Monthly Stats

I've had my highest ever amount of hits this month: 81. Not bad considering it's a shorter month than usual! Of these, the usual duo (US and UK) lead the way, but this moth France, Pakistan and Norway get special mentions. And people are STILL getting here looking for Muhammad's raisin-head quote. I've also had one or two hits from people Google-searching for this very site, which is a nice indicator that people are remembering it and coming back for more. Hello! And spookily, someone got here recently by typing "this practice has now come to eastern Europe with Muslim immigration"; a search string which led them directly to my essay on honour killing.

And After All...You're My Wonderwall!

Today's music share is a bit more of a humorous one: this is Oasis' "Wonderwall" sung by the Mike Flowers Pops...it's a jazz version. It's hilarious. And I'm posting it now because I just recently found out that someone I know was in this band, and is in this video.

Enjoy:

Go Back To Sleep, Folks...

Remember that reformation of Islamic texts in Turkey that I posted about the other day?

Well, turns out I got excited a little prematurely. In fact, "[Mehmet Gormez] shrugged off media suggestions that Turkey was re-writing the Hadith and creating a new Islam. 'They made too much fuss and took the project out of its real context. We are neither fashioning a new Islam nor dare to alter the fixtures maxims of Islam,' Gormez said emphatically."

Gormez also refuted claims they would edit out some hadiths, especially about women: "No Muslim in the (sic) right mind would dare delete any hadith or tamper with the Prophet's heritage."

Oh. Never mind, then.

Round-up

1. The mother of a woman sentenced to a minimum of 12 years in prison (the article says "life in prison", but hardly) for pushing a teen into the path of a train has said that "racism" is behind this "harsh" sentence.

12 years for pushing someone in between two train carriages and she thinks this is "harsh".

2. Students at Ryerson University staged a small but boisterous rally yesterday to protest against a lack of response to the burning of a bulletin board belonging to the East African Students of Toronto, a campus association. Several students expressed concern that last week's arson is part of a larger pattern at campuses across Canada, most recently manifest when racist messages were written on the door of York University's Black Students' Association.

Two things strike me about this story. One is this line from Ahmed Habib:

"We're not surprised that there's racism on campuses..."

Really? But normally your ilk tell us that everyone thinks racism is gone, when really it is Alive and Well. But I suppose what you mean is that you're the ONLY ones who are not surprised, right? Cos everyone else thinks racism doesn't exist.

The other thing that stood out to me was this part:

The bulletin board was used to advertise a number of campaigns with slogans such as "United to End Racism," "Boycott Israeli Apartheid" and "De-Colonize Ryerson."

"Boycott Israeli Apartheid"? So whoever is putting the bulletin boards up is undoubtedly a terrorist-supporting liberal, if they believe this nonsense. I'm not saying that someone was right to burn it down - that is arson, and it's a crime - but certainly I have no love for this "campaign", and I would suggest that it's no loss to society.

Hurrah! Praise Allah!

Turkey is preparing to publish a document that represents a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam - and a controversial and radical modernisation of the religion. The country's powerful Department of Religious Affairs has commissioned a team of theologians at Ankara University to carry out a fundamental revision of the Hadith, the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran.

At frigging last! I have been calling for something like this to happen on a large scale for ages, and have regularly been excoriated for it, and accused of some kind of supremacism for daring to suggest that Muslims attempt to engage with and reject the elements of Islam that promote violence and oppression. And the first signs here are good. I'm not entirely sure what will be in this radical reinterpretation, but on face value I have to support it.

They have also taken an even bolder step - rejecting a long-established rule of Muslim scholars that later (and often more conservative) texts override earlier ones - i.e. the theory of naskh, or abrogation, about which I wrote here, and which I have often been accused of simply making up or totally misrepresenting. I wonder: are the Turks now Islamophobes, also?

I am really pleased to hear this news, and I look forward to seeing what the final results are.

