** 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,...
The BBC yesterday covered the report published by the Joint Committee on the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill, on Lords reform. The committee report recommends that the composition of the upper chamber be changed to comprise an 80/20 split of elected and appointed peers. It also recommends a 15...
The Guardian and Independent today follow the story in yesterday’s Mail on Sunday on the allegations of MI5 coercing Libyan dissidents seeking asylum in the UK into co-operating with Gaddafi’s security agency, or being threatened with deportation. These new revelations come on the back of...
As newspapers report on the outcome of the first round presidential elections in France and the third place ranking of Marine Le Pen, with the highest ever vote gained by the French National Front, 18%, the Independent today features an article on the return of the National Front to British...
The New Statesman cover story last week focused on the trial of Anders Behring Breivik and the shocking fact of his anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant attitude finding popular resonance. The cover page of the NS suggests that “it’s time to put mainstream Islamophobia on trial” and Peter Wilby in his...
There is coverage in the Independent, the BBC and the Yorkshire Post on the arrest of five men with alleged links to the English Defence League, on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred on social networking sites. The Independent reports: “Five men believed to be linked to the far-right English...
The BBC reports on the cancellation by Liverpool University of a mayoral debate that was to be held with the candidates in the forthcoming election, after the presence of a BNP member on the panel sparked fears of ‘disruption’. From the BBC: “A debate between Liverpool’s mayoral...
Open Democracy has published a translation of Mariano Aguirre’s article for Le Monde Diplomatique on the Breivik trial and the wider phenomenon of rising xenophobia and cultural protectionism which has gripped the European mainstream in the past few years. From Open Democracy: “The bloodthirsty...
The Guardian, BBC, Independent and the Daily Telegraph today report on the US Government’s attempts at damage limitation after photographs showing US paratroopers in Afghanistan posing “grinning … with insurgents’ mangled corpses” were published in the LA Times. From the Guardian:...
West Midlands Police have reported on an incident in Solihull where a man forcibly removed a Muslim woman’s face covering while she was out shopping in the town centre. From the West Midlands Police ‘Appeals for Help’ website: “Police in Solihull have today released CCTV of a man suspected...
The Guardian, the BBC, the Daily Telegraph, the Independent and the Times(£) all report today on the story that the former Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, is facing legal action brought by Abdel Hakim Belhadj for Straw’s alleged role in his rendition. Belhadj is to sue the former foreign...
