Religions > Atheism > OT: Tolerating intolerance is still this country's besetting sin
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"maff" |
| Date: |
04 Feb 2007 06:58:32 AM |
| Object: |
OT: Tolerating intolerance is still this country's besetting sin |
Tolerating intolerance is still this country's besetting sin
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2005511,00.html
If the majority of Muslims truly want to integrate, they could start
by kicking out the preachers of hatred from their mosques
Henry Porter
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
Imagine the Archbishop of Canterbury or any senior Anglican clergyman
giving a sermon which suggested that homosexual men should be thrown
off a mountain; that they were no better than filthy dogs. Imagine
another priest rising in another church to preach that children should
be hit for not praying, that women were deficient, should walk behind
men and only go out with their man's permission. Consider what the
reaction would be if a third joined in by saying all Jews were born
liars.
Love letters from France deserve an amorous reply
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2005501,00.html
Mary Riddell
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
When the French choose a new President three months from now, they
will pick one of two candidates. In reality, the choice is narrower.
Whether the name on the ballot paper is Nicolas Sarkozy or Segolene
Royal, electors will be casting their vote for Britain.
Both candidates are in thrall to the Anglo-Saxon success story. Our
vibrant economy is so enviable that Sarkozy last week brought his
campaign to London, urging expatriates to come home and promising that
full employment was possible. This 'eloge du Blairisme', as Le Monde
calls it, has startled both countries.
We cannot let the Kyoto debacle happen again
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2005499,00.html
The government's chief scientific adviser calls for genuine
international action on climate change
David King
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
Open any newspaper and the chances are you'll find an item on climate
change. Friday saw yet another flurry of coverage with the publication
of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fourth
assessment report on the science of climate change. What makes this
report stand out from others?
The IPCC is a global body established in 1988 to provide independent,
scientific advice on climate change. Friday's report is not new
research, but, rather, a stock-take of the entire body of knowledge
that exists on climate change. It builds on three previous reports and
incorporates results from a further six years of research.
Captain America calls it friendly fire. We call it murder
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2005619,00.html
Jasper Gerard
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
You can see where America is coming from: having killed so many in
Iraq - some innocent, some not - is it worth making a fuss about one
more? The one more is Lance Corporal Matty Hull of Windsor. He died
four years ago in a so-called 'blue on blue' killing, which has
usurped that other laughably hollow euphemism: 'friendly fire'. A pair
of circling American A-10 tankbuster planes opened fire on the
Household Cavalry troop in 2003 and Hull died of multiple injuries in
his blazing Scimitar armoured truck. So far, so Iraq.
There's only one true way and that's Shilpa Shetty's
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/7days/story/0,,2005433,00.html
Armando Iannucci
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
I get up in the morning and see many pictures of Shilpa Shetty flopped
on my doormat. She's on the front of every newspaper in a sequence of
15 exclusive interviews outlining her unique blend of grooming advice
and spiritual counselling. In one interview, she tells me how to
improve my dress sense while never swearing; in another, how to eat
more calcium while remaining true to oneself.
In a third, there's advice on how to run a small business while using
heavily weighted dumb bells to improve leg definition, while a fourth
tells us all how we can both avoid confrontation and use heated hair-
straighteners for less frazzled hair.
Gravy train of big business must hit the buffers
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2005213,00.html
Simon Caulkin
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
The justification for big business - and the management principles
which govern it - is that it is the engine of economic development.
There is no such thing as an advanced economy without large companies
(a measure of India and China's progress is that they are quickly
developing them). Roughly speaking, the greater the density of
organisations above =A310m in size, the higher the standard of living.
However, for the West, this description no longer applies. One of the
topics the global business elite discussed at Davos was the 'soggy
middle' - the resentful perception that while the engine is steaming
merrily ahead, it has quietly slipped its coupling and left the middle-
class train in the station.
Why politicians and technology should never mix
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2005221,00.html
John Naughton
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
Memo to government spin doctors: don't ever let politicians anywhere
near technology, especially computer technology. Doing so is as
dangerous as giving a delicate clock to a monkey, and always ends
either in ridicule or the waste of taxpayers' money.
