The Good Book is not, as is so often suggested, a damn good read. It’s crap.… Read the rest
Ex-Muslim ‘Foments Sectarian Antagonism’
Aug 14th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAccording to the AP, anyway.… Read the rest
The West Midlands Censorship Bureau
Aug 13th, 2007 5:48 pm | By Ophelia BensonSo the West Midlands Police and the Crown Prosecution Service issued a joint statement condemning Undercover Mosque and announcing that the West Midlands Police had referred the documentary to Ofcom. The cops wanted the programme makers prosecuted for stirring up racial hatred. They seem to be slightly confused.
… Read the rest[T]he real story should have been about the alarmingly censorial and quite possibly libellous attack on investigative journalism. No matter, on Radio 4’s PM programme, it was Dispatches’ commissioning editor Kevin Sutcliffe who was subjected to a grilling, while Abu Usamah, one of the subjects of the documentary, was portrayed as a harmless victim…[H]ere is Usamah spreading his message of inter-communal respect and understanding, as captured in Undercover Mosque: ‘No one
Do the West Midlands Police Side with Islamists?
Aug 13th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Islamic state envisaged is not an ideal kingdom of heaven where the lion shall lie down with the lamb. … Read the rest
The Police as TV Critics – Thumbs Down
Aug 13th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHad anyone asked the police for specific examples to justify their grand claim, they would have been left wanting.… Read the rest
Imams OK, Reporters All Wrong
Aug 13th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCharges will not be brought against kuffar-hating clerics, but police report Channel 4 to Ofcom.… Read the rest
Mohammed Shafiq is Outraged
Aug 13th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Channel 4 should apologise immediately for the hurt they have caused those people.’… Read the rest
Channel 4’s Kevin Sutcliffe Replies
Aug 13th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe speakers were shown making abhorrent comments in mainstream Islamic institutions.… Read the rest
Why Are the Cops Collaring TV?
Aug 13th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonUndercover Mosque was great journalism. That the CPS thought it incited racial hatred beggars belief.… Read the rest
Police Investigate ‘Undercover Mosque’
Aug 13th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Community leaders’ were ‘enraged’ by Channel 4 documentary.… Read the rest
Another Swift, another Pope, another Wilde
Aug 12th, 2007 4:13 pm | By Ophelia BensonGood grief, as if I don’t have enough to do, now I’m having to fend off the ravings of a reader who seems to have suddenly gone stark raving mad. Although there was, to be sure, always a whiff of madness…But now it’s more like an old overfull garbage can at the end of a hot August day. He’s pissed off because I wrote something (something very brief) about Ehsan Jami the other day; he’s been bombarding me with emails telling me how awful he thinks Jami is; the one he sent today was so rude and condescending and aggressive that I became irritated as well as bored, and told him to stop lecturing me. He sent an even ruder … Read the rest
Good people here, bad people there
Aug 12th, 2007 3:49 pm | By Ophelia BensonShiraz Maher escaped from Hizb ut-Tahrir
.
Islamism transcends cultural norms, so it not only prompted me to reject my British identity but also my ethnic South Asian background. I was neither eastern, nor western; I was a Muslim, a part of the global ummah, where identity is defined through the fraternity of faith. Islamists insist this identity is not racist because Islam welcomes people of all colours, ethnicities and backgrounds. That was true, but our world view was still horribly bipolar. We didn’t distinguish on the basis of colour, but on creed. The world was simply divided into believers and nonbelievers.
Identity defined through the ‘fraternity of faith’ is not racist, good, but it does divide the world simply … Read the rest
Our World View Was Still Horriby Bipolar
Aug 12th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘We didn’t distinguish on the basis of colour, but on creed. The world was simply divided into believers and nonbelievers.’… Read the rest
The Observer’s Astrologer Grumbles at Dawkins
Aug 12th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Few things arouse the indignation of science’s hard hats like non-conventional approaches to healing.’… Read the rest
Skeptics Whup God in Bestseller Competition
Aug 12th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDawkins and Hitchens currently outselling pope. It’s a start.… Read the rest
Time for the Caliphate to Reign
Aug 12th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Why do some Muslims not agree with the Islamic Sharia, even though it is for the own good of Muslims?’… Read the rest
The Islamist Dream Fills a Jakarta Stadium
Aug 12th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Maybe not liberal democracy, but uncommon democracy; based on religious values.’… Read the rest
Caliphate Conference in Indonesia
Aug 12th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe ideal form of government: it follows ‘the laws of God’ rather than laws designed by humans.… Read the rest
Dreams of a caliphate
Aug 12th, 2007 11:37 am | By Ophelia BensonWhy would a caliphate be such a nice thing?
Hizb ut-Tahrir regards this as the ideal form of government, because it follows what it believes are the laws of God as set out in the Koran, rather than laws designed by [humans].
Right. And that’s why we don’t regard a caliphate as the ideal form of government but rather as the ulitmate nightmare. It’s because the ‘laws of God’ are beyond appeal and rational analysis and reform in the light of new knowledge or improved morality, whereas laws designed by humans are not. In practice, of course, the ‘laws of God’ are sometimes revised or reformed, but in principle they can always be and often are declared inviolable as … Read the rest
Because they know it teases
Aug 11th, 2007 1:57 pm | By Ophelia BensonI immediately begin trying out Dawkins’ appeal in polite company. At dinner parties or over drinks, I ask people to declare themselves. “Who here is an atheist?” I ask. Usually, the first response is silence, accompanied by glances all around in the hope that somebody else will speak first. Then, after a moment, somebody does, almost always a man, almost always with a defiant smile and a tone of enthusiasm. He says happily, “I am!” But it is the next comment that is telling. Somebody turns to him and says: “You would be.”
“Why?”
“Because you enjoy pissing people off.”
“Well, that’s true.”
It’s clear enough what we’re supposed to get from all that. One, … Read the rest