The Centre For Social Cohesion

Today the Centre for Social Cohesion was pleased to host a lunchtime talk by Nonie Darwish, head of Arabs for Israel and author of "Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel and the War on Terror" (Sentinel HC, 2006).

Darwish recounted growing up in the Nasser-era Gaza Strip, enveloped by Egyptian state propaganda urging violent jihad against Israel.

Today, Darwish blames such thinking for the death of her father, an Egyptian commando assassinated by Israel for his role in the deaths of some 400 Israelis during the 1950s.

Al Qaeda is set to launch a Cyber-Jihad on the 11th of November, claims Debka.com. The Israeli news website claims to have seen Arabic intercepts announcing the launch of the ‘e-Jihad’ and calling on thousands of Islamist hackers to back them up.

The website said that al Qaeda’s electronic experts will start attacking Western, Jewish, Israeli, apostate Muslim and Shia Websites, expanding the fight day by day.

On Friday night a number of us from the Centre went down to an event in London organised by City Circle. The event was the first public opportunity for the former Hizb ut-Tahrir organiser Maajid Nawaz to face some of his fiercest critics from the Muslim community.

Tariq Ramadan, an influential Islamist speaker and writer, is to move from the UK to the Netherlands, it was announced on Tuesday.

The University of Leiden, the leading Dutch university, has offered Ramadan a chair in Islamic studies. The position is funded by the Sultan of Oman.

Ramadan came to the UK in 2005 to take up a fellowship at Oxford University. Initially acclaimed as a reformist who could help the British government tackle Islamic extremism, he will leave the UK having failed to meet these high expectations.

A dirty fork? That's the least of worries for staff at a Leeds prison, where Muslim inmates are threatening to sue after being offered ham sandwiches in their packed lunches.

Prison officials say the offending sandwiches were off the menu as soon as kitchen staff were told of their mistake.

But the inmates insist that their human rights have been breached and are demanding GBP 2 million in compensation. Islam forbids Muslims to eat any pork products.

Last night's episode of Question Time featured Douglas Murray, Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion.

Abdul Bari has kept his head down since becoming head of the Muslim Council of Britain – at least compared to his predecessor Iqbal (‘death is too easy for [Rushdie]’) Sacranie.

But the weekend brought an interview with Bari in the Telegraph – his first since taking his current post at the MCB. And suddenly his record of silence became understandable. People around him must have been begging him not to speak.

Because what a catastrophe the interview has turned out to be. You can read it here.

Last Friday, the Charity Commission announced the creation of a new Faith and Social Cohesion Unit to lead its work with faith-based charities.

In the first instance, it announced, the new unit will focus on Muslim charities and communities. Directing its work will be a newly created Project Board the members of which, we were told, will include representatives from MINAB, the Mosques and Imams Advisory Board.

Thus, the public watchdog supposed to ensure registered charities engage only in benign charitable activity, and neither political lobbying nor anything more nefarious, has appointed as its advisor on Muslim matters representatives from the Muslim Council of Britain and the Muslim Association of Britain, two of the four Muslim organisations currently on MINAB.

Tuesday morning saw the launch of a report that must constitute one of the most appalling abuses of Mayoral privilege even from this London Mayor. After sitting on the final report (presumably in embarrassment) for some time, Ken Livingstone finally held a press conference to launch a work of research which can only really be described by that old Private Eye moniker: ‘piss-poor.’

The report – ‘The search for common ground: Muslims, non-Muslims and the UK media’ – purports to be a study of the British press and its ‘Islamophobia.’ If can be found here.

The prime minister was anointed Govardhan Brown by a “large” crowd of “cheering” Hindus, Sikhs and Jains, celebrating Diwali, the Hindu Forum said in a press statement.

The statement read: “Brown, wearing marigold garlands around his neck and a bright vermilion teeka on his forehead, received the honour at the Hindu Forum of Britain's annual event to celebrate the faith's festival of light at parliament.”