Let's take ridicule first. Sometime in the late Nineties the Dutch
acting Prime Minister, Wim Kok, went on a photo-opportunity involving
a PC. He picked up the mouse and waved it about in the air, as if it
were a TV remote. It was clear to those watching that he had never
actually used a computer. Fortunately for him, this all happened
before YouTube.
The Obama revolution
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2005485,00.html
He is charismatic, confident and and is starting to change the face of
American politics by reaching out across party lines to Democrats and
Republicans. But can the Illinois senator, who is set to announce his
presidential candidacy this week, go the distance? Paul Harris
reports
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
It was the first beauty parade of the Democratic campaign and every
candidate had come to Washington's Hilton hotel in strength. They
would all speak to the Democratic National Committee and hundreds of
its activists in a bid to secure their vital support. Each candidate's
team distributed placards to supporters, making sure they were waved
at the right moments. Campaign tables decked in flags and banners were
set up outside the cavernous conference hall. The faces of Hillary
Clinton, John Edwards and others beamed from posters. Badges were
handed out. Thunderous pop music - chosen by the candidates themselves
- greeted each one as they walked on stage and escorted them off as
they left.
India eyes riches at poor's expense
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2005484,00.html
The media and business are buzzing about the nation's successes, but
poverty is all around
Amelia Gentleman in Delhi
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
For the New Year's Day edition, the editor of the Times of India, the
country's most popular English-language newspaper, decided to try
something new. He stripped all the news articles from the front page
and launched a defiantly patriotic campaign with the logo 'India
Poised'.
It was a call to arms. India, the paper announced, was 'on the brink
of global success' and it was up to readers to seize the moment and
build their country into a superpower.
Eco-millionaire's land grab prompts fury
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2005476,00.html
Argentinian critics say an American campaigner is buying up vast
wetlands for US strategic goals
Uki Go=F1i in Buenos Aires
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
Douglas Tompkinscalls himself a 'deep ecologist'. He is a millionaire
on a quest to preserve some of Argentina's last frontier lands from
human encroachment by buying them and turning them into ecological
reserves.
But Argentina may not permit him such philanthropy. Opponents are
branding him a new-age 'imperialist gringo' and claim he has a secret
aim: to help the US military gain control of the country's natural
resources. Tompkins, who sold his Esprit clothing firm in 1989 for a
reported $150m to devote his time and wealth to ecology, takes such
attacks in his stride. 'Land ownership is a political act; it arouses
passions,' he says.
Furore over Jewish critics' challenge to state of Israel
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2005739,00.html
Ned Temko
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
A major battle has erupted in Jewish communities on both sides of the
Atlantic over accusations that left-wing Jews are fuelling anti-
Semitism by challenging the existence of Israel.
On one side is an array of prominent Jewish community leaders and
institutions saying that such criticism plays into the hands of Muslim
radical groups and other extremists.
On the other side, left-wing Jewish writers and academics insist that
basic freedom of expression is at stake. Some British Jewish voices
have warned of an atmosphere of 'McCarthyism' reminiscent of the anti-
Communist witchhunts in 1950s America.
Chilled spacecraft to coldly go in search of Big Bang
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2005633,00.html
Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
Scientists have unveiled the coolest spaceship ever built: a two-tonne
probe whose instruments will be chilled to within a tenth of a degree
of absolute zero, the lowest temperature possible in nature.
The Planck spacecraft, built by the European Space Agency (Esa), will
hover in space a million miles from Earth and search the skies for
faint traces of radiation left over from the universe's explosive
birth 14 billion years ago.
The van-sized probe will gather these echoes of the Big Bang using
instruments cooled to -273C in order to stop any traces of heat
distorting the results. The aim is to discover how matter first formed
and later coalesced into stars, galaxies and, finally, living things.
