Operation Black Vote have launched their MP shadowing scheme again.
The MP Shadowing Scheme is looking for 25 BME individuals from across the country to gain an invaluable insight into the roles and responsibilities of an MP. MP Shadows will spend six months shadowing high level MPs from the three main political parties.
In their role as Parliamentary Ambassadors, participants will also play a vital role helping to raise awareness amongst Black and minority ethnic communities about our democratic institutions.
Check out: http://www.obv.org.uk
Sajid Javid set to be Tories’ first Muslim MP
English-born Mr Javid, who went to a state school and studied economics and politics at Exeter University, had a successful career as a banker. He became the youngest vice president in the history of Chase Manhattan Bank at the age of 24 before being headhunted by Deutsche Bank. He has since left banking but describes himself as a ‘businessman and private investor’.
Plan for anti-Muslim march blasted
Five men have been arrested after a Facebook site was set up declaring “all Muslims should be thrown out of Wales”. Around 150 people joined the group on the social networking site claiming they would march through the Rhondda Valleys to make their feelings known. The proposed march has been described as “mindless bigotry” by racial equality groups. But South Wales Police have now stepped in and arrested five men for religiously aggravated public order offences.
Sarah Palin fires up Tea Party faithful My view – please, run Sarah run! I remember when her spectre first came up and Tories warned she was formidable while fake lefties warned us she was formidable too. She is – at energising Democrats and turning off Independents. She is among Obama’s best Republican weapons.
Sikh judge criticises banning of Kirpan
Sikhs should be allowed to wear their ceremonial daggers – known as Kirpans – to school and other public places, Britain’s first Asian judge has said. There have been a number of cases of Sikhs being refused entry to venues because they wear the Kirpan or other religious artefacts
This is a follow-up article to the previous two-part article published during the autumn (Part 1, Part 2).
Some fantastic official clips of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s huge UK concerts last October in conjunction with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in tribute to his late uncle, the great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, have finally surfaced on Youtube, so a selection is presented below along with a few more videos I thought it would be constructive to include. You can also read some reviews of the concerts at the end of this article.
”Jhoole Lal”, a tribute to Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (1177 – 1274), the most famous historical Sufi from Sindh and a friend of Baba Farid (the Punjabi Sufi whose hymns were later included in the Guru Granth Sahib, the sacred scriptures of Sikhism). Lal Shahbaz Qalandar was renowned for his message of mutual religious tolerance and friendship between Muslims and Hindus, and is still venerated by members of both groups in the subcontinent (video here).
Nick Griffin has his work cut out for him as a poll revealed that a third of Britons believe him to be an unfunny, unpleasant, repetitive misogynist. Oh wait…
Liz Jones makes a reasonable point about the sort of woman society idealises (ignore the article’s headline).
The Home Secretary is to reduce the number of student visas after continuing worries about abuses.
Concerns over the BBC Asian Network’s performance and cost has led to renewed calls for a change in which the channel is run. Campaigners want to see the network become more relevant to younger British Asians, with more features on things like homosexuality and mixed relationships.
Laura Woodhouse at The F-Word highlights the plight of asylum seekers who left their children behind, and who now want to be reunited with them.
Gracchi discusses the overlap between the Spanish and British empires.
Given the ongoing discussions about niqabs, burkhas and so on, along with some of the scaremongering caricatures of Muslims which are being promoted in some quarters, this may be a good time to mention Pakistan Fashion Week. It’s a major annual event involving Pakistani designers and high-end fashion shows in major cities such as Lahore and Karachi, where such fashion shows occur on a regular basis.
The Community Security Trust (CST), which monitors anti-semitic cases, reports (PDF) that anti-semitic incidents in Britain have risen significantly (by 69%), with 924 cases recorded in 2009, making it the highest number since records began twenty six years ago. These included violent attacks (up 41% to 124) and attacks on property. Predictably the war in Gaza featured prominently, with around a quarter of the cases including a reference to it.
