Rolled-up Trousers

Sit down next to me

The Evening Standard has found that a third of all Londoners feel uncomfortable sitting next to Asian or Arab people on the tube. One-sixth admitted moving seats. Unfortunately the poll did not ask how many did so after reading the Standard.

These are further startling statistics to add to the fact that we know 53% of people in this country see Islam as a “threat”. In practice that is being seen by Muslims being thrown off transport by mobs of fellow passengers. Terror videos are being made threatening to behead Muslims. Two-thirds of Muslims are considering leaving the country because of the hostility.

The reaction of the Evening Standard is to blame the victims. They don’t even blame the terrorists. Instead, all Muslims are at fault.

9/11 conspiracy theories

Jon Snow recently castigated the Muslim community for buying into conspiracy theories surrounding the 9/11 attacks. His poll found 45% of Muslims believing in them.

This came to mind after a poll by Zogby was just brought to my attention from two years ago. Half of New Yorkers think that the US government had foreknowledge of the attacks but "consciously failed to act".

And thanks to Bob in the comments for directing me to a piece in the Guardian reporting on 75 US academics who think it was an "inside job":

"We don't believe that 19 hijackers and a few others in a cave in Afghanistan pulled this off acting alone," says Steve Jones. "We challenge this official conspiracy theory and, by God, we're going to get to the bottom of this."

Shariah TV

A number of serious points have been made against Channel 4's Shariah TV programme by Michael Mumisa in the Independent:

A Birmingham cleric who received his training at Medina University in Saudi Arabia told a shocked audience that "Islam allows a man to beat his wife as long as he does not break bones or leave bruises". In programme three, another Saudi-trained cleric from Brixton went on to explain why and how Muslims should circumcise young girls and women: "It is necessary to cut off the clitoris and the labia otherwise a woman's sexual urges will become uncontrollable. The shariah allows it."

Let's ignore Mumisa's throw-the-baby-out agenda that Qur'an and hadith shouldn't be brought into the programme at all. Shariah TV for their part stand firm:

A spokesperson for Shariah TV defended the programme and claimed that the views expressed by the clerics on the panel represent the majority of opinion among Muslims in Britain. "Whenever we had moderate Muslim scholars on the panel expressing their opinions, the audience kept on booing them and on a number of occasions we had to stop filming due to disruptions from an angry audience," he explained.

Their research can only be said to be poor - these are not majority opinions. Anyone opposing the quoted views above would not be facing a lynch mob, and its wrong of Channel 4 to suggest they would. I also wonder what their definition of "moderate" is.

Does anyone know who did get booed, and what for?

'Burka style hospital gown' *updated*

The Daily Express attempts to create a panic over a new design of hospital gowns.

Aiming to provide more modesty to patients, anti-PC activist Philip Davies, a Conservative MP, said it would create resentment:

"This may be viewed as a reasonable request from one particular group of patients but what I would like to ask is where does that request lie in a hospital’s priorities?" he said. "It is another example of political correctness because it is the sort of thing that has been brought in because the words ‘faith’ and ‘race’ have been mentioned.

"The average patient on a ward will look at this and be resentful because they will say to themselves: ‘This has been brought in because it is a Muslim request’.

"They themselves may have other requests, like more visiting hours, more flexible meal times or a brighter lamp for their bedside table, but they know they’ve got less chance of achieving this. A burka-style hospital gown is only high on the priority list because of the politically correct world we live in."

Or he could also have instead said:

"Muslims need to realise that it essential that they uncover their bums at hospitals if they are to integrate properly."

Why is it that any issue regarding Muslims needs to cause such a fuss? No one is saying that these new gowns won't be available to non-Muslims. The NHS aren't going to ask for a testimony of faith from patients requesting it. I'd imagine a good deal of non-Muslims also think that the current gown situation leaves a lot to be desired.

Mixing anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism

It's not been released yet, but a "hard-hitting" report by MPs is set to say that criticism of Israel is "being used as a pretext" for spreading anti-Semtism, according the Observer.

