Muslim extremists? Islamic terrorists? Al-Qaeda inspired terrorists? Islamofascists? Islamists? Jihadists? So ponders Timothy Garton Ash in today's Guardian. He concludes that 'jihadists' is best. Certainly, this has sometimes been used in Muslim circles for those that took a fighting view of the world.
Authorities in Saudi Arabia have defended a judicial sentence of 200 lashes for a rape victim. The justice ministry said in a statement that the sentence was justified because the woman was in a car with an unrelated man. The case has aroused controversy at home and condemnation abroad. US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said the sentence was an outrage and urged President Bush to put pressure on Saudi King Abdullah.
In his testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees last month, General David Petraeus claimed that Iran is using a special unit of its Revolutionary Guards, the Quds Force, to turn Shia militias into a "Hezbollah-like force" to "fight a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq". But at the same hearing, Petraeus embarrassed himself by stating that the Quds Force has left Iraq!
MPACUK is supporting the Lobby of Parliament: End Israeli Occupation: Peace for All. This is your chance to make sure your MP works for YOU - and urgently supports the human rights of our brothers and sisters in Palestine. Please make sure Muslims join all those working for justice at the important event.
There's a definite urge – don't you have it?– to say, 'The Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order'. What sort of suffering? Not letting them travel. Deportation – further down the road. Curtailing of freedoms. Strip-searching people who look like they're from the Middle East or from Pakistan. This statement is ‘not the ramblings of a British National Party thug, [...] but the reflections of Martin Amis, leading luminary of the English metropolitan literary world,’, as Professor Eagleton emphasised when he spoke out against the Islaophobic comments of distinguished author and fellow Manchester University professor Martin Amis.
On Remembrance Day 2007 – Veterans Day in America – the great and the
good bowed their heads at the Cenotaph. Generals, politicians,
newsreaders, football managers and stock-market traders wore their
poppies. Hypocrisy was a presence. No one mentioned Iraq. No one
uttered the slightest remorse for the fallen of that country. No one
read the forbidden list.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said the Middle East peace process must get "back on track", after meeting his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni. Mr Miliband's visit to Jerusalem comes ahead of a US conference to bring Israelis and Palestinians together.
What on earth will it take to wake up the Blackburn Muslims? How many knocks can they endure? How many insults can they tolerate? How much longer will they allow the Islamaphobes to run riot in their own backyard? Time and again, this Northern town attracts attention for all the wrong reasons and does little to lessen the challenges facing Muslims in Britain.
Gordon Brown's hopes of forging a political consensus over extending detention without charge beyond 28 days are expected to be dealt a heavy blow by the former attorney general Lord Goldsmith. In a meeting with the home affairs select committee next week, he is expected to say he has seen no evidence to justify the extension, and reveal that he was close to resignation when Tony Blair pushed for 90-day detention in 2005 before being thwarted by a backbench rebellion.
Our newspapers regard Muslims, not as citizens with equal rights, but as visitors in 'our' country. A report from the Greater London Authority yesterday (discussed here by one of its authors) found that the media in the UK are overwhelmingly negative about Muslims. One week in May 2006 was chosen for detailed scrutiny and out of 352 articles referring to Muslims, only four per cent were judged to be positive.
President Ahmadinejad says Iran's nuclear programme is peaceful. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said the US and its allies should apologise for their treatment of Iran over its nuclear programme. Mr Ahmadinejad said the latest report by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) showed Iran had been truthful about its nuclear activities.
Realizing that deep-seated misconceptions are propagated through ill-informed media, a leading US Muslims group is launching a nationwide campaign to help the media with accurate information about Islam and Muslims. "It is our duty, and that of the Muslim community, to make sure every journalist who writes about Islam or Muslims has access to accurate information," Rabiah Ahmed, Communications Coordinator at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in a press release.
Just how oppressive must a government become before we can justifiably say that it has turned a country into a police-state? Midnight knocks on the door? Security squads in black uniforms? The indefinite imprisonment of innocent individuals in prison cells and the immediate assumption of their guilt until proved innocent? Imprisonment for thought crimes? The use of torture to extricate information which may never otherwise be given? The permanent surveillance of a population at large?
Admiral Lord West, the security minister, was today forced into an abrupt and humiliating U-turn after publicly opposing Gordon Brown's bid to raise the time limit on holding terror suspects without charging.
