The UK government and Muslim students

From November the UK government will begin working with the Federation of Student Islamic Societies in the UK and Ireland (FOSIS) to try to better understand Muslim students. This policy is likely to backfire given that FOSIS are unrepresentative of Muslim students and regularly give a platform to extremist speakers.

In the wake of the threats Borders has received if it stocked The Jewel of Medina, the CSC would encourage all followers of this blog to read Luke Johnson's excellent article yesterday for the FT.

Mohammed Asha, one of those in trial in the Glasgow airport bombing plot, has said that his co-accused Bilal Abdulla joked about "martyrdom" and was "very, very sympathetic with what is going on in Iraq" (i.e. the insurgency against Coalition troops).

Dr Mohammed Asha made the comments in taped police interviews the day after the attempted bombing.

Government plans to teach basic sex education to primary school children in a bid to tackle teenage pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases have come under fire from a conservative Christian group.

National director of Christian Voice, Stephen Green, said that teaching young children about sex is "a wickedness" from a government that wants to see "a whole generation fornicating." He said the proposals would sexualise young children and only "encourage experimentation".

An atheist group will soon begin using London buses to spread its message of disbelief after raising nearly £50,000 in less than a day - nearly ten times the total amount that it hoped to raise.

The British Humanist Association aims to have two buses carrying its message, 'There's probably no God', for a month and also plans to advertise in other areas. It says that its campaign is intended to counter religious messages.

Today Professor Amina Wadud led a Muslim Friday prayer sermon (khutba) making her the first female in Britain to publicly lead a prayer congregation of both men and women. The khutba, arranged by and held in the Muslim Educational Centre Oxford (Meco), marks the start of a conference on Islam and Feminism which takes place this weekend at Oxford University's Wolfson College organised by Meco.

Amina Wadud, who is a visiting scholar at the Starr King School of the Ministry, Berkeley, California, sparked controversy after leading a mixed congregation held at the Anglican Church in New York in 2005. The Friday prayer had to be held at a church as mosques refused to host her. Traditionalist Muslims are of the opinion that it is only male imams that can lead mixed prayers, where women can lead prayers where there are only females.

According to a report today Nicky Reilly, the Exeter bomber, appears to have been radicalised on-line by men associated with al-Qaeda and operating from the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Reilly, who has a mental age of 10, attempted to set off a bomb in a busy restaurant in May of this year and yesterday admitted charges of attempted murder and preparing terrorist attacks. He converted to Islam in 2002, but only researched bomb making from the start of this year.

The Muslim Association of Britain, a Muslim Brotherhood front-group, has warned a Nottting Hill art gallery to expect "a strong reaction from Muslims" for exhibiting painting which appears to show a Muslim woman cradling a pig.

Mokhtar Badri, MAB's vice-president told The Telegraph: “Although we condemn violence, Muslims have a right to express their disgust at this work” adding that the artist "clearly wants to provoke a strong reaction from Muslims and that is what she will get.”

Alleged conspirators of the London and Glasgow attacks, Kafeel Ahmed and Bilal Abdullah, liaised through internet messaging, a court today heard.

Ahmed is alleged to have said “Bro, inshallah (God willing), I think we are gonna start experiments sometime soon” months before the attack to Abdullah, who replied with an “oh cool” and a smiley face symbol.

Guest blog from CSC Research Intern Abdul Munin:

The Chief Inspector of Prison Anne Owers today stated that Muslim prison gangs are attempting to radicalise inmates.

Owers said: "There was a perception among officers that some Muslim prisoners operated as a gang and put pressures on non-Muslim prisoners to convert, and on other Muslim prisoners to conform to a strict and extreme interpretation of Islamic practice."

The government's new Young Muslim Advisory Group (YMAG), launched yesterday by the Home Office as a way to "help deepen its engagement with young Muslims," has been criticised by a conservative Peer as divisive and ill-judged.

The group of twenty two young Muslims aged 16-25 - chosen for their commitment to community work - will have direct access to senior cabinet ministers and discuss issues affecting their day to day lives including tackling discrimination, increasing employment levels, preventing extremism and boosting civic participation.

Comedian Harry Enfield has been banned from performing both as "a sex-crazed Muslim hoodie" and a "paedophile Catholic priest" in his new BBC comedy show Harry and Paul.

The BBC reportedly told Enfield to abandon the characters because they might "cause trouble." Enfield said: "I was told, 'Don't even go there'."

The BBC has reported that a Greater Manchester police officer, Stuart Janaway from Irlam in Salford has been forced to resign his post after he was seen wearing a British National Party (BNP) badge at a football match in Old Trafford in September 2006 while off duty.

Terry Sweeney, Acting Assistant Chief Constable and head of the Professional Standards Branch, said: "Item six of the Chief Constable's Order of 2004...makes it clear that officers are banned from being members of the BNP, Combat 18 or the National Front. This requirement extends into the private lives of police officers and police staff."

Associated Press are reporting that the planned release of 'The Jewel of Medina' is under doubt following the alleged arson at the offices of Gibson Square.

Alan Jessop of Compass, Gibson Square's sales representative, said that publisher Martin Rynja has put "publication in suspended animation while he reflects and takes advice on what the best foot forward is."