Denis MacShane, Iain Duncan Smith and Chris Huhne were involved, and they appear to have taken a perfectly legitimate investigation regarding the state-of-play with anti-Semtism, into an attempt to score political points against pro-Palestinian campaigners. The boycott campaign comes in for particular criticism:

The report voices particular concern over 'a minority of Islamic extremists who are inciting hatred towards Jews', and it criticises recent moves by left-wing academics to boycott links with Israel. Though emphasising the right of people to criticise or protest against Israeli government actions, it says 'rage' over Israeli policies has sometimes 'provided a pretext' for anti-semitism.

'Calls to boycott contacts with intellectuals and academics working in Israel are an assault on academic freedom and intellectual exchange,' the report says, adding that the response of university vice-chancellors to such campaigns has been patchy.

Welcome to Herald readers

Joan McAlpine picks up on the issue of there not being enough Muslims in Scottish newsrooms. Whose fault is it?

So what of the Scottish media? I believe it will have learned from this sorry tale. It will be reminded of the need to "assume nothing" and ensure basic fact-checking, something that requires the manpower to canvass a wide variety of sources. The media must also improve and extend its links with the Muslim community at every level. This point is made by Osama Saeed, whose blog – www.osamasaeed.org – offers an interesting Islamic perspective on a range of current events.

Terror raid on Muslim youth activities?

If the BBC report is anything to go by, the latest terror arrests are pretty stinky already. There have been two raids, one on a restaurant where 12 diners were taken away after hours of questioning.

In a warning to anyone organising Muslim youth activities, the BBC's security correspondent Gordon Corera said:

"My understanding at this point is that this involves people suspected of facilitating training activity within the UK which might have allowed others to take part in terrorist activity," he said.

"Here in the UK it's more forms of bonding and getting groups together as well as radicalising those taking part. It's not necessarily military or terrorist training or blowing things up, it's more training in the sense of groups bonding and working together".

Bloody hell. But it certainly fits in with previous police pronouncements.

The other raid is at an Muslim school where the killer facts are:

According to its website the 54-acre premises also encourages Islamic groups to "appoint a person from your centre who wishes to serve the community and send them to us to be trained".

It also says these individuals will then become "qualified enough to teach in local Masajeds and Madares".

I have no idea how this possibly qualifies as news. A school encouraging people to come to their institution and learn. Bang 'em up guv.

Rabbis: Israel too worried over civilian deaths

As international human rights organizations decry the high toll of civilian deaths suffered in the Lebanon war, America’s main organization of Modern Orthodox rabbis is calling on the Israeli military to be less concerned with avoiding civilian casualties on the opposing side when carrying out future operations.

Following a solidarity mission to Israel last week, leaders of the Rabbinical Council of America issued a statement prodding the Israeli military to review its policy of taking pains to spare the lives of innocent civilians, in light of Hezbollah’s tactic of hiding its fighters and weaponry among Lebanese civilians. Because Hezbollah “puts Israeli men and women at extraordinary risk of life and limb through unconscionably using their own civilians, hospitals, ambulances, mosques… as human shields, cannon fodder, and weapons of asymmetric warfare,” the rabbinical council said in a statement, “we believe that Judaism would neither require nor permit a Jewish soldier to sacrifice himself in order to save deliberately endangered enemy civilians.”

Misbah speaks - and leaves the media with red faces

You heard it here first folks.

From the beginning, the friends and relatives of the people at the centre of this have been saying that there is more to this than was being reported.

Even looking at Louise’s own statement from Tuesday is was clear that this was not a case of kidnap as was being portrayed. The fact that Misbah’s own siblings were helping her and their father should have provoked some kind of thinking independent of lazy racism.

I was being told that the family’s side of the story could not be properly told due to media rules. At the same time, there seemed to be no compunction in circulating the cheap-shot accusation of a forced marriage just because the father was Pakistani. I hope the Daily Record particularly are feeling stupid - because they look stupid.

Still, despite Misbah’s insistence that her name is not Molly, and it certainly isn’t Campbell – Louise’s boyfriend’s name – the media are still insisting on not using her real name. It’s still only two syllables, it should not be this difficult.