I have written a blog for the New Statesman website which can be read here about the evidence I presented to the Leveson Inquiry on Tuesday  on behalf of ENGAGE regarding anti-Muslim bigotry in the UK press.

I went along to the Leveson Inquiry today at the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, to give testimony on behalf of ENGAGE about anti-Muslim bigotry in the UK press and the current failings of the Press Complaints Commission. You can read a full transcript of my testimony here.

ENGAGE will be uploading a video of the testimony shortly, insha’ Allah, so I will post a link to it when it is ready. The testimony was based on the submission that ENGAGE made to the Leveson Inquiry.

Update: My testimony on behalf of ENGAGE can now be viewed on the website of the Leveson Inquiry here.

A Muslim group nicknamed Boko Haram (but whose actual name is Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad) has been widely blamed for a series of bomb attacks targetting police stations in the largely Muslim northern Nigerian city of Kano.

The same group has been held responsible for a string of other attacks in recent years as it campaigns to force an ‘Islamic government’ on the country. One of the saddest features of Muslim history is the regular appearance of these kinds of small extremist khawarij-type groups – of which al-Qa’ida is the most prominent contemporary example – who believe that other Muslims who do not agree with their worldview are actually unbelievers and worthy of death.

When I was younger I was taught by many senior Muslim leaders in the UK and elsewhere that secularism was akin to atheism and that only a truly Islamic state which enforced the Shari’ah would provide the real answer to humanity’s problems. Looking back, I just shake my head and can’t believe I actually swallowed that argument for so long. It is just so embarrassing.

By contrast, the Arab Spring has brought many welcome developments, particularly the fact the people in Egypt and Tunisia have now been able to freely elect their own leaders. One can only hope that the leaders of the Islamic-minded parties that have won those elections now look to best serve their people with honesty and humility. An ‘Islamic state’ which does not respect the human rights of all its people including freedom of religion and gay rights would necessarily be an unjust state.

The leaders of the an-Nahda (Tunisia) and the Freedom and Justice Party (Egypt) have an opportunity to show that Islam can be compatible with a modern understanding of human rights.

Instead of being hijacked by the violent idiots of Boko Haram and al-Qa’ida, imagine if Islam became synonymous worldwide with learning, tolerance, innovation and human progress.

I have just come across this fine review in the Spectator of a new biography of Saladin (Salahuddin al-Ayyubi). The reviewer, Sam Leith, approvingly quotes from a 12th Century Syrian text that is cited in the biography and I must say, it made me smile:

A mid-12th-century Syrian text reported:

The most amazing thing in the world is that the Christians say that Jesus is divine, that he is God, and then they say that the Jews seized him and crucified him. How then can a God who cannot protect himself protect others? Anyone who believes his God came out of a woman’s privates is quite mad; he should not be spoken to, for he has neither intelligence nor faith.

The Christian concept of the Trinity has always been a puzzle for Muslims…and I suspect for many Christians too.

There is a wonderful article in the Guardian today by Alexis Petridis recounting the first time he read Sue Townsend’s splendid book The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 which was first published in 1982. The comments following the article are also very enjoyable with readers chiming in with their own anecdotes about reading the book as a teenager.

My favourite passages are too numerous to mention but one of the Guardian readers shared this bit and I remember reading it back in the mid-80′s and laughing out loud. It is about a school trip to London that Adrian’s class were being taken on:

7:00AM – boarded bus

7:15AM – ate packed lunch.

…

14:45PM – Bus breaks down in front of Swiss Cottage.

15:00PM – Bus driver breaks down in front of AA man.

If you haven’t read it or its sequels, then do yourself a big favour and do so!

What a twat David Cameron is. Back in February last year, in his infamous Munich speech, David Cameron outlined his government’s approach towards UK Muslims.

He said that his government would not work with Muslims who did not support democracy, failed to support equality for women etc. More recently, his government said it would look to see how foreign governments were treating their gay minorities when deciding whether or not to award foreign aid to them.

Yet, during his recent visit to the immensely corrupt Saudi Kingdom, which sent troops to crush the pro-democracy uprising in Bahrain last year, prohibits its female population from driving cars, and where the punishment for being gay is execution, Cameron appears to have raised not a single word about human rights.