Go-ahead for schools to drop EU languages
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2005634,00.html
Anushka Asthana and Alexander Christie-Miller
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
Schools will soon be able to swap French and German for Mandarin and
Urdu under new plans to shake up foreign language teaching. For the
first time headteachers in England and Wales will not be forced to
offer one European language to children aged 11 to 14. Instead, they
will be able to choose from a list that will highlight 'economically
useful' languages from Asia and the Middle East .
The radical proposals are part of an attempt by ministers to avert a
crisis in language teaching. Teenagers dropped French and German in
their droves following the controversial decision to make studying a
language optional at 14. 'With an increasingly globalised economy, UK
plc must continue to be able to punch well above its weight,' said
Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary.
Taking the fight to Islam
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2005258,00.html
In 1989, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali Muslim, supported the fatwa against
Salman Rushdie. But on moving to Europe her views changed and she
turned against Islam. Two years ago she fled Holland after the brutal
murder of her artistic collaborator Theo van Gogh. Who is this fierce
critic who lives under the constant threat of death?
Andrew Anthony
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is not the only critic of Islam who lives with round-
the-clock protection. But surely none wears their endangered status
with greater style. The Dutch Somali human-rights campaigner looks
like a fashion model and talks like a public intellectual. Tall and
slender with rod-straight posture and a schoolgirl smile, she is a
thinker of stunning clarity, able to express ideas in her third
language with a precision that very few could achieve in their first.
This combination of elegance and eloquence would be impressive in any
circumstances. Under threat of death, it is nothing short of
incredible.
The other side of the Prophet
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2005391,00.html
Robert Spencer's The Truth About Muhammad provides a timely riposte to
common misconceptions about the prophet
David Thompson
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
In Islam and the West, Bernard Lewis argued: 'We live in a time
when... governments and religious movements are busy rewriting history
as they would wish it to have been, as they would like their followers
to believe that it was.' This urge to sanitise unflattering facts is
nowhere more obvious than in biographies of Muhammad, of which Karen
Armstrong's ubiquitous contributions are perhaps the least reliable.
In The Truth About Muhammad, Robert Spencer provides a detailed and
timely riposte to common misconceptions, outlining the mismatch
between belief and historical reality and documenting the ways in
which Muhammad's own deeds and purported revelations are used verbatim
to mandate intolerance, xenophobia and homicidal 'martyrdom'. As the
subtitle of this 'sceptical biography' makes clear, Spencer has
written a provocative book likely to arouse passions. But the
arguments he presents are rigorous, and the evidence compelling, if
disquieting. Spencer argues that at present it is the jihadists, not
moderates, who have the stronger theological argument.
Obsessive culture disorder
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguide/columnists/story/0,,2004634,00.html
When Shakespeare said 'all the world's a stage', he probably wasn't
talking about Jade Goody. But these days all you need to land a role
is a bit of 'performativity'
Jacques Peretti
Saturday February 3, 2007
The Guardian
Throughout Shilpa Poppadomgate, it wasn't the casual racism of the
ultra-thick, nor the silence of Channel 4, that was shocking. No, it
was the degree to which Celebrity Big Brother is now totally
indistinguishable from ordinary Big Brother.
Any pretence that "celebrity" (already wafer thin as a concept) still
exists as a sealed off entity has gone. Yup, it's official: they fight
and ***** and are as mirthless and loathsome as we are.
Fresh fighting jeopardises Gaza peace talks
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2214869.ece
By Karin Laub in Gaza City
Published: 04 February 2007
Hamas and Fatah gunmen fought in Gaza City yesterday as leaders from
both sides prepared to head to Saudi Arabia for talks on ending the
power struggle.
An especially bloody round of fighting, with 25 people killed and more
than 230 wounded since Thursday, has deepened resentment on both sides
and made it increasingly difficult to reach a compromise. Gunmen were
yesterday seen frequently attacking rival strongholds.
Hooray for the Sun's shock tactics on racism
http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2214742.ece
On The Press: But the knee-jerk reaction rules again when the subject
isn't sexy
By Peter Cole
Published: 04 February 2007
Tabloid journalism is a crude implement to sort out race relations in
Britain. Its style and mass audience dictates that its stories must be
direct and clear And, overwhelmingly, they must grab the attention.
