enemies with targeted drone strikes, but unprepared to embark on open-ended military missions in Syria and other troubled countries. That, he hinted, […]
What’s in a niqab?
By Dr H.A. Hellyer 24 Sept 2013 Almost precisely seven years ago, Britain was having this same discussion. A public official, Jack Straw, the then Leader of the House of Commons of the British Parliament, decided that it was appropriate for him to bring up the issue of Muslim British women wearing the face-veil/niqab in a commentary […]
Dilma Rousseff’s scathing speech to UN general assembly the most serious diplomatic fallout over revelations of US spying By Julian Borger, New York 24 Sept 2013 Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff speaks at the United Nations general assembly. Brazil‘s president, Dilma Rousseff, has launched a blistering attack on US espionage at the UN general assembly, […]
Blood on the Constitution America will never solve its gun problem until it gets over its fetish for the Founding Fathers. By Rosa Brooks 18 Sept 2013 Here we go again. With 12 dead bodies at Washington’s Navy Yard, not including that of the shooter, Americans are back to the usual handwringing: Why, oh why can’t we […]
Why I Quit My Job As An Investigations Editor In Egypt
By Hisham Allam 19 September 2013 Hisham Allam is an award-winning investigative reporter based in Cairo. He was an investigative editor for the El-Watan newspaper, but the recent crackdown on the Egyptian press has taken a toll on his freedom to report the truth. In this Secrets of the Masters interview, he describes his groundbreaking coverage of the Egyptian revolution […]
Let’s Be Honest About Israel’s Nukes
By VICTOR GILINSKY and HENRY D. SOKOLSKI 18 September 2013 THE recent agreement between the United States and Russia on Syria’s chemical weapons made clear what should have been obvious long ago: President Obama’s effort to uphold international norms against weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East will entangle the United States in a […]
High above Nazareth, an Israeli mayor wants to keep his city Jewish ‘now and forever’ “Upper Nazareth” Mayor Shimon Gapso stands on the terrace at city hall, looking out over his city and beyond in Nazareth, Israel on September 17, 2013. By William Booth and Ruth Eglash 20 Sept 2013 NAZARETH ILLIT, Israel — […]
Israel’s soldiers confront EU diplomats and confiscate aid
By John Reed in Jerusalem 20 Sept 2013 Israeli soldiers manhandled European diplomats and confiscated an aid truck carrying tents to homeless Palestinians in the West Bank on Friday in an incident likely to test Israel’s strained relations with European countries. The incident happened on Friday afternoon in the northern Jordan Valley when Acted, […]
Delaying EU settlement rules ‘reinforces Israeli intransigence’
By Michael Omer-Man 16 September 2013 The EU’s settlement guidelines, if implemented, could be the first step in showing Israel that there are consequences for its occupation and illegal settlement building, and actually push both sides toward a resolution to the conflict. Since the EU announced new guidelines regarding its activity in settlements in July, […]
So much for the sisterhood
Why don’t white feminists support Muslim women by respecting our right to make our own choices? By Salma Yaqoob 13 Oct 2013 Harriet Harman MP, Labour’s “in-house feminist”, has entered the debate on Muslim women and integration with the observation that “the veil is an obstacle to women’s participation, on equal terms, in society”. Her comments echo those […]
If I worked in Selfridges, I’d refuse to serve Tommy Robinson. In fact, I’d call security
By Time Stanley 18 Sept 2013 So Tommy Robinson (aka Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, Andrew McMaster, Paul Harris and Ilsa the She Wolf) walked into Selfridges with a friend and the chap behind the counter refused to serve them. Tommy filmed the incident (as you do) and Selfridges says that it was “very disappointed” by what happened […]
It’s not petulant to refuse Tommy Robinson service – it’s morally right
When a member of staff at Selfridges refused to serve the EDL leader, they were suspended from the store. But declining to interact with someone who sows hatred on a daily basis is a perfectly rational thing to do. By Alex Andreou 18 Sept 2013 I’m not going to do the thing of listing all […]
The debate about Muslim women wearing veils is not complex. This is Britain, and in Britain you can wear what you want
By Dan Hodges 16 sept 2013 This morning Lib Dem Home Office minister Jeremy Browne has created a bit of a storm by saying that we need a “national debate” on the topic of Muslim women wearing of veils. His call was echoed by Tory MP Dr Sarah Wollaston, who said that “we must not […]
France and the veil – the dark side of the law
French anti-veil laws are steeped in racism and have opened the door to abuse against Muslims. By Valeria Costa-Kostritsky 30 Nov 2012 In 2004, France introduced the law on “secularity and conspicious religious symbols in schools” which banned wearing conspicuous religious symbols in French public primary and secondary schools. Its supporters argued that this was keeping […]
Who Will Be Left in Egypt?
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD The New York Times 12 Sept 2013 Two years after thousands of Egyptian protesters risked their lives to bring down the dictator Hosni Mubarak, the military-controlled government in Cairo is expanding a repressive system that may ultimately be worse than the one Mr. Mubarak built […]
That Awkward Time Putin Called for Military Intervention in the New York Times
By J. Dana Stuster 12 Sept 2013 Russian President Vladimir Putin made a direct appeal to the American public in an editorial in Thursday morning’s New York Times. “The potential strike by the United States against Syria,” he writes, “despite strong opposition from many countries and major political and religious leaders, including the pope, will result in more […]