With the continued growth of white-racist and Islamist groups, this is sadly not surprising. I suspect that better and more comprehensive reporting of anti-semitic incidents has played a part in the long-tem rise in recorded incidences, given that previously it has been more difficult to identify hate crimes (as distinct from crimes not motivated by things like race, religion or disability), and people might not have known about the CST. A greater focus on the internet also contributed, with the CST recording a 431% increase of abusive e-mails/blog comments.
Yet even with all these statistical caveats, the situation still paints a grim picture. Morons, bigots and the rest of their ilk still feel the need to attack people based on their religion. Some of the attacks are doubtless down to plain old bigotry (they are different from us, and are weak); others due to the inability to separate out an eight year old Jewish girl from the Israeli army; then there are those that are motivated by the special place that the Jews occupy in the conspiracy theory world.
More here on Liberal Conspiracy. And he tries to style himself as a defender of free speech.
A reader emails in to say:
Hi there Sunny
Love the ad for The Inde to try to prevent the ghastly Liddle being inflicted on us. Thank you for this campaign. I am very impressed that a possible donation may be made to victims of domestic violence and abuse.
May I suggest an addition to the reasons why he shouldn’t be editor and to the list of his vile statements, please? I haven’t seen anyone pick up on something he said at the same time as the ’smoking at Auschwitz’ quote, which reveals him to be not only grossly racist, sexist and misogynist, but bigoted against disabled people.
He remarked that the concentration camp was ‘festooned’ not only with no smoking signs, but with disabled access ramps.
Irony, or what? Given the fate of countless disabled people at the merciless hands of the nazis … there was equality there, for sure – being considered equal to other categories of humanity deemed worthless – ‘useless eaters’ – and therefore unworthy of life.
This man is so stupid, so arrogant, so egocentric – words fail me. Keep up the good work!
There better be another explanation for this story (via Tim Fenton, who is similarly exasperated):
A secularist group has lodged an official complaint against Cherie Booth QC after she spared a man from prison because he was religious. Shamso Miah, 25, of Redbridge, east London, broke a man’s jaw following a row in a bank queue.
Sitting as a judge, Ms Booth – wife of former Prime Minister Tony Blair – said she would suspend his sentence on the basis of his religious belief.
His religion is completely unimportant in this sense and this is a completely idiotic decision that will only further give the impression that Muslims are afforded special rights that others are denied. Cherie Booth must either hate Muslims or smoking something. What a fuck up.
Update: MTPT has a more measured and legalistic view. He makes a good point that the custodial sentence and the unpaid work punishment is along the lines of what is legally handed out anyway.
But the point isn’t that. The point is that for the likes of the Daily Mail and right-wing blogs – this is an easy to way to further the narrative that Muslims get special treatment. And so it feeds into existing prejudice and frankly I’d have hoped our judges had more braincells to realise how this may be interpreted by others.
A roadside bomb killed three U.S. soldiers and partly destroyed a girls’ school in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday in an attack that drew attention to a little-publicized American military training mission in the al-Qaida and Taliban heartland.
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The blast also killed three schoolgirls and a Pakistani soldier who was traveling with the Americans. Two more U.S. soldiers were wounded, along with more than 100 other people, mostly students at the school, officials said.
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The explosion flattened much of the school, leaving books, bags and pens strewn in the rubble. “It was a horrible situation,” said Mohammad Siddiq, a 40-year-old guard at the school. “Many girls were wounded, crying for help and were trapped in the debris.”
Siddiq said the death toll would have been much worse if the blast had occurred only minutes later because most of the girls were still playing in the yard and had not yet returned to classrooms, some of which collapsed.
Completely sickening, but then this has been happening for a while in Pakistan and the media hasn’t really noticed. This is also the reason why I support forcing the Pakistani establishment to confront the menace that is Al-Qaeda and the Taliban – and withdraw institutional support.