Round-up

1. In this article someone wants to shock us with the news that Racism is Alive and Well (RAW: a phenomenon which I've written about many times before) in the world today. Gasp! Who would have guessed? Liberals like this always claim that "most people think racism is no more", but they can never actually quote anyone or give any examples of anyone who thinks this.

Anyway, Ms Laura Donovan goes on to invoke the FBI's 2006 hate crime statistics, which show that there was "a rise of 7.8 percent from 7,163 to 7,722 criminal incidents which targeted victims or property as a result of bias against a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnic or national origin or physical or mental disability." OK, fair enough, although Ms Donovan doesn't seem to acknowledge that in a country with a population of 300 million, seven and half thousand hate crimes is not actually very much, relatively.

So having mentioned all of this, why does she then only go on to discuss racism against black people? Is she aware that Jews suffered the second-highest amounts of discrimination? And, perhaps more tellingly, is she aware that the same figures showed that whites in America were the third-highest victims of hate crimes? I'm guessing not. But if she does know, she's clearly deliberately ignoring this facts. Because racism against black people is worse than any other form of hatred, it seems.

2. This long piece about racism is generally sensible and unsensationalist. But I find it problematic that at one point it says: "Racial Hierarchy Began With Slavery". And indeed, slavery was and is an awful thing. But what bothers me is that the article then only goes on to mention the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, which lasted from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. It makes no mention of the Islamic slave trade, which lasted from the seventh to the nineteenth centuries (and still continues in some places today), and brought suffering to approximately six and a half million more people than white slavery did. Once more all the blame, all the responsibility for the world's ills is placed on Whitey, even though he no longer needs to apologise. Meanwhile, the Islamic world is never called upon to apologise for the misery it brought to the world, including among many black slaves from North Africa. Why not?

About Those 138 Scholars...

Do you remember that letter that 138 Muslim scholars sent to the Vatican last year? The one that the media got all excited over? The one that to untrained eyes appeared to be an invitation for peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Christians, but which was actually a series of veiled threats dressed in "peaceful" Qur'anic rhetoric? Of course you do.

Well, it turns out that one of the signatories on that letter was the Institute of Islamic Thought in Jordan. The Institute, which operates a website, AlTafsir.com, which it calls “the largest and greatest online collection of Qur’anic commentary, translation, recitation, and essential resources in the world,” includes in an “Ask the Mufti” section a number of fatwas on apostasy issued by the Institute’s chief scholar, Sheikh Hijjawi, that call for the death of Christian reverts (Christians converting to Islam and then returning to the Christian faith) and Muslim apostates. Further they state that if the Christian reverts and Muslim apostates are not killed, they should be deprived of all rights and accorded the status of non-persons.

This was not surprising to me, as I saw through this transparent taqiyya from the very beginning.

Israel Out

Following the lead of the US and Canada, Israel has now bailed out of the UN-sponsored "anti-racism" conference, which in 2001 was simply used as a platform by Muslim groups to bash Israel.

Good for them. The state of play now - with America and Israel set apart from the Muslim world (and indeed, from the rest of the world in general) - is highly symbolic of the current situation in world relations.

Your move, Islam.

Compare and Contrast

My music share this week is two songs from the same band: Norwegian metallers Sirenia. I'm posting two because they make an interesting comparison. This first one is off their most recent album, and it's called "My Mind's Eye". It's short, sharp, catchy female-fronted pop-metal:



Then below is one of their older songs: "Sister Nightfall". Observe the difference. This one is heavier, far more complex, longer, more powerful and has growling vocals:



Note that I'm not putting the first song down. I like it for what it is. And I'm not one of these metal-head bigots who calls everything that isn't up to their standards "pop rubbish" that only a 12 year old child could like. But I do think it's interesting the way songwriter Morten Veland became bored with writing the highly complex, ambitious music he began his career with and settled for something far easier. You wouldn't know they were by the same band and written by the same man.

