To commemorate the four year invasion of Iraq, MPACUK speak to an Iraqi living in the UK, to get a better understanding of the illegal war and subsequent occupation. On the 20th of March 2003, an illegal Anglo-American invasion against the people of Iraq was launched. As the war machine oiled its gears, our Prime Minister, Tony Blair told us that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that could be ready within 45 minutes. Part 1 of 3
His hands were bleeding and his eyes filled with tears as, four years ago, he slammed a sledgehammer into the tiled plinth that held a 20ft bronze statue of Saddam Hussein. Then Kadhim al-Jubouri spoke of his joy at being the leader of the crowd that toppled the statue in Baghdad's Firdous Square. Now, he is filled with nothing but regret. The moment became symbolic across the world as it signalled the fall of the dictator.
In the last election some of the MPACUK team went to Blackburn to ask Muslims not to vote for Jack Straw, a pro Israeli, pro war then foreign secretary. We were unbelievably opposed by Mosque leaders in the area who told the Muslims to carry on voting for Straw, because he served local Muslims' interests. "We are putting the interests of the Muslim community in the UK first and foremost and I don't have any shame in saying that".
In the last four years I find my mind slipping, not because I am losing my mind but because I am losing what is in it - people, places, the familiar things of home. In the landscape of the mind, we all have places and faces dear to us - the chaos of recent years has been such as to make a shattered mirror of the Iraq my memories reflected.
In an editorial comment, Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society denounces the Muslim Council of Britain's report (pdf) Meeting the needs of Muslim pupils in state schools (you know, the one that has been welcomed by the National Association of Head Teachers). Sanderson characterises the report as the work of "theocrats" whose "demands are never-ending" and who "want to turn our schools into religious minefields where Islamic sensibilities are waiting to trip you up around every corner".
Stop apologizing for al-Qaeda. You didn’t create them, the CIA did. Stop apologizing for every act of violence perpetrated by Muslims unless you demand that every Christian and Jew apologize for the murderous acts of their co-religionists, too. Enough already! Stand tall, walk proudly and love yourselves because Islam is a great religion and Islamic history is a very rich and impressive one.
The scene: a military checkpoint deep in Palestinian territory in the West Bank. A tall, thin elderly man, walking stick in hand, makes a detour past the line of Palestinians, many of them young men, waiting obediently behind concrete barriers for permission from an Israeli soldier to leave one Palestinian area, the city of Nablus, to enter another Palestinian area, the neighboring village of Huwara. The long queue is moving slowly, the soldier taking his time to check each person's papers.
Those who think that Muslim countries and pro-terrorist attitudes go hand-in-hand might be shocked by new polling research: Americans are more approving of terrorist attacks against civilians than any major Muslim country except for Nigeria. The survey, conducted in December 2006 by the University of Maryland's prestigious Program on International Public Attitudes, shows that only 46 percent of Americans think that "bombing and other attacks intentionally aimed at civilians" are "never justified," while 24 percent believe these attacks are "often or sometimes justified."
The dawn of Friday 15 Ramadan 1414 a.h. / 25 February 1994 marked the first of three massacres perpetrated by Israeli settlers accompanied by the Israeli Army. There were more than 30 martyrs and 270 injured. The main massacre took place while the victims were performing al- Fajr (Dawn) Prayer at Al Ibrahimi mosque.
It's nice to see everyone raising their voices to protest the sentencing of Egyptian blogger Abdel Karim Nabeel to four years in prison. International criticism of escalating Egyptian repression can only be good, whether the criticism is official or NGO or public. I add my voice to those who call for a revisiting of the verdict and for his release from prison.
I was going to put up a post about how the papers had been a bit quiet lately and I had been a bit too busy to have seen anything nasty. But today (21 February) the Express comes through with one of the most objectionable, hateful pieces of dishonesty and outright lying I have seen in recent times on its front page, so I'm saved the bother. 'Muslims tell us how to run our schools' says the headline of the paper version. Not entirely true, but not as bad as the headline of the online version: 'Muslims: 'Ban' un-islamic schools'.