Even if the Americans leave the terrorists will still want to take power and they will continue to bomb schools and kill innocent people until they get their way.
Wrote an article last night on the BBC’s increasing climate change denialism. Published today:
After watching last night’s Newsnight, I can only come to one conclusion: the BBC has become this country’s most pernicious climate-change-denying media outlet in the UK.
There is simple reasoning behind this grand statement. While the assorted commentators who regularly spout ill-informed propaganda across the media are usually taken with a pinch of salt, the BBC is broadly trusted as an impartial and trustworthy reporter of news. It sets the agenda. Which makes the rubbish it has been producing lately on climate change even more dangerous.
Let me start by saying I believe that man-made activity is the prime driver behind global warming. I don’t have time for tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy nuts who think it is one big plot by scientists across the world. I do believe CC deniers are no different to 9/11 Truthers. But that point is moot while we focus on the country’s biggest culprit.
1) WTF? Don’t you know global warming is bullshit?
2) WTF?! BBC showing right-wing bias? You’re smoking crack
3) Why do you deranged, lunatic, tax-raising, commie loving, hippy-loving, oil company-funded bastards use such nasty, polarising language against us? Why??? You should be strung up!
4) Me and my tinfoil-hat wearing commenter mates think your credibility is shot to pieces. No one will ever employ you again!!
I was baiting them all evening but unfortunately the CIF crew closed the thread. Perhaps we can continue here?
There is nothing more infuritating than the BBC’s earnest and often misplaced quest for “balance” on settled issues like climate change, which often has the effect of tilting its coverage to the right.
Dr. Mitu Khurana’s final court date for custody of her children is approaching. Some of you may remember Mitu’s story, but for those who don’t, I have added in background detail.
Dr. Mitu Khurana is a brave woman. She struggled against her husband and her in-laws years ago when she was pregnant. They slipped eggs into her food, knowing she was allergic to them. Other times they denied her food and water. Her crime? To have become pregnant with two daughters and refused to abort them. In August 2005 she gave birth, but the pressure did not stop. It was suggested that she give her children up for adoption, while her mother-in-law once shoved her then four month old daughter down the stairs.
In March 2008 Dr. Mitu was thrown out of her house by her husband, who is also a doctor. The next month she went back to their home only to discover that while ill (and in hospital), doctors had illegally performed a test to determine the sex of the foetus. Sex determination tests are illegal in India, as a response to the major imbalance between the sexes. There are 107 men for every 100 women in India, which translates to a gap of tens of millions. This is largely the result of abortion and the killing of female children. Many women go along with these tests, or even instigate them, but Dr. Mitu did not stay silent. She spoke out and filed a complaint with the Women’s Commission and various NGOs, and became the first woman to file a complaint under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC-PNDT) Act in Delhi.
… will join mainstream media journalist Nick Cohen to discuss whether political blogging is actually making any difference to the course of political events.
We hear endlessly in the media that European Muslims are failing to integrate; that they should stop wearing the burqa and building mosques with minarets; that like the rest of us, they must learn to tolerate insults to their religion however painful that may be. But isn’t the boot really on the other foot?
By constantly criticising their traditions and beliefs and insisting they be more like the rest of us, aren’t we breaching our own hallowed principle of live and let live? Far from Muslims failing to be good Europeans, isn’t it Europe that is acting illiberally and giving a raw deal to its Muslim citizens?
Britain needs a U.S.-style national security adviser to report to Prime Minister Gordon Brown on terrorist threats, a committee of lawmakers said Tuesday in a report that made unusually sharp criticisms of the country’s approach to security. Parliament’s Home Affairs select committee said Britain’s government had been too slow to adapt to an evolving threat from terrorism and complained that key strategic decisions are often made in informal meetings, rather than by a publicly accountable security panel.
The bizarre thing is that I’ve not seen any of this coverage here. But yes, I think that’s a good idea. The committee is led by Keith Vaz, believe it or not. He’s not just sitting around looking for the next video game to ban.