Unclean!

A man in Tehran has been arrested and given a four-month prison sentence and 30 lashes...for walking his dog. Owners of domestic animals are forbidden from taking them on the streets of the city because Islam considers dogs to be impure. An Islamic judge later charged the man for "disturbing the public order."

Religion of Peace!

Muslims Against Sharia

I see that in response to my post yesterday about the David Horowitz Freedom Centre's Declaration Against Genocide, we got a comment from Muslims Against Sharia, an Islamic Reformation Movement, who have become the first Muslim group to sign the Declaration. I urge everyone to go and visit their site and check out their opening page. It is full of things that all peaceful Muslims today SHOULD be saying. They have also attempted to repudiate and remove every passage from the Qur'an which could promote hatred and violence. Give them your support.

Declaration Against Genocide

Terrorism Awareness has a petition against genocide up against their website, particularly focusing on modern Islamic sympathisers and practitioners of it. I advise everyone to sign it. It takes less than a minute.

More Reaction To The F1 Racism Scandal

While the McClaren team and other major teams in Formula One are behind the new "anti-racism" campaigns being started up by the organisers of the sport, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has criticised them and said they are not needed.

Some of Ecclestone's reasoning here is a bit daft, but ultimately I agree with him: say No to unnecessary politically correct indoctrination sessions.

Amerika

This week's music share is some tongue-in-cheek German-ness with Rammstein's song "Amerika". It's pretty liberal, really, but still funny:

Round-up

1. I don't know the full background of this story but here "gay pornographic actor and activist" Mike Lucas defends comments that he apparently made about Islam during a talk at Stanford University, after which several leftists unsurprisingly called him a "racist". The piece is strongly worded...but it is also right.

Incidentally, I note that Lucas is the "CEO and founder of Lucas Entertainment, a New York-based gay adult film company." I sincerely hope no one ever gets Lucasfilm mixed up with Lucas Entertainment when renting or buying a DVD, or it's going to be a somewhat...surprising night for them...

2. An award-winning BBC reporter has accused Lenny Henry of insulting her white colleagues by calling for affirmative action employment polices at the corporation. “Lenny Henry calls for a black dg (Director-General). Any black dg?”, Olenka Frenkiel wrote in the BBC magazine. “Regardless of merit, or who they are or what they might have done? What about a Polish dg? Lots of Poles in Britain today. What about a dg with frizzy hair? Or one who’s disabled? Or incredibly small.” Ms Frenkiel concluded: “For goodness sake, campaign for a person to be dg - not for a colour. I am still offended by Greg Dyke’s lamenting of the BBC as ‘hideously white’. Why is it okay to vilify white people for their colour not black ones? It’s insulting.”

Yup.

Which Party?

Here's a game: Can you guess which British political party has the following policies in its manifesto?

• Forbid the purchase of corner shops by migrants
• Grant British citizenship only to children born here
• Boycott food grown by black farmers and subsidise crops grown by whites
• Restrict tourism and immigration from outside Europe

The BNP? UKIP? Nope...it's the Green Party.

Details here.

Happy Valentine's

I just want to wish everybody a belated Happy Valentine's Day, and I hope it was a nice one. I sent my girlfriend a dozen red roses and a bottle of wine at work today. She was well chuffed with that. There's nothing quite like the love and gratitude you get from a woman when you buy her expensive gifts.

Happy Love Day, all.

Anti-Racism Campaigns Are Coming To F1!

Formula One is to launch an anti-racism campaign in the wake of the abuse suffered by Lewis Hamilton this month.

Because I'm sure the vast majority of people who condemned this behaviour need racism awareness training...

A spokesman said governing body the FIA "was appalled by the scenes of racist abuse targeted at Lewis Hamilton. Such behaviour runs counter to the fundamental principles of equality enshrined in the FIA's statutes."