I can’t believe I missed this one, but one can’t save everyone. Sometimes they have to look out for themselves. Beating the MCB and destroying it is not hard at all. It’s like a fat cow with no horns. Most of the time all it does is strut around hob knobbing with Zebra’s and giraffes telling them how great they are. All very well if the Zebra’s believe you, the problem arises when you are trying to convince the wolves.
The Policy Exchange report into the Muslim community has come in for criticism since its publication. Prominently, Tariq Modood and (perhaps surprisingly and therefore significantly) Ziauddin Sardar wrote a letter to the Guardian. The same newspaper then published a critique by Marie Breen Smyth and Jeroen Gunning who are respectively director and deputy director of the Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Contemporary Political Violence at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
June is already upon us, unbelievably, and along with the warm air, Saturday weddings, and gleeful cheers of graduating seniors comes another American tradition: Father's Day. Again, back in the days when I suffered from the fevers of fundamentalism, I repudiated any celebration of this "infidel" holiday. The Lord has graced me with believing otherwise now. Just like Mother's Day, I believe taking time to honor our fathers on Father's Day is wholly consistent with the principles of Islam.
Over the past six months, two notable developments have set Israel and diaspora Jewry adrift. The first was Israel's war in Lebanon, whose failure caused grave paralysis both in the military and within the government. The second was publication of the Walt-Mearsheimer essay about the Israel lobby's influence on US Mideast policy.
A furious row has been raging in the international Jewish community over the rights and wrongs of criticising Israel. At its centre is a British historian who accuses his fellow Jews in the US of stifling any debate about Israel. His opponents say his views give succour to anti-Semites. One thing's for sure: any appearance of consensus over the Middle East has been shattered.
Prime Minister Tony Blair today denied that Britain is now a police state, despite claims by Magistrates in Bootle that they had been 'overwhelmed by evidence' from the security services in the case of a man convicted of a parking offence. Doug Ramsbottom, a salesman, said: "I had intended to plead guilty to the offence of being three days late paying my parking fine, but I was shocked when I thought what would be a ten minute hearing turned into a 17 day trial. The prosecution felt obliged to present all of the evidence they had against me."
In a recent essay published by the American Jewish Committee, reflecting widely shared attitudes, Jews who criticised Israel and its policies were accused of stirring anti-Semitism. The executive director of the committee said "those who oppose Israel's basic right to exist, whether Jew or gentile, must be confronted".
Migrants fleeing persecution and poverty settled with their children in the East End of London. As believers in one God they were devoted to their holy book, which contained strict religious laws, harsh penalties and gender inequality. Some of them established separate religious courts. The men wore dark clothes and had long beards; some women covered their hair.
To commemorate the four year invasion of Iraq, 
His hands were bleeding and his eyes filled with tears as, four years ago, he slammed a sledgehammer into the tiled plinth that held a 20ft bronze statue of Saddam Hussein. Then Kadhim al-Jubouri spoke of his joy at being the leader of the crowd that toppled the statue in Baghdad's Firdous Square. Now, he is filled with nothing but regret. The moment became symbolic across the world as it signalled the fall of the dictator. 
In the last election some of the MPACUK team went to Blackburn to ask Muslims not to vote for Jack Straw, a pro Israeli, pro war then foreign secretary. We were unbelievably opposed by Mosque leaders in the area who told the Muslims to carry on voting for Straw, because he served local Muslims' interests. "We are putting the interests of the Muslim community in the UK first and foremost and I don't have any shame in saying that". 
In the last four years I find my mind slipping, not because I am losing my mind but because I am losing what is in it - people, places, the familiar things of home. In the landscape of the mind, we all have places and faces dear to us - the chaos of recent years has been such as to make a shattered mirror of the Iraq my memories reflected. 
In an editorial comment, Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society denounces the Muslim Council of Britain's report (pdf) Meeting the needs of Muslim pupils in state schools (you know, the one that has been welcomed by the National Association of Head Teachers). Sanderson characterises the report as the work of "theocrats" whose "demands are never-ending" and who "want to turn our schools into religious minefields where Islamic sensibilities are waiting to trip you up around every corner".