In its report, the committee said it had until recently been unaware of the weekly security meeting. “The lack of public awareness of its existence is troubling,” the lawmakers said. “The public have a right to know who is protecting them from terrorist threats and in turn, those protecting the public should expect to be accountable.”
Britain’s system of control orders, a system of curfews used to curtail the movements of terror suspects who can’t be brought to trial without revealing sensitive intelligence, is no longer appropriate, the committee said. “It is fundamentally wrong to deprive individuals of their liberty without revealing why,” the panel’s report added.
In fact I can’t disagree with any of those recommendations. Interestingly, the Tories plan to set up a US style department of Homeland Security here – which may be the only useful idea in their manifesto. There are several reasons, mentioned above, why such a specific dept would be useful. Now. Any thoughts on why it may not be a good idea?
One dancer said it all: “I tried to watch. I don’t mind them being critical of ‘Incredible India’, which does not look after its poor. But these guys were clueless, flying in and taking over our stories and realities. I object to that.”
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We now have black and Asian newsreaders but note that after 30 years Newsnight has had no black interrogator. Multiracial casting in soaps and drama is now common and top roles do now go to black and Asian actors – Adrian Lester in Hustle, Nina Wadia in EastEnders. Yet watch The Bill and Midsomer Murders – two very different worlds – and almost all the actors are white.
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Black and Asian Britons are still not considered good enough when it comes to witty shows. The same old, same old white comedians appear on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Argumental, QI, Mock the Week. Omid Djalili, Shappi Khorsandi and Shazia Mirza do gain entry and maybe a couple of others, but night after night after night, like Alan Davies? Of course not. Go on the comedy circuit and you get the many faces of our laughing nation, from hilarious Sikhs to outrageously un-PC Muslims and Zimbabweans.
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Why are we still having to bang on about the obvious? Laziness, nepotism, a self-limiting circle of contacts and information, lack of curiosity and humility and most of all the hubris that defines and holds back British TV.
The last bit is true, and applies to the media industry as a whole, but it is also what will kill the industry. So while Y A-B is spot on about most of the stuff in that article, she still has too much regard for the TV industry in a way I don’t.
I sometimes watch news television, which is now also very formulaic – but the idea that the next generation is going to be defined by this closed industry no longer holds true. Oh and the bit about the Indian Winter is bang on too.
POLICE have arrested a bus driver who allegedly called a woman passenger a Muslim terrorist and asked her if she had put a bomb on his bus. An investigation was launched by First Buses in Leeds after Turkish-born Hatice McGraffin, 29, claimed a driver made the inflammatory remarks as she boarded her bus on Thursday morning.
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Mrs McGraffin, 29, from Otley, who is married to Englishman Ian, said the incident had left her horrified and devastated. Cafe worker Mrs McGraffin claimed he said: “You are an Islamic terrorist – you have put a bomb on the bus’. I asked people on the bus ‘are you listening to this’ but they ignored me.
“I am not even a practicing Muslim and I am married to an Englishman. I got off the bus and went to work but I couldn’t work. I was crying so much and my hands were shaking, I had to go home.”
Bizarrely enough, none of the national newspapers thought this story merited any attention. Imagine if the religions were reversed however.
British Muslims for Secular Democracy (bmsd) and the British Council invite you to: ‘Free Muslims: Autonomy and Creativity‘
SOAS Brunei Gallery, Thornhaugh Street, London
Tuesday 16th February 2010
10am to 2pm
We know that in certain Muslim homes, children are strongly discouraged from partaking in drama, art and music. This message is reverberating in schools across Europe. Fourteen hundred years of Islamic contributions to art, culture, literature, and history have been pushed aside in favour of a hardline interpretation of religion that denies the legitimacy of any form of artistic expression whatsoever.