Strange, eh? And nothing whatsoever to do with the long-standing understanding whereby the USA/UK provide security to the Saudi rulers, while they in return spend billions of their oil dollars making purchases of Western arms.

YouTube have stopped allowing people to easily view the shocking video of several US marines urinating gleefully over the bodies of dead Afghan mujahideen. You now have to sign in using an official Google login which many people may not have.

However, thankfully you can still watch the video at this link courtesy of Russia Today.

Do forward this to others and urge people to write to the US Embassy to ask them to urgently investigate and take appropriate action – in addition, to stop occupying Afghanistan, of course.

Congratulations to the BBC and Dominic Casciani in particular for successfully challenging the Government in court over their refusal to allow the BBC to film an interview with Babar Ahmad.

Babar has clearly been going through a horrific ordeal which seems never to end and he has visibly aged a great deal even though he is only in his mid-30′s.

This government and the previous Labour government have acted disgracefully by allowing the US to torment our citizens with such a one-sided extradition treaty.

Good for the BBC in seeking to allow Babar to tell his side of the story.

But have you noticed how many Muslim organisations that have been silently pocketing PREVENT-related money from the government have failed to publicly speak out and criticise the government over this appalling mistreatment of a UK Muslim citizen?

The Times today published an article based on an interview with Ahtsham Ali, who works as a Muslim advisor to the Prison Service. The article is about why so many Muslims are ending up in prison. Muslims account for over 12% of the prison population – way higher than their percentage of the population which is around 4-5%. Unfortunately, The Times is behind a paywall but the Daily Mail website has reprinted much of the article under their own byline here.

The Mail’s not unexpected spin on the story can be seen in their headline which reads:

“Generation of young Muslims ending up in jail ‘because of out-dated imams who fail to engage with them’”

It seems rather unfair to blame Imams for Muslims ending up in prison when far more influential factors are surely parental upbringing and social crowds. In my field of work (IT and wireless networks) I have worked alongside many Hindus whose communities also often import their priests from India. They too have trouble relating to many Hindu youth in the UK. Yet, British Hindus account for a far lesser percentage of those in prison as compared with their size of the population as a whole. The Daily Mail prints this fascinating official statistical graph obtained from NOMS (National Offender Management Service):

In my experience, Hindu children are brought up to value education and are ingrained with a very strong work ethic by their parents.

If we are really looking to point fingers at who is responsible for Muslim criminality then I don’t think it is appropriate to blame Imams who are very often poorly paid. As a Rabbi friend once told me (and he had heard it from the Chief Rabbi - so a strong isnad!), if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys! Imams often have to hold down two jobs just to try and make ends meet. It is hardly a job that many young Muslims dream of taking on when they grow up. It is very regrettable, though not surprising, therefore, that mosques sadly resort to importing Imams from overseas.

Poor quality parental involvement in the education and upbringing of Muslim children and bad influences from social peers are surely far more relevant factors when it comes to criminality amongst UK Muslims.

Atkins is a staunch atheist, pretty much in the Dawkins mould, yet that should not be allowed to detract from his prose which is very often elegant and sharp. Here is an extract which deals with a common issue I face when discussing evolution with people who have never actually read a book on evolution by a reputable scientist.

“…It is important to distinguish fact from theory, observation from mechanism, phenomenon from explanation. Evolution is a fact; natural selection is a theory of how that evolution came about. I think it rather muddling to speak of the ‘theory of evolution’. Although natural selection is the currently accepted theory of how evolution occurs, to refer to it as the ‘theory of evolution’ colours the term evolution to suggest that it, evolution, is a theory whereas it is a fact. This is perhaps a pedantic point, but the issue is of such sensitivity for some people that it is better to be precise.” 

Atkins’ point is a crucially important one and one that I tried to make in my opening statement in my debate with Harun Yahya a few years ago.

I can’t quantify just how many times I have heard the words “But evolution is only a theory!”  The ‘theory of evolution’ is a fact in the same sense as the heliocentric theory of the solar system.

Here is Professor Kenneth R. Miller – author of the superb book Finding Darwin’s God – and who also happens to be a Catholic, explaining a fascinating recent scientific finding about human  chromosomes and how it corroborates the theory that humankind share common ancestors with apes.