Hang on a minute...in what way are the men who blacked up their faces to greet Hamilton (who, by the way, have already explained their actions) governed by regulations set up by FIA? How can FIA have the right, or the ability, to enforce "statutes" which dictate how fans on the street behave? I would imagine that FIA's "statutes of equality" apply only with the organisation, and have no power to touch someone who is unaffiliated with FIA.

A Free Sample...

I've not begun writing a new series of Islam 101 yet, and probably won't do so for some time, but meanwhile I've begun writing up a long booklet on fighting and violence in Islam, covering some of the same ground as my "Islam 101" articles, but in even more depth, and with additional material, too. When this one is finished, I am actually going to try and get it published in some context, or distributed in hard copies around the community.

But although I'm not going to be publishing this work in full here, I thought I would in any case post an extract from what I have written so far, as it contains a number of important points. People constantly mischaracterise and misrepresent my writing, and I am often asked why I write so vehemently and so often about Islam. And this extract covers some of those issues. It comes from the very beginning of the booklet. Enjoy:

---------------------------------------------------

With the increasing amount of jihad attacks carried out by Muslims around the world, much debate has arisen over how justified Islamic terrorism is according to the teachings of Islam. On one side, many – such as myself – contend that Islam contains within it elements which give rise to and justify terrorism, holy war and even the killing of innocents. But on the other side, many people, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, contend that there is actually nothing in the Qur'an or any Islamic teaching that could possibly justify such appalling violence. Islam is, they argue, a Religion of Peace.

But regardless, at this stage, of which point of view is more accurate, it remains a matter of fact that many Muslims around the world do believe that Islam commands them to wage violent jihad against non-Muslims. They state this unreservedly. Often, jihadists such as Osama bin Laden will quote specific verses from the Qur'an to justify their actions, and invoke Islam as the basis for their murderous ideology. One pro-Osama website, www.waaqiah.com, said in 2002: “The truth is that a Muslim who reads the Qur'an with devotion is determined to reach the battlefield in order to attain the reality of jihad. It is solely for this reason that the kuffar [unbelievers] conspire to keep the Muslims far away from understanding the Qur'an, knowing that Muslims who understand the Qur'an will not distance themselves from jihad.”

But are Muslims such as these simply ignorant beginners who have little experience studying the religion? Not always. In many cases, those Muslims who claim that Islam sanctions violence are learned scholars who have devoted their entire lives to the study of Islam. For example, Omar Rahman was once a teacher at the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the highest spiritual authority in the Sunni Islamic world. In 1999, he was asked by a student why his lessons always dwelt on “jihad and killing”, instead of peace and love. He responded: “Listen, my brother, there is a whole sura [chapter of the Qur'an] called 'The Spoils of War' [sura 8]; there is no 'Sura of Peace'. Jihad and killing is the head of Islam. If you take it out, you cut off the head of Islam.” Rahman went on to become the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Centre bomb plot.

How does something like this happen? If Islam teaches universal love and peace, how does a man devoted to studying it get it so dramatically wrong, and end up believing it is telling him to commit tremendous violence?

A common answer we are fed is that Islam, or religious texts in general, “can be whatever you want it to be”. But this is an easy answer. Words – any words – have meaning, and that meaning has significant impacts on the behaviour of those who read it. If a book tells those who read it and believe in it to commit violent acts, those people are far more likely to do so than readers of a book which does not instruct anyone to do this. The idea that written words have no meaning, and that Muslims can get anything they like out of the Qur'an, is also difficult to reconcile with the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of jihadists and jihad sympathisers all over the world, in virtually every country, and they all seem to “misunderstand” their religion in exactly the same way. And the behaviour and stated aims of Islamic armies throughout the centuries show a remarkable sameness that indicates that they were working from a common ideology – an ideology that they must have gotten from somewhere.

