BY SAM WHITE Forgive my transgression but I am about to commit a terrible sin and speak badly of Maajid Nawaz. His counter extremism organisation Quilliam, based in Russell Square, is a difficult group to figure out. On the one hand Nawaz speaks a lot of sense. He draws attention to grooming gangs, has advised Muslim women against wearing the veil, called out left-wing violence, … Continue reading The Russell Square “Reformation”
BY BEN PENSANT There are few institutions more infuriatingly disappointing than the BBC. On paper the Beeb should be cherished by progressives everywhere: state-owned, publicly funded, impeccably PC and overwhelmingly staffed by the kind of people who suffer recurring nightmares about post-Brexit hate crime and Islington kale droughts. Yet it can’t help but let itself down with its rampant anti-Corbynism, regularly smearing and disrespecting the … Continue reading BBC3 is Marvellous
CSM EDITORIAL The UK terror problem is merely part of a concerted, multi-faceted attempt by political islamists who want sharia law to govern the world. They have no excuses, whatever the likes of apologists – Corbyn, CAGE and Stop the War – say about the West creating problems abroad. The philosophy of these islamists is a lot like the fairground coin pusher arcade games: put … Continue reading Remove the Coins of Terror
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN I always thought that racism was due to a lack of a decent education. There was no other explanation for the horror of Antisemitism. No other reason for those fools who treated blacks badly. Or for the bullying behaviour of thugs who insulted the Asians running corner shops and post offices. Surely racists were either dim or unenlightened, or so I thought. … Continue reading The New Racists
BY SAM WHITE Here’s the sand, now draw a line. Where do you want to put it? After 9/11, or the Madrid train bombings? Or should we focus domestically, on 7/7? We were shaken profoundly by the murder of Lee Rigby, but still no line. Over the channel but close to home there was Charlie Hebdo, the Bataclan, Nice, Berlin, and Stockholm, but the sand … Continue reading A Line in the Sand
BY SAM WHITE There was something troubling about sections of the media’s sneering reaction to Ukip’s statement on the subject of face veils on Monday. The party wants to prohibit the custom of completely covering one’s face in public, as practised by some Muslims. As it’s the widely maligned Ukip who proposed it, the idea was met with a significant amount of derision. “Does this … Continue reading Veiling The Issue
BY SAM WHITE As discussed here on this magazine a few days ago, the BBC Asian Network went a little off kilter last week. In case you missed it, they sent out a cheerful message in which presenter Shazia Awan, who just arrived from the Middle Ages, vacuously requested listeners to call in with their views on the appropriate punishment for blasphemy. The corporation had to … Continue reading Stealth Blasphemy UK
BY JIM BROWNE MARINE A, Alexander Blackman from Taunton, has had his murder conviction downgraded to manslaughter. Blackman shot an injured Taliban fighter in Afghanistan and had his murder conviction reduced to manslaughter yesterday by five judges at the Court Martial Appeal Court in London. They heard argument on his behalf that fresh psychiatric evidence would have provided him with a diminished responsibility defence. He … Continue reading Marine A Must Walk
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN The most interesting line in Tony Blair’s Bloomberg speech last Friday was nothing to do with the bolted horse of Brexit. Nor his sly attempts to fuse his stalling concept of globalism with closer connectivity brought about by technology. Nor was it anything to do with the Labour Party he used to lead about whose current (lack of) management he was derisive. … Continue reading Blair’s Benign Outcome
VICAR Sadly but understandably, there was a huge fuss in January over a service at St Mary’s Episcopal in Glasgow to mark the feast of the Epiphany, during which there was a reading of a passage from the Koran which said that Jesus is not the Son of God. I totally support Gavin Ashenden for resigning. Where there is sound crossover between faiths people decide to follow, we … Continue reading The Way is Illuminated by Darkness
BY ASGHAR KHAN A Cypriot friend tells me that a few years ago, in Karsiyaka, a small town in Northern Cyprus, a visiting Imam from Jordan was invited to Friday Prayers. This Imam addressed the men in the mosque (no women present, of course) and abused them for the way that their womenfolk dressed; how disgusting they were exposing their arms and ankles; how weak … Continue reading We Are to Blame
BY ASGHAR KHAN With ISIS on the retreat and soon to be taking their last stand in Syria, one wonders how they will be recollected by History. It seems inevitable now that their so-called Islamic state will shortly be eviscerated. Certainly, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (otherwise known as Daesh, ISIL and by a whole string of other names) will be remembered … Continue reading How will ISIS be Remembered?
