The Planning Inspector charged with resolving the dispute arising from the Camberley mosque planning application submitted by the Bengali Welfare Association (BWA) to Surrey Heath Borough Council has concluded his inquiry rejecting the BWA’s appeal. “Following a seven-day inquiry in April,...
Director of the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency, Morten Kjaerum, presented the agency’s annual report for 2010, “Fundamental Rights: challenges and achievements” in Brussels last week. The FRA report covers EU member states’ performance in respect of the nine thematic areas in...
Paul Goodman on Conservative Home has written a rather interesting piece on multiculturalism asking “why is David Cameron so worked up about the M-word?” Goodman argues that it is “time to end the Tory war on multiculturalism” and to drop the “M-word” as a “boo-word”. He...
The Cambridge News reports on the latest pit-stop in the EDL’s calendar of protests against mosques in the UK. From the paper: “The English Defence League (EDL) claims 400 people will march through Cambridge against plans for a new mosque in Mill Road. “Cambridgeshire police are gearing up...
Several papers have picked up on the story of ‘poison packages’ suspected to contain anthrax being sent to mosques in London, Birmingham and Luton; (see Daily Express, The Mirror and Friday’s Evening Standard). From the Evening Standard: “Muslim leaders across London are on high alert...
The Sunday Telegraph published an interview with the Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Phillips, ahead of a landmark EHRC report on religious discrimination in the UK. Mr Phillips talks on the role of the EHRC in defending the rights of believers in religious traditions...
The Equality and Human Rights Commission today published a report on “Religious Discrimination in Britain: A review of research evidence, 2000- 2010”. The report is in the papers today following Trevor Phillips’ interview with the Sunday Telegraph on its findings. Excerpted...
Unmesh Desai, Labour councillor and Prevent lead for Newham Council, responds in the Guardian’s Comment is Free to a Guardian column last week by the New Statesman’s Mehdi Hasan on the new Prevent strategy. Desai argues that “you cannot treat violent and non-violent extremism...
The Islington Gazette has a front page story this week concerning a suspected anthrax attack at Finsbury Park mosque. From the paper: “A package containing a suspicious white powder, an anti-Islamic message and offensive pictures of Muslim women was posted to the Imam of the mosque, in St...
The joint select committee on human rights yesterday published a report, Terrorism Act 2000 (Remedial) Order 2011: Stop and Search without Reasonable Suspicion, looking into the legal and human rights implications of an exceptional power granted to police forces to conduct stop and search...