That is why tabloid journalism is so difficult, and so impressive when
it works.
"Hooray for Shilpa. Hooray for Britain. And hooray for The Sun," wrote
Trevor Phillips, chair of the new Commission for Equality and Human
Rights, last week. In The Sun actually. He was interviewed the next
day in The Guardian where he was less generous about Britain's best-
selling daily. On asylum he said: "The Sun and the Daily Mail have a
particular editorial slant that I'd disagree with, but they've
probably become fairer and less vituperative."
Joan Smith: Muslim leaders must rescue the young
http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_m_z/joan_smith/article2214770.e=
ce
Conspiracy theories must not be allowed to prosper
Published: 04 February 2007
The sequence of events has become wearily familiar: first the arrests
and claims of a chilling terror plot, then the furious denials by
community "leaders". It happened last week in Birmingham, where nine
men were detained in connection with an alleged plot to kidnap and
execute a British Muslim soldier. The chairman of the Birmingham
Central Mosque, Dr Mohammed Naseem, inflamed feelings by comparing
Britain to Nazi Germany and Stalin's Russia - just the kind of
paranoid nonsense you'd expect from a man who was a Respect candidate.
It plays straight into the hands of the BNP and is a triumph for
political Islam, which seeks to divide the country between aggrieved
Muslims and the rest of us.
I don't know whether there was a kidnap plot but it wouldn't surprise
me if extremists copied the tactic from Iraq; the aim of a series of
spectacular outrages, from the African embassy bombings to 9/11, Bali,
the 7/7 attacks and a series of videotaped beheadings, has been to
attract disaffected young men to an authoritarian political ideology
based on a literal reading of the Koran. The enemy isn't Christianity
or Western culture, although its Saudi and Egyptian leaders know that
anti-Western rhetoric can be useful; what they hate, and want to
replace, is liberal secular democracy.
.
|
|
| User: "Bill M" |
|
| Title: Re: Tolerating intolerance is still this country's besetting sin |
04 Feb 2007 10:16:24 AM |
|
|
ALL religions have their fanatics and bigots!
"maff" <maff91@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1170593912.454000.179560@p10g2000cwp.googlegroups.com...
Tolerating intolerance is still this country's besetting sin
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2005511,00.html
If the majority of Muslims truly want to integrate, they could start
by kicking out the preachers of hatred from their mosques
Henry Porter
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
Imagine the Archbishop of Canterbury or any senior Anglican clergyman
giving a sermon which suggested that homosexual men should be thrown
off a mountain; that they were no better than filthy dogs. Imagine
another priest rising in another church to preach that children should
be hit for not praying, that women were deficient, should walk behind
men and only go out with their man's permission. Consider what the
reaction would be if a third joined in by saying all Jews were born
liars.
Love letters from France deserve an amorous reply
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2005501,00.html
Mary Riddell
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
When the French choose a new President three months from now, they
will pick one of two candidates. In reality, the choice is narrower.
Whether the name on the ballot paper is Nicolas Sarkozy or Segolene
Royal, electors will be casting their vote for Britain.
Both candidates are in thrall to the Anglo-Saxon success story. Our
vibrant economy is so enviable that Sarkozy last week brought his
campaign to London, urging expatriates to come home and promising that
full employment was possible. This 'eloge du Blairisme', as Le Monde
calls it, has startled both countries.
We cannot let the Kyoto debacle happen again
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2005499,00.html
The government's chief scientific adviser calls for genuine
international action on climate change
David King
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
Open any newspaper and the chances are you'll find an item on climate
change. Friday saw yet another flurry of coverage with the publication
of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fourth
assessment report on the science of climate change. What makes this
report stand out from others?
The IPCC is a global body established in 1988 to provide independent,
scientific advice on climate change. Friday's report is not new
research, but, rather, a stock-take of the entire body of knowledge
that exists on climate change. It builds on three previous reports and
incorporates results from a further six years of research.