Stop apologizing for al-Qaeda. You didn’t create them, the CIA did. Stop apologizing for every act of violence perpetrated by Muslims unless you demand that every Christian and Jew apologize for the murderous acts of their co-religionists, too. Enough already! Stand tall, walk proudly and love yourselves because Islam is a great religion and Islamic history is a very rich and impressive one.
The scene: a military checkpoint deep in Palestinian territory in the West Bank. A tall, thin elderly man, walking stick in hand, makes a detour past the line of Palestinians, many of them young men, waiting obediently behind concrete barriers for permission from an Israeli soldier to leave one Palestinian area, the city of Nablus, to enter another Palestinian area, the neighboring village of Huwara. The long queue is moving slowly, the soldier taking his time to check each person's papers.
Those who think that Muslim countries and pro-terrorist attitudes go hand-in-hand might be shocked by new polling research: Americans are more approving of terrorist attacks against civilians than any major Muslim country except for Nigeria. The survey, conducted in December 2006 by the University of Maryland's prestigious Program on International Public Attitudes, shows that only 46 percent of Americans think that "bombing and other attacks intentionally aimed at civilians" are "never justified," while 24 percent believe these attacks are "often or sometimes justified." 
The dawn of Friday 15 Ramadan 1414 a.h. / 25 February 1994 marked the first of three massacres perpetrated by Israeli settlers accompanied by the Israeli Army. There were more than 30 martyrs and 270 injured. The main massacre took place while the victims were performing al- Fajr (Dawn) Prayer at Al Ibrahimi mosque.
It's nice to see everyone raising their voices to protest the sentencing of Egyptian blogger Abdel Karim Nabeel to four years in prison. International criticism of escalating Egyptian repression can only be good, whether the criticism is official or NGO or public. I add my voice to those who call for a revisiting of the verdict and for his release from prison.
I was going to put up a post about how the papers had been a bit quiet lately and I had been a bit too busy to have seen anything nasty. But today (21 February) the Express comes through with one of the most objectionable, hateful pieces of dishonesty and outright lying I have seen in recent times on its front page, so I'm saved the bother. 'Muslims tell us how to run our schools' says the headline of the paper version. Not entirely true, but not as bad as the headline of the online version: 'Muslims: 'Ban' un-islamic schools'.
I can’t believe I missed this one, but one can’t save everyone. Sometimes they have to look out for themselves. Beating the MCB and destroying it is not hard at all. It’s like a fat cow with no horns. Most of the time all it does is strut around hob knobbing with Zebra’s and giraffes telling them how great they are. All very well if the Zebra’s believe you, the problem arises when you are trying to convince the wolves.
The 
June is already upon us, unbelievably, and along with the warm air, Saturday weddings, and gleeful cheers of graduating seniors comes another American tradition: Father's Day. Again, back in the days when I suffered from the fevers of fundamentalism, I repudiated any celebration of this "infidel" holiday. The Lord has graced me with believing otherwise now. Just like Mother's Day, I believe taking time to honor our fathers on Father's Day is wholly consistent with the principles of Islam.
Over the past six months, two notable developments have set Israel and diaspora Jewry adrift. The first was Israel's war in Lebanon, whose failure caused grave paralysis both in the military and within the government. The second was publication of the 
Prime Minister Tony Blair today denied that Britain is now a police state, despite claims by Magistrates in Bootle that they had been 'overwhelmed by evidence' from the security services in the case of a man convicted of a parking offence. Doug Ramsbottom, a salesman, said: "I had intended to plead guilty to the offence of being three days late paying my parking fine, but I was shocked when I thought what would be a ten minute hearing turned into a 17 day trial. The prosecution felt obliged to present all of the evidence they had against me."
In a recent essay published by the American Jewish Committee, reflecting widely shared attitudes, Jews who criticised Israel and its policies were accused of stirring anti-Semitism. The executive director of the committee said "those who oppose Israel's basic right to exist, whether Jew or gentile, must be confronted".
