** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE** Rights group Muslim Engagement & Development (MEND) have launched a new report The Great Debunk: Challenging Islamophobic Conspiracy Theories, which examines how false narratives about Muslims once limited to the far-right fringes have entered mainstream political,...
Sadhbh Walshe on the Guardian’s Comment is Free blog covers the double standards on display in the Home Secretary’s decision to extradite five British Muslims to the US whilst blocking that of Gary MacKinnon – despite the similarities between his case and that of one of the Muslim men...
The Guardian today publishes a letter signed by forty-two MPs and two peers backing some form of statutory regulation of the press. The signatories claim that “current proposal put forward by the newspaper industry would lack independence” and “risks being an unstable model destined to...
The Independent Voices blog has published an article by French journalist, Marie Dhumieres, reflecting on the way that Islamophobia has become entrenched in the French psyche and the trials that France faces in challenging negative stereotypes of Muslims and Islam. Dhumieres points to a recent...
BBC News reports that a statue is to be installed in central London as a tribute to an Indian Muslim woman, Noor Inayat Khan, who worked as a spy in France during WW2, aiding the war effort for the allied powers. She was tortured by the Gestapo and shot dead by the Germans in 1944. […]
The Sun reports that two men, one of whom is the son of Andy Goram, a former goalkeeper for Rangers FC, have been sentenced for a drunken racist attack on an Asian woman. Lewis Goram admitted acting in a racially aggravated manner in an incident which took place in May this year. Goram called the...
A recent edition of the BBC’s Daily Politics show featured a debate on the upcoming Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections, with contributions from Lord Michael Bichard, Caroline Flint MP, and Policing Minister, Damian Green. Amongst the issues discussed were the role of the PCCs;...
The Guardian today publishes a comment piece by Brian Cathcart, Professor of Journalism at Kingston University and founder of the Hacked Off campaign, in which he argues that those worried for press freedom need not be concerned at the possible recommendation of statutory regulation by Lord Justice...
The Greater London Authority has issued a press release informing us that several members of the London Assembly have written a letter to the head of the Metropolitan Police, Bernard Hogan-Howe, urging him to revise the force’s view that the English Defence League is not an extremist group. The...
The Guardian and the Daily Mail both report on the military trial of US soldier, Robert Bales, who is accused of killing sixteen Afghan civilians, including nine children. Bales went on a rampage in March this year, attacking residents of two villages in Kandahar. From the Guardian: “A US soldier...
The Guardian and BBC News have reported on an interview on the Today Programme with the Home Secretary, Theresa May, on the Police and Crime Commissioner elections being held on the 15th November and the fears that low turnout will stymie mandates to function effectively in local areas. Turnout for...