Captain America calls it friendly fire. We call it murder
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2005619,00.html
Jasper Gerard
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
You can see where America is coming from: having killed so many in
Iraq - some innocent, some not - is it worth making a fuss about one
more? The one more is Lance Corporal Matty Hull of Windsor. He died
four years ago in a so-called 'blue on blue' killing, which has
usurped that other laughably hollow euphemism: 'friendly fire'. A pair
of circling American A-10 tankbuster planes opened fire on the
Household Cavalry troop in 2003 and Hull died of multiple injuries in
his blazing Scimitar armoured truck. So far, so Iraq.
There's only one true way and that's Shilpa Shetty's
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/7days/story/0,,2005433,00.html
Armando Iannucci
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
I get up in the morning and see many pictures of Shilpa Shetty flopped
on my doormat. She's on the front of every newspaper in a sequence of
15 exclusive interviews outlining her unique blend of grooming advice
and spiritual counselling. In one interview, she tells me how to
improve my dress sense while never swearing; in another, how to eat
more calcium while remaining true to oneself.
In a third, there's advice on how to run a small business while using
heavily weighted dumb bells to improve leg definition, while a fourth
tells us all how we can both avoid confrontation and use heated hair-
straighteners for less frazzled hair.
Gravy train of big business must hit the buffers
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2005213,00.html
Simon Caulkin
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
The justification for big business - and the management principles
which govern it - is that it is the engine of economic development.
There is no such thing as an advanced economy without large companies
(a measure of India and China's progress is that they are quickly
developing them). Roughly speaking, the greater the density of
organisations above Ģ10m in size, the higher the standard of living.
However, for the West, this description no longer applies. One of the
topics the global business elite discussed at Davos was the 'soggy
middle' - the resentful perception that while the engine is steaming
merrily ahead, it has quietly slipped its coupling and left the middle-
class train in the station.
Why politicians and technology should never mix
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2005221,00.html
John Naughton
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
Memo to government spin doctors: don't ever let politicians anywhere
near technology, especially computer technology. Doing so is as
dangerous as giving a delicate clock to a monkey, and always ends
either in ridicule or the waste of taxpayers' money.
Let's take ridicule first. Sometime in the late Nineties the Dutch
acting Prime Minister, Wim Kok, went on a photo-opportunity involving
a PC. He picked up the mouse and waved it about in the air, as if it
were a TV remote. It was clear to those watching that he had never
actually used a computer. Fortunately for him, this all happened
before YouTube.
The Obama revolution
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2005485,00.html
He is charismatic, confident and and is starting to change the face of
American politics by reaching out across party lines to Democrats and
Republicans. But can the Illinois senator, who is set to announce his
presidential candidacy this week, go the distance? Paul Harris
reports
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
It was the first beauty parade of the Democratic campaign and every
candidate had come to Washington's Hilton hotel in strength. They
would all speak to the Democratic National Committee and hundreds of
its activists in a bid to secure their vital support. Each candidate's
team distributed placards to supporters, making sure they were waved
at the right moments. Campaign tables decked in flags and banners were
set up outside the cavernous conference hall. The faces of Hillary
Clinton, John Edwards and others beamed from posters. Badges were
handed out. Thunderous pop music - chosen by the candidates themselves
- greeted each one as they walked on stage and escorted them off as
they left.
India eyes riches at poor's expense
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2005484,00.html
The media and business are buzzing about the nation's successes, but
poverty is all around
Amelia Gentleman in Delhi
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
For the New Year's Day edition, the editor of the Times of India, the
country's most popular English-language newspaper, decided to try
something new. He stripped all the news articles from the front page
and launched a defiantly patriotic campaign with the logo 'India
Poised'.
It was a call to arms. India, the paper announced, was 'on the brink
of global success' and it was up to readers to seize the moment and
build their country into a superpower.