A reader wrote in to ask why I hadn’t mentioned this story in the Guardian last week. Coz I completely missed it! Here you go:
The report cites interviews with rightwing extremists to try to prove a link between what is published in the mainstream media and the anti-Muslim views held by extremists.
It says: “An experienced BNP activist in London explains that he believes that most BNP supporters simply followed the lead set by their favourite tabloid commentators that they read every day. When these commentators singled out Muslims as threats to security and social cohesion, he says that it was perfectly natural for BNP supporters to adopt the same thinking.” The report says the extreme right are directing their violence more against Muslims than black or Asian Britons.
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It cites other cases of rightwing extremists preparing hate campaigns and of serious attacks on Muslims in Britain.
These included: “Neil Lewington, a violent extremist nationalist convicted in July 2009 of a bomb plot; Terence Gavan, a violent extremist nationalist convicted in January 2010 of manufacturing nail bombs and other explosives, firearms and weapons; a gang attack in November 2009 on Muslim students at City University; the murder in September 2009 of Muslim pensioner, Ikram Syed ul-Haq; a serious assault in August 2007 on the Imam at London Central Mosque; and an arson attack in June 2009 on Greenwich Islamic Centre.”
I wish someone spent more time documenting examples of far-right attacks in the UK because the media constantly plays them down.
Conversely, the authors make no acknowledgement of where truly false and irresponsible reporting has indeed inflamed violence against a vulnerable British minority. The way the British media reports the Middle East incites irrational hatred not just of Israel but also Jews in general. This reporting takes the form of false claims about Israel’s aggressive and illegal behaviour, medieval-style blood libels that Israel deliberately kills Palestinian children, and conspiracies between Israel and America to put the world’s security at risk.
… note how she conflates Israel and Jews generally. There is of course a significant Muslim/Arab minority in Israel.
Poll shows Britons back limited curbs on the veil
The most striking variation of opinion among different groups of people was by age. Only 15 per cent of 18-24 year-olds believed that wearing the burka should be banned in any public place, compared to 57 per cent of those 65 and older. Women were more opposed to restrictions than men. The South east region, including London, was the most liberal, and northern England the least. The AB social group was the most liberal, with C2 skilled manual workers and the bottom DE group the least.
Film seized ’shows children being radicalised’
Officers say it shows two children, aged about three and six, playing with a pistol and a Kalashnikov rifle. Material seized separately included the advice: “No child is ever too young to be started off on Jihad training.”
Inayat Bunglawala wins payout over Mail on Sunday claims
Bunglawala sued the paper over an article published in March last year that alleged he was suspected of unlawfully stabbing a man at his home, and that he supported the controversial cleric Abu Qatada and al-Qaida. His solicitor, Stevie Loughrey, told the high court in London that his client did not support or condone the views or objectives of Abu Qatada or al-Qaida and had gone on the record many times to criticise and condemn al-Qaida.
[Sunny adds: Hah! Well done Inayat - anyone who sticks it to Dacre has my support]
After a large surge in student visa applications from northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal, potential students from these areas will not be allowed to apply for visas for the next month (at least). The decision came after visa applications increased tenfold, leading to fears of widespread fraud and a large backlog:
The director of the legal advice firm, London Immigration Advice and Appeal Services, Harjap Singh Bhangal, says a temporary suspension will prevent illegal immigration, but it will also adversely affect genuine students. He told the BBC: “It’s going to create a panic and we don’t know when this suspension is going to be lifted. I believe it’s for one month initially but it could run into several months.
“The problem that we’re going to have is that the genuine students who want to come over for the universities they’re going to suffer as a result and they won’t be able to get here in time for their courses.” India is currently the UK’s biggest visa operation in the world. More than 500,000 Indians visit the UK every year, among them tens of thousands of students.
I don’t know what the best solution is in situations like this. Obviously some students will lose out, but we know there are severe problems with bogus students coming to Britain and not actually studying. No system will ever be foolproof.