And this is one of the most important things to note about the controversy surrounding Islam. Often indignant Muslims will accuse those non-Muslims who say that Islam sanctions violence against unbelievers of being bigoted or, even worse, unwittingly “endorsing” bin Laden's version of Islam. But the fact is that it was not “Islamophobes” or Western bigots who first drew the connection between Islam and violence. Muslims have been doing that for centuries, by quoting the Qur'an to justify their actions and making statements like those quoted above. And yet those who criticise western non-Muslims for their statements remain curiously silent whenever Muslims say the same things. Some Westerners have picked up on the fact that some Muslims make a direct link between Islam and violence, and are reporting on this fact. For liberal apologists and disingenuous Muslims to then accuse those people of inciting hatred, when all they have done is report on someone else's hatred, is a very peculiar form of hypocrisy.

But ultimately, it pays to examine what Islam does teach, so that we can be closer to understanding what must be done to counter the ideology of Islamic jihadists. If Islam really does teach peace, it should not be too difficult for moderate Muslims to wean out radicalism by spreading the true message of Islam, dissolving the jihadists' arguments and destroying their power to make recruits. But if Islam really teaches war, then it becomes incumbent on those same moderate Muslims to figure out ways to deal with this, and to blunt the power of jihadists to use these teachings to make recruits among otherwise peaceful Muslims.

The following is an in-depth examination of what Islam, and in particular the Qur'an, teaches about peace and war, how this material can be understood, and how jihadists use it to justify terrorism. One final note: I am not saying, and have never said, that there is one “true” version of Islam. Islam is not monolithic, and there is much disagreement among Muslim scholars about various issues. But the fact is that jihadists do claim that their version of Islam is “true” or “pure” Islam, and by quoting the Qur'an and the words of Muhammad they have had great success in convincing other Muslims of this. This is an examination of why they are so successful.

Where Is The Racism?

Car giant Honda has been ordered to pay £64,000 to an Indian worker who was forced to quit after suffering racial abuse at work. Kalmesh Shah, 30, moved to the UK from Gujarat in April 2004, and joined Honda in October that year.

Shah, who worked at the factory for nearly two years, was allegedly moved randomly between production line jobs without training, bullied and refused toilet breaks by his supervisor. His poor treatment led to deterioration in his physical and mental health following which he quit.

Now, then...I am sorry that Mr. Shah was treated this way, and that his health and quality of life suffered as a result. But we are told that he quit because of racial abuse. So where is it? I see nothing here that makes any indication that a single one of the man's tormentors did or said anything racist, or ever took his race into account at all.

I would be interested to hear more about what allegedly happened to Mr. Shah, but part of me suspects that he is doing something typical of what many immigrants and ethnic minorities in Britain do: that is, playing the race card. It is always easier to win some money and generate sympathy for yourself if you say someone is discriminating against you because of your race, and gullible lefties will usually oblige, even if there is no evidence for it.

As I said, I would be quite happy to change my evaluation of this case if further information comes to light, but as far as I am concerned this is a case of work-place bullying; not racism.

Round-up

1. As Lewis Hamilton begins F1 testing, Australian driver Mark Webber had some surprisingly sensible things to say regarding the whole "racism" issue:

"There were a few guys who were absolutely out of order, and that's what the whole thing has been hung on," said Webber, who was at the Circuit de Catalunya testing for Red Bull when the incidents occurred last weekend. "You had a lot of fans who were there with their young kids on a Sunday, so why should you stuff it all for them because of a few guys?" he added. Webber said he believes that some of the worst behaviour regarding the racism controversy was conducted by the media. "The over-reaction of the media ... take it back a bit," he urged. "It's totally controllable and we can get on top of it."

Yup.

2. Another of those reports on the "subtle racism" that infests the world today, this time in the context of the Canadian health-care system. It's funny how this racism is always so subtle that only the people carrying out the research are ever able to notice it.