Eco-millionaire's land grab prompts fury
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2005476,00.html
Argentinian critics say an American campaigner is buying up vast
wetlands for US strategic goals
Uki Goņi in Buenos Aires
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
Douglas Tompkinscalls himself a 'deep ecologist'. He is a millionaire
on a quest to preserve some of Argentina's last frontier lands from
human encroachment by buying them and turning them into ecological
reserves.
But Argentina may not permit him such philanthropy. Opponents are
branding him a new-age 'imperialist gringo' and claim he has a secret
aim: to help the US military gain control of the country's natural
resources. Tompkins, who sold his Esprit clothing firm in 1989 for a
reported $150m to devote his time and wealth to ecology, takes such
attacks in his stride. 'Land ownership is a political act; it arouses
passions,' he says.
Furore over Jewish critics' challenge to state of Israel
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2005739,00.html
Ned Temko
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
A major battle has erupted in Jewish communities on both sides of the
Atlantic over accusations that left-wing Jews are fuelling anti-
Semitism by challenging the existence of Israel.
On one side is an array of prominent Jewish community leaders and
institutions saying that such criticism plays into the hands of Muslim
radical groups and other extremists.
On the other side, left-wing Jewish writers and academics insist that
basic freedom of expression is at stake. Some British Jewish voices
have warned of an atmosphere of 'McCarthyism' reminiscent of the anti-
Communist witchhunts in 1950s America.
Chilled spacecraft to coldly go in search of Big Bang
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2005633,00.html
Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
Scientists have unveiled the coolest spaceship ever built: a two-tonne
probe whose instruments will be chilled to within a tenth of a degree
of absolute zero, the lowest temperature possible in nature.
The Planck spacecraft, built by the European Space Agency (Esa), will
hover in space a million miles from Earth and search the skies for
faint traces of radiation left over from the universe's explosive
birth 14 billion years ago.
The van-sized probe will gather these echoes of the Big Bang using
instruments cooled to -273C in order to stop any traces of heat
distorting the results. The aim is to discover how matter first formed
and later coalesced into stars, galaxies and, finally, living things.
Go-ahead for schools to drop EU languages
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2005634,00.html
Anushka Asthana and Alexander Christie-Miller
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
Schools will soon be able to swap French and German for Mandarin and
Urdu under new plans to shake up foreign language teaching. For the
first time headteachers in England and Wales will not be forced to
offer one European language to children aged 11 to 14. Instead, they
will be able to choose from a list that will highlight 'economically
useful' languages from Asia and the Middle East .
The radical proposals are part of an attempt by ministers to avert a
crisis in language teaching. Teenagers dropped French and German in
their droves following the controversial decision to make studying a
language optional at 14. 'With an increasingly globalised economy, UK
plc must continue to be able to punch well above its weight,' said
Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary.
Taking the fight to Islam
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2005258,00.html
In 1989, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali Muslim, supported the fatwa against
Salman Rushdie. But on moving to Europe her views changed and she
turned against Islam. Two years ago she fled Holland after the brutal
murder of her artistic collaborator Theo van Gogh. Who is this fierce
critic who lives under the constant threat of death?
Andrew Anthony
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is not the only critic of Islam who lives with round-
the-clock protection. But surely none wears their endangered status
with greater style. The Dutch Somali human-rights campaigner looks
like a fashion model and talks like a public intellectual. Tall and
slender with rod-straight posture and a schoolgirl smile, she is a
thinker of stunning clarity, able to express ideas in her third
language with a precision that very few could achieve in their first.
This combination of elegance and eloquence would be impressive in any
circumstances. Under threat of death, it is nothing short of
incredible.
The other side of the Prophet
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2005391,00.html
Robert Spencer's The Truth About Muhammad provides a timely riposte to
common misconceptions about the prophet
David Thompson
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer
In Islam and the West, Bernard Lewis argued: 'We live in a time
when... governments and religious movements are busy rewriting history
as they would wish it to have been, as they would like their followers
to believe that it was.' This urge to sanitise unflattering facts is
nowhere more obvious than in biographies of Muhammad, of which Karen
Armstrong's ubiquitous contributions are perhaps the least reliable.