Ramesh Kallidai, the general secretary for the Hindu Forum of Britain, introduced the prime minister to guests as "Shri Govardhan Brown".

He told Brown, "Govardhan" had a "sacred and auspicious" meaning in Sanskrit as a hill in paradise.

"From today, you are an honorary member of the Hindu community, as Govardhan Brown," he said.

Ofcom, the UK's broadcasting regulator, has ruled that Channel 4's documentary 'Undercover Mosque' was a "legitimate investigation". Ofcom dismissed police claims that the programme-makers had intended to "encourage or incite" violence against Muslims.

The hour-long documentary, aired in January, reported that preachers in numerous British mosques had incited violence against women and voiced support for Taliban attacks on British troops.

One senses that the time is late afternoon and that the guests have just enjoyed a good meal. Seated on plush divans and flecked with light from ornate North African lamps, they calmly discuss topics ranging from dating and marriage to suicide bombing. Their voices are measured and friendly, and their conversation fluid.

Welcome to Muslim Cafe, a new weekly online chat show by London-based Gazelle Media, aimed at bringing the informal discussions happening in Muslim homes across the land to a wider audience.

"You get a lot of contrived polemic taking place on [mainstream] television, like the ultra-orthodox imam against the gay Muslim," says Navid Akhtar, who set up Muslim Cafe this year with fellow Gazelle Media producer Amir Jamal. "We're giving you the subtlety and context."

A protest rally took place in Oxford on Tuesday evening against a forthcoming debate on free speech scheduled for next Monday at its prestigious Union to which David Irving and Nick Griffin have been invited to attend as speakers.

Whether next Monday's debate goes ahead remains to be seen. The matter is to be put to a vote of Union members after a debate on the matter tomorrow.

On 20th November, the Centre for Social Cohesion hosted an evening debate in Westminster between Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the former Dutch MP and self-declared Muslim apostate, and Ed Husain, the author of the best-selling book The Islamist.

Debating ‘The West and the Future of Islam’, the two speakers began by making a short speech setting out their arguments before taking questions from the audience.

The International Herald Tribune is among the papers - both national and international - to have reported the Centre for Social Cohesion's debate this week between Ed Husain and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

'Muslims must make a moral choice to defy extremists who use their religion to justify terrorism, the Somali-born former Dutch lawmaker said during a debate late Tuesday in London organized by a think tank, the Center for Social Cohesion.'

On Sunday the Centre attended the third annual two-day Global Peace and Unity event (GPU) at London’s Excel Centre presented by the new Islam Channel and supported by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB).

The day didn’t start well: when we asked directions on the DLR, the attendant, completely deadpan, replied: “Oh the Muslim event, they gave me a free Quran, it’s interesting…haven’t got to the bomb-making section yet.”

The GPU’s aim is "building bridges for a better future." Clearly there is a long way to go.

In a follow-up piece in today’s Guardian Unlimited to his important debate on Islam last week with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ed Husain laments the woeful ignorance about that religion whch he claims is displayed by her and other ex-Muslims and non-Muslims who condemn it in toto on the strength of what he argues are only certain immoderate versions of it.

In Husain's view, these critics of Islam do not appreciate its many moderate traditions whose discovery he says provided him with the Ariadne's thread by which he was able to extricate himself from intolerant Islamism.

Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, has told Parliament that the Department of Culture, Media and Sport has begun drawing up guidelines to standardise which Islamic texts are stocked by public libraries. On 14 November, he told the House of Commons:

“The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport is working with the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council to agree a common approach to deal with the inflammatory and extremist material that some seek to distribute through public libraries, while also of course protecting freedom of speech.”

Today saw the ‘historic’ launch of the Draft Constitution and Standards Document for the consultation of the Mosque and Imams National Advisory Board’s (MINAB) at the Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre in West London.

Through various speakers representing the four founding groups, the group outlined what MINAB hopes to achieve during the consultation period and raised the issues they want to tackle: extremism, the role of women in Islam, the role of women in mosques, a balanced and representative collection of books on Islam in libraries and child protection issues.