Turkish PM: "Assimilation is a crime against humanity"

A crowd of 16,000 expatriate Turks cheered Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a vast indoor auditorium in Germany on Sunday as he told them to resist assimilation into the West. "Assimilation is a crime against humanity," he told the crowd. "I can well understand that you are against assimilation...It is important to learn German, but your Turkish language should not be neglected."

Let's let them into the EU, then!

You've also gotta love the sheer chutzpah of the website reporting this when it says "Erdogan was lionized by other speakers at the event, organized by the Union of European Turkish Democrats, a group that supports his moderate Islamist AKP party."

Moderate? If Erdogan and his party are moderate, why did thousands of secular Turks protest against his election last year, fearing that he would bring back Islamic law and destroy the secular state? Were they perhaps aware that Erdogan was a former member of the now-disbanded National Salvation Party, which was outlawed for threatening the secular Turkish constitution?

"Moderate"...puh-leeze!

Round-up

1. Antonio Calderon Martinez, one of the men who "blacked up" his face to greet Lewis Hamilton in Spain, insists he is not a racist: "I am no racist. I work with a lot of immigrants. It was a piece of fun. I am angry British people have misunderstood this. I do not want any more attention in case there are reprisals from immigrants here in Spain. We wanted to give a touch of humour to Montmelo and have a laugh at the father of [Lewis] Hamilton."

And you know what? I forgive Mr. Martinez. It's a shame that our supposedly "tolerant" liberal establishment probably won't.

2. Our Politically-Motivated Left-Wing Propaganda Experiment of the Week is this one: New research by psychologists at Stanford, Pennsylvania State University and the University of California-Berkeley reveals that many Americans subconsciously associate blacks with apes. The findings also show that people are more likely to condone violence against black criminal suspects as a result of their broader inability to accept African Americans as fully human.

I guess when you're as self-loathing as these guys are, it's only natural to concoct an experiment in which you miraculously "prove" that your race hates other races. Because you're superior to all that - you hate only your own race.

Black Man's Willy

The BBC has apologised for broadcasting an episode of Gardener's Question Time in which a caller to the Radio 4 show asked for advice on the Rhodochiton volubilis, which he said was "commonly known as the BMW, the black man's willy". Panelists were heard giggling their way through a discussion about the plant. Gardening author Bob Flowerdew admitted he had "only ever seen one close up - and not that colour". Horticulturalist Anne Swithinbank added: "I've never seen one in my life. They don't really like the cold, as you can imagine. They shrivel up and look very unhappy." But some listeners failed to see the funny side, complaining of racist stereotyping and vulgarity by the broadcaster.

They were offended by the black man's willy. How very silly.

Round-up

1. This is a very interesting article about a new book by Richard Thompson Ford - a black professor at Stanford Law School - called "The Race Card". The book is a serious analysis of the way modern conflicts involving race often have nothing to do with race at all, and the ease in this PC age of playing the race card to gain sympathy. For example, the article cites a recent case involving actor Danny Glover, who claims that a "racist" taxi driver sped by him instead of picking him up. But alternative explanations are offered which have nothing to do with racism: often, says Ford, taxi drivers are themselves black or of another race (other than white). Often, taxi drivers are hesitant to pick up black passengers for fear that they will be asked to drive to dangerous, seedy parts of town. On other occasions they are simply rushing to get the car back to the depot. The article, and possibly Ford's analysis, still seem a little bit apologetic to me, but many good points are made and this is a must-read piece.

2. Yesterday I wrote about the Lewis Hamilton "racism" scandal, and why there wasn't actually very much racism in it. But today it appears that there has been much REAL racism in the ongoing saga, with numerous people posting ignorant monkey comments on various websites. This is, of course, unacceptable, although I still believe that, due to free speech, people should be ALLOWED to equate Lewis Hamilton with a monkey if they so wish, so long as they don't physically hurt him or discriminate against him in the throes of their racism. You just gotta live with that, I'm afraid Lewis. Sometimes people don't like you (I'm not one of them, by the way).