In The Truth About Muhammad, Robert Spencer provides a detailed and
timely riposte to common misconceptions, outlining the mismatch
between belief and historical reality and documenting the ways in
which Muhammad's own deeds and purported revelations are used verbatim
to mandate intolerance, xenophobia and homicidal 'martyrdom'. As the
subtitle of this 'sceptical biography' makes clear, Spencer has
written a provocative book likely to arouse passions. But the
arguments he presents are rigorous, and the evidence compelling, if
disquieting. Spencer argues that at present it is the jihadists, not
moderates, who have the stronger theological argument.
Obsessive culture disorder
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguide/columnists/story/0,,2004634,00.html
When Shakespeare said 'all the world's a stage', he probably wasn't
talking about Jade Goody. But these days all you need to land a role
is a bit of 'performativity'
Jacques Peretti
Saturday February 3, 2007
The Guardian
Throughout Shilpa Poppadomgate, it wasn't the casual racism of the
ultra-thick, nor the silence of Channel 4, that was shocking. No, it
was the degree to which Celebrity Big Brother is now totally
indistinguishable from ordinary Big Brother.
Any pretence that "celebrity" (already wafer thin as a concept) still
exists as a sealed off entity has gone. Yup, it's official: they fight
and ***** and are as mirthless and loathsome as we are.
Fresh fighting jeopardises Gaza peace talks
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2214869.ece
By Karin Laub in Gaza City
Published: 04 February 2007
Hamas and Fatah gunmen fought in Gaza City yesterday as leaders from
both sides prepared to head to Saudi Arabia for talks on ending the
power struggle.
An especially bloody round of fighting, with 25 people killed and more
than 230 wounded since Thursday, has deepened resentment on both sides
and made it increasingly difficult to reach a compromise. Gunmen were
yesterday seen frequently attacking rival strongholds.
Hooray for the Sun's shock tactics on racism
http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2214742.ece
On The Press: But the knee-jerk reaction rules again when the subject
isn't sexy
By Peter Cole
Published: 04 February 2007
Tabloid journalism is a crude implement to sort out race relations in
Britain. Its style and mass audience dictates that its stories must be
direct and clear And, overwhelmingly, they must grab the attention.
That is why tabloid journalism is so difficult, and so impressive when
it works.
"Hooray for Shilpa. Hooray for Britain. And hooray for The Sun," wrote
Trevor Phillips, chair of the new Commission for Equality and Human
Rights, last week. In The Sun actually. He was interviewed the next
day in The Guardian where he was less generous about Britain's best-
selling daily. On asylum he said: "The Sun and the Daily Mail have a
particular editorial slant that I'd disagree with, but they've
probably become fairer and less vituperative."
Joan Smith: Muslim leaders must rescue the young
http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_m_z/joan_smith/article2214770.ece
Conspiracy theories must not be allowed to prosper
Published: 04 February 2007
The sequence of events has become wearily familiar: first the arrests
and claims of a chilling terror plot, then the furious denials by
community "leaders". It happened last week in Birmingham, where nine
men were detained in connection with an alleged plot to kidnap and
execute a British Muslim soldier. The chairman of the Birmingham
Central Mosque, Dr Mohammed Naseem, inflamed feelings by comparing
Britain to Nazi Germany and Stalin's Russia - just the kind of
paranoid nonsense you'd expect from a man who was a Respect candidate.
It plays straight into the hands of the BNP and is a triumph for
political Islam, which seeks to divide the country between aggrieved
Muslims and the rest of us.
I don't know whether there was a kidnap plot but it wouldn't surprise
me if extremists copied the tactic from Iraq; the aim of a series of
spectacular outrages, from the African embassy bombings to 9/11, Bali,
the 7/7 attacks and a series of videotaped beheadings, has been to
attract disaffected young men to an authoritarian political ideology
based on a literal reading of the Koran. The enemy isn't Christianity
or Western culture, although its Saudi and Egyptian leaders know that
anti-Western rhetoric can be useful; what they hate, and want to
replace, is liberal secular democracy.
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