On Tuesday, the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB), a new government-backed body set up to counter extremist teachings in British mosques, published its draft constitution.

A close look at the document - distributed by email by Said Ferjani, the head of Policy & Public Relations at the Muslim Association of Britain - reveals that the composition and set-up of the new body means that MINAB is likely to do little or nothing to tackle extremism.

An excellent letter in yesterday’s Times responded to the recent article by William Dalrymple called ‘A lesson in humility for the smug West.’

The letter’s Muslim author hits the nail on the head repeatedly. Perhaps Mr Dalrymple will one day take note:

Al-Qaeda supporters have voiced their anger at Al Jazeera Network for airing an audiotape of Osama bin Laden that made him appear “unusually” humble.

In the video, bin Laden admitted that al-Qaeda's organisation in Iraq had made mistakes and called for unity among Muslims.

You're tooling down the A3 near Guildford in search of refreshments when the Wisley South service station appears on the horizon. If you're a member of her majesty's armed forces, think twice.

An attendant at the station, owned by British Petroleum, recently refused to sell beer to a soldier who had fought in Afghanistan because the soldier was in uniform.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's deputy First Minister, on Tuesday opened a new exhibition at the Glasgow Science Centre entitled '1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage in Our World'.

The '1001 inventions' website says that the exhibition - partly funded by public money - is being held because "few people are aware how well-known inventions which helped to pave the way towards the progress of modern civilisation were deeply rooted in Muslim civilisation, from soap-making to surgical procedures."

Perhaps the exhibition's most interesting claim is that Abbas Ibn Firnas, a ninth-century Muslim inventor, "built a glider which was capable of carrying a human being".

Closer inspection reveals this to be less than entirely true.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali should be offered sanctuary by the British government says Charles Moore in the current issue of the Spectator:

‘She is, in effect, a refugee – from a country which prides itself on looking after refugees… Wouldn’t it be an earnest of our government’s commitment to human rights if it offered this brave woman the protection which would enable her to live here?’

This blog recently covered the Islam-is-Peace media campaign, praising its message but voicing dismay that the group had ties to the Muslim Association of Britain - a Hamas-linked organisation whose founder and a chief ideologue have publicly defended Islamic terrorism.

The Centre for Social Cohesion duly researched Islam-is-Peace and has now issued the findings in a new press briefing.

Woolwich Crown Court, in South East London, learned today that MI5 agents had filmed a 'Muslim terrorist camp’ in the Lake District in August 2004.

Almost a year later, Muktar Ibrahim, who attended the “military-style” terror camp, failed to detonate his rucksack on a crowded London tube.

A story appeared in yesterday's Daily Mail on which I have been pondering hard since reading it.

It concerned a visit a fortnight ago by two police officers to a 71 year old priest of an East London Catholic church. They had called on the priest unannounced to interrogate him for nearly two hours over whether, in posting a comment on his web-based parish bulletin a year or so ago about the Shabina Begum case, he had been intending to incite religious hatred against her or her co-religionists.

Brian Mikkelsen, the Danish culture minister, has said that Denmark should offer safe haven to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, after the Netherlands government said it would stop protecting the Dutch ex-MP from Islamic extremists.

Mikkelsen has asked the country’s municipalities to invite the author and filmmaker to live there under a new parliament proposal to establish several ‘free cities’ for persecuted writers.

"Ayaan Hirsi Ali will be number one on the list of authors we should invite to Denmark," Mikkelsen said on Sunday.

"She has fought for the freedom of expression and has personally received threats on her life."

Yesterday new details emerged from the terrorism trial of Mohammed Hamid, who styled himself 'Osama bin London', and four others who stand accused of a range of offences ranging from attending terrorist training camps to providing weapons training.

So far only Atilla Ahmet, 43, the 'amir' or leader of the group has pleaded guilty to soliciting murder and the others continue to assert his innocence. But despite this, the evidence already emerging from the trial raises several important points about Islamic terrorism in the UK:

Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, last night took part in a high-profile debate sponsored by The Spectator on the subject of 'We Should Not Be Reluctant to Assert the Superiority of Western Values'.

Defending the motion were Douglas Murray, Ibn Warraq and David Aaronovitch. Opposing them were Tariq Ramadan, William Dalrymple and Charles Glass.

At the end of the tense two-hour debate, the 700-strong audience were invited to cast their votes.

Melanie Phillips writes a very positive and flattering piece on her website about the lunchtime seminar held yesterday by the Centre for Social Cohesion for the celebrated Islamic scholar Ibn Warraq.

'A fascinating and vital discussion'.

The full piece can be read here.

Last week this blog offered reserved praise for Islamispeace.org.uk, a Muslim non-profit presenting itself as an independent group promoting a peaceful image of Islam in the eyes of non-Muslims.

We called it a welcome, if insufficient, effort. Turns out we spoke too soon.

Islam is peace.

These words have begun appearing this week on buses, trains and at airports across Britain, courtesy of www.islamispeace.org.uk, a new Muslim non-profit working to improve Islam's image in the eyes of non-Muslims and foster better interfaith relations.

Islamispeace.org.uk campaigner Ifhat Shaheen-Smith, quoted in the Times, blamed "the current atmosphere of suspicion and fear about Islam and British Muslims" for negative stereotypes about Islam Shaheen-Smith says are gaining currency.

The Dutch Somali-born writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali is in a safe-house at an undisclosed location in Holland tonight after the Dutch government said that they would remove her security-detail from her from the 1st October unless she was in the Netherlands.

The former Dutch MP and colleague of the murdered Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh, has been protected by the Dutch government during her time working at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

Last night's Panorama, presented by Shiraz Maher, was a tremendous piece of investigative reporting.

Focussing on the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, the programme's interviewees included Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Cohesion, James Brandon.

‘Blackburn, in common with many northern towns, is experiencing a huge upsurge in pimping, and it is an unpalatable truth … that many of the newest wave of pimps come from within the Asian community.’

So claimed a truly stomach-churning report in last week’s Sunday Times. The report exposed the large scale of organised sex trafficking of white under-age girls lured into prostitution and drug addiction in northern towns by unscrupulous gangs of men of largely Pakistani origin.

On Tuesday 9th October (next week) the great Islamic scholar Ibn Warraq and I will be debating Tariq Ramadan and William Dalrymple at the Intelligence Squared debates in London. The debate has already received quite a lot of attention in the press.