Muslims are being "demonised" by the British media, with 91% of reports being negative, research commissioned by London's mayor has found. Ken Livingstone said the survey, by consultancy firm Insted, studied a week's news reports and found Islam was portrayed as a "threat to the West".
A new survey released today by the Greater London Authority confirms that London's Muslim communities shares common values and concerns with the wider community, repudiating the image of conflicting values portrayed by certain sections of the media. This shows the importance of working with the Muslim community and its leadership in the struggle against criminality – including terrorism.
Locals said what they disliked most about the PSCs is their "cowboy-like" behavior and their heavy weaponry. Enjoying the same immunity of colleagues in Iraq, private
security companies (PSC) are aggravating the prevailing sense of
insecurity in Afghanistan the chaos-mired country, a Swiss think-tank
concluded in a study released on Monday, November 12.
Britain's existing 28-day limit on holding terror suspects without charge is already far longer than that for any comparable democracy, according to a study to be published today. The survey, by the human rights organisation Liberty, was carried out by lawyers and academics in 15 countries.
Muslim extremists? Islamic terrorists? Al-Qaeda inspired terrorists? Islamofascists? Islamists? Jihadists? So ponders Timothy Garton Ash in today's Guardian. He concludes that 'jihadists' is best. Certainly, this has sometimes been used in Muslim circles for those that took a fighting view of the world.
Authorities in Saudi Arabia have defended a judicial sentence of 200 lashes for a rape victim. The justice ministry said in a statement that the sentence was justified because the woman was in a car with an unrelated man. The case has aroused controversy at home and condemnation abroad. US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said the sentence was an outrage and urged President Bush to put pressure on Saudi King Abdullah.
In his testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees last month, General David Petraeus claimed that Iran is using a special unit of its Revolutionary Guards, the Quds Force, to turn Shia militias into a "Hezbollah-like force" to "fight a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq". But at the same hearing, Petraeus embarrassed himself by stating that the Quds Force has left Iraq!
On Remembrance Day 2007 – Veterans Day in America – the great and the
good bowed their heads at the Cenotaph. Generals, politicians,
newsreaders, football managers and stock-market traders wore their
poppies. Hypocrisy was a presence. No one mentioned Iraq. No one
uttered the slightest remorse for the fallen of that country. No one
read the forbidden list.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said the Middle East peace process must get "back on track", after meeting his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni. Mr Miliband's visit to Jerusalem comes ahead of a US conference to bring Israelis and Palestinians together.
What on earth will it take to wake up the Blackburn Muslims? How many knocks can they endure? How many insults can they tolerate? How much longer will they allow the Islamaphobes to run riot in their own backyard? Time and again, this Northern town attracts attention for all the wrong reasons and does little to lessen the challenges facing Muslims in Britain.
Gordon Brown's hopes of forging a political consensus over extending detention without charge beyond 28 days are expected to be dealt a heavy blow by the former attorney general Lord Goldsmith. In a meeting with the home affairs select committee next week, he is expected to say he has seen no evidence to justify the extension, and reveal that he was close to resignation when Tony Blair pushed for 90-day detention in 2005 before being thwarted by a backbench rebellion.
Just how oppressive must a government become before we can justifiably say that it has turned a country into a police-state? Midnight knocks on the door? Security squads in black uniforms? The indefinite imprisonment of innocent individuals in prison cells and the immediate assumption of their guilt until proved innocent? Imprisonment for thought crimes? The use of torture to extricate information which may never otherwise be given? The permanent surveillance of a population at large?
Muslims are being "demonised" by the British media, with 91% of reports being negative, research commissioned by London's mayor has found. Ken Livingstone said the survey, by consultancy firm Insted, studied a week's news reports and found Islam was portrayed as a "threat to the West".
A new survey released today by the Greater London Authority confirms that London's Muslim communities shares common values and concerns with the wider community, repudiating the image of conflicting values portrayed by certain sections of the media. This shows the importance of working with the Muslim community and its leadership in the struggle against criminality – including terrorism.
Locals said what they disliked most about the PSCs is their "cowboy-like" behavior and their heavy weaponry. Enjoying the same immunity of colleagues in Iraq, private
security companies (PSC) are aggravating the prevailing sense of
insecurity in Afghanistan the chaos-mired country, a Swiss think-tank
concluded in a study released on Monday, November 12.
Britain's existing 28-day limit on holding terror suspects without charge is already far longer than that for any comparable democracy, according to a study to be published today. The survey, by the human rights organisation Liberty, was carried out by lawyers and academics in 15 countries.