3. But meanwhile, it seems that some people do indeed want to ban Spain from hosting a Grand Prix this year as a result of this incident. Gee, punishing a whole country because of the actions of a few of its people; that sounds rather...racist.

Round-up

1. In a major blow to an upcoming United Nations "anti-racism conference", the United States has decided not to participate, out of concern it would stir up the anti-Israel sentiments that marked the first such conference. And, if you'll remember, Canada has already pulled out of the same conference for the same reasons.

2. I see that politicians have been getting themselves involved in the recent scandal surrounding "racism" against Lewis Hamilton in Spain.

I think there are some important points to make surrounding this story. The first is that it is undeniable that racism is a problem in certain parts of Spain. I remember watching a football match where England played there, and Shaun Wright-Phillips and Ashley Cole were subjected to appalling monkey taunts.

But on the flip-side of things, there is actually far less racism here than the media are seeing. Sure, dressing up in "black" make-up and wigs and wearing T-shirts saying "Hamilton's Familly (sic)" is kind of bizarre. But in what way is it insulting? Would it have been insulting if they had dressed up in McClaren engineers' outfits which said, "Hamilton's team"? Of course it wouldn't, and this is no different. So why is it that as soon as race is brought into the equation, it suddenly becomes unacceptable? Obviously, the answer is that race is still a taboo over here - but the deeper question remains as to why we must be so overly "sensitive" about race. And at the end of the day, there is no reason why Lewis Hamilton should be offended by a few wallies pretending to be his family (and to be honest it would just be weird if they stood there with white skin pretending to be his family).

The media has also been making out that this so-called racism was apparently practised by the whole of Spain, when as far as I have seen, there were only about three people wearing the make-up and wigs. And other deplorable actions committed by the Spanish crowds, such as throwing rubbish at the McClaren team and sticking their middle fingers up at Hamilton, are easily explained without resorting to charges of racism: The obvious reason is that they are still resentful towards Lewis for the numerous altercations he had last year with their countryman and hero, Fernando Alonso. Hamilton's skin has nothing to do with it in these cases, and there is no evidence that it did.

The behaviour of these Spanish crowds has, obviously, been atrocious. But as soon as a black man is involved (and come on, he's not actually THAT black, is he?), our witless media suddenly lose all perspective. This has ceased to be surprising to me.

The Wikipedia Entry of Blasphemy

I see that a bunch of Muslims are outraged that Wikipedia has dared include pictures of Muhammad - forbidden in Islam - on their entry about him. The petition to remove them currently has over 80,000 members.

Early signs are that Wikipedia are NOT going to capitulate to this sharia-esque intimidation. Let's hope it stays that way.

Also, check out the comments made by those who have signed the petition. Some real gems, there. Such as this one, from "PsyPher Xesh" in Pakistan:

"Please dont play with Muslim people's sentiments!"

Or else.

Malaysia's "Moderate" Islam Means Racism And Oppression

Here's a great article explaining why the so-called "moderate" Islamic state of Malaysia is in fact anything but moderate, and discriminates against religious minorities.

N.B. In my "Islam 101" article here, I explained why this is a problem in ALL Muslim countries, and gave plenty of examples of my own, including from Malaysia.

Polygamous Dhimmicide

Do you remember last year Race Relations covered the proposals by the Government that Muslim immigrants who have polygamous marriages should be allowed to claim extra welfare benefits even though polygamy is illegal in this country?

Well, that proposal has gone through. Muslims win again. The jizya they'll be paid in this case is the "couple rate" plus £33.65 per each additional spouse.

Ghost Love Score

For my music share on this fine Friday afternoon, my contribution is "Ghost Love Score" by Nightwish. My favourite band and, in my opinion, one of the greatest songs ever written. Ten minutes of sheer symphonic brilliance. The part at 7:14 is just incredible. Enjoy: