Rolled-up Trousers

Centre for Social Cohesion

This is an extended version of my article which appeared in yesterday's Sunday Herald.

We officially launched the Scottish-Islamic Foundation this week, with warm words of encouragement and congratulation from three of the country’s four main party leaders and the head of the Catholic Church for what may well be the most innovative, ambitious and forward-looking programme ever laid out by a Scottish Muslim organisation.

At the same time, we were baffled by a briefing put out by the gloriously named ‘Centre for Social Cohesion’ warning people against us. They don’t have as wide a remit as their name suggests, a quick scan of their website shows almost everything is on the topic of Islam and Muslims, and very few escape their wrath.

Their “research” was in reality nothing more than a quick Google job, and a negatively screened one at that. The tactic of these kind of hatchet jobs which emanate from London is to smear by association. Attaching Muslims with someone controversial is like the “six steps to Kevin Bacon” test. It’s a modern day McCarthyism.

42 days later

There seems to be some despondency amongst activists regarding the 42 days result, the cynicism of the DUP, and the betrayal of some on the Labour benches who said they would rebel only for them to lose their spines at the eleventh hour.

Chins up though, this has still to go through the House of Lords, who will hopefully reject it and send it back to the Commons for them to think again. We must all then keep the pressure up.

Hassan Butt: I wasn't a terrorist

Astonishing turn of events chronicled by this Channel 4 video.

It turns out that reformed terrorist Hassan Butt isn't reformed at all - because he never had the links with Al-Qaeda he claimed to have.

A bit of questioning by the boys in blue had Butt singing like a canary.

He even arranged to have himself stabbed to show how he lived in fear from those he supposedly once fraternised with. This led Ed Hussain to write an article based on it:

In Manchester in April, Hassan Butt, a one-time jihadist who is now opposed to extremism, was stabbed and beaten for speaking out against fanaticism. He now lives in hiding. Why was this not reported in the mainstream media?

All of which must make us wonder - why would anyone want to make themselves out to have been an idiot terrorist? He and journalist Shiv Malik were planning a book about his 'experiences'. Must be some amount of money in this game.