December 2007 Archives

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Coalition to Stop Child Soldiers have called for Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to investigate whether Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, also known as Colonel Karuna, a former Tamil Tiger warlord, who entered the UK on a forged passport, to be prosecuted for war crimes.

The Tamileela Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), Karuna's pro-government paramilitary faction that broke away from the Tamil Tiger rebels, has been condemned by United Nations for hostage taking, torture and using child soldiers.

Muslims News has reported that the Charity Commission has "vehemently" rejected claims made by Gordon Brown, prime minister, that the main objective of its new Faith and Social Cohesion Unit is to stop the exploitation of Muslim charities by extremists.

The newspaper reported that a spokeswoman for the Charity Commission said: "It is absolutely not true that new Unit will focus exclusively on one faith or will fight extremism." The paper did not disclose the source.

Islam-Is-Peace, a Muslim pressure group, has today taken out several adverts in British newspapers which read: "Muslims across Britain would like to wish everyone a happy Eid. This is a time to reflect on all our shared values."

The newly-founded group - profiled by the Centre here - has previously refused to disclose how it can afford such expensive advertisements or who its leaders are. Members of the group who have spoken to the press include some who have been closely linked to the Muslim Association of Britain, the UK branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The controversy over Policy Exchange’s report ‘The hijacking of British Islam’ has caused the Guardian’s in-house Seamus Milne to all-but-libel the Centre for Social Cohesion and any other think-tank which looks into radicalisation within the UK. In a particularly egregious example of its kind, Milne used Saturday’s on-line Guardian to perpetuate his favourite myth – viz, that any highlighting of the problem is itself the problem.

Churchill famously said that he would never fail to be able to tell the difference between the fire-fighter and the fire. Whether Milne can tell the difference is uncertain, but he will always attack the fire-fighter anyway.

Tonight’s Any Questions, which is chaired by Jonathan Dimbleby, will feature Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion.

It's a good thing the Daily Telegraph website boasts streaming video, because this story must be seen to be believed: a new rehab centre for ex-jihadists in Saudi Arabia.

Nicholas Rollis, a convert to Islam, is to go on trial for terrorism charges in June, it was announced today.

Rollis, from Rotherham in South Yorkshire, faces 13 terrorism charges, including one of engaging in preparation of an act of terrorism between April 12 last year and July 12 this year.

Englishmen are famously said to be "branded on the tongue". From the first word he utters, the Englishman announces to the world his regional provenance and, more importantly, his social class.

Although social distinctions are eternal, class barriers in Britain have largely crumbled in recent decades - but not among some British Indians, says the Times of India.

Samina Malik, the self-proclaimed 'lyrical terrorist' who posted poems supporting al-Qaeda on her website, has been given a nine-month suspended prison sentence under the 2000 Terrorism Act.

Malik, who worked at Heathrow Airport, once wrote on a social networking website that her favourite past-times included "watching videos by my Muslim brothers in Iraq, yep the beheading ones, watching video messages by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri and other videos which show massacres of the kaffirs."