Moreover, many others suffer. Recently the Sikh Channel highlighted the plight of homeless Punjabis in Southall, a number of whom are foreign students. As Manvir Singh recounts:
It was shocking to see that there are at least 100 homeless Panjabis in Southall, and possibly more. There are many reasons why these people are on the streets. One of the reasons is linked to foreign students from India facing desperate times in the UK. These people are living in dustbins, cemeteries, disused garages and under bridges. To cope many have turned to class A Drugs, such as Heroin and Crack Cocaine, as well as other substances. The reason for this is to cope with the cold, to suppress their hunger and to help them sleep on the streets. Many are suffering from serious health conditions such as Hypothermia, Scabies, Gangrene and cannot get immediate medical attention.
Pickled Politics has recently been sent some information by BMSD (British Muslims for Secular Democracy) about the OneVoice movement, a group dedicated to supporting both Israeli and Palestinian moderates and facilitating a peaceful, mutually-beneficial resolution to the current conflict in the region. I thought it worth highlighting.
According to a OneVoice poll, 74% of Palestinians and 78% of Israelis are willing to accept a two-state solution. They have also had over 650,000 signatures in approximately equal numbers from both Israel and Palestine supporting them.
OneVoice is an international movement of people fed up with the ongoing conflict. We are ready and eager to support a serious process leading to a comprehensive agreement fulfilling the hopes and beliefs of both the Palestinian and the Israeli peoples for a two state solution to end the conflict, and establish a viable and independent Palestinian state that lives at peace with Israel…
WINNING THE ARGUMENT – NEW MEDIA AND THE ELECTION
• Clifford Singer, mydavidcameron.com
• Helen Gardner, Boriswatch.co.uk
• Andy Newman, Socialist Unity
• Sunny Hundal, Liberal Conspiracy
• Alex Smith, Labourlist
• CHAIR: Kevin Maguire, Associate Editor, The Mirror
This was first published on Guardian CIF, and Peter wanted to discuss it here too.
A series of massacres of peaceful protesters by Pakistani security forces look set to sink hopes of a settlement deal between the government in Islamabad and Baloch nationalists who are campaigning for self-rule. There are fears that the sinister, shadowy Pakistani military and intelligence agencies are behind these killings, in a deliberate attempt to sabotage the reconciliation package put forward by the government of President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
On 15 January, at least two Baloch political activists were shot dead and four others seriously wounded after Pakistani security forces opened fire on a peaceful, lawful protest organised by the Baloch Students Organization (BSO) in the Khuzdar district of Balochistan.
The rally had been called to protest against the recent murder of Baloch citizens in Karachi and the launching of a new military crackdown in Pakistani annexed and occupied Balochistan.
The shootings are the latest of many Pakistani killings of Baloch protesters and nationalist leaders.
Kay Gilderdale, the mother of Lynn Gilderdale, 31, who lived with severe ME for 17 years, has been found not guilty of her daughter’s murder. In December 2008, Mrs Gilderdale helped to end Lynn’s life by handing her daughter two syringes of morphine, which Miss Gilderdale injected into herself.
When Mrs Gilderdale felt that the morphine had not achieved Miss Gilderdale’s aim of ending her own life, she crushed some tablets and gave them to her daughter through the feeding tube Miss Gilderdale used because she was unable to swallow.
I really, really, really want to die and have had enough of being so sick and in so much pain every second of everyday and, basically, one serious health crisis after another. I am tired, so very, very tired and I just don’t think I can keep hanging on for that elusive illness-free existence.
Mum regularly goes through everything with me. I never waver, I just become more and more sure as time passes. I have always stated that if I was unable to make a decision myself the power goes jointly to my parents. I trust them implicitly with my life and death. I know they won’t do the selfish thing in keeping me here purely for themselves.
Last week, Frances Inglis was found guilty of the murder of her son, Thomas, 22, who became brain damaged in 2007. In November 2008, she went to his room at his care home and injected him with heroin.
