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...
Andrew Gilligan peddles what appears to have become something of a hobby horse for him, the claim that anti-Muslim hate crime is diminishing. Gilligan uses the Independent on Sunday article on the MCB annual general meeting this year and excerpts from the speech given by the secretary general of...
The Sunday Express front page yesterday covered news of “experts in Islamic extremism” to be recruited to the Department of Education to “identify dangerous radicals in schools” as part of the new Prevent strategy. From the paper: “Experts in Islamic extremism have been drafted in by...
The EU Observer reports on a letter sent by a group of prominent former political leaders to the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and EU High Representative Baroness Catherine Ashton, urging them to engage with the Hamas-Fatah unity government and to reject the “false choice” presented...
Martin Bright on the Spectator’s Coffee House blog remarks on the Prevent strategy that was unveiled this week. Bright writes: “It is now nearly five years since I wrote When Progressives Treat with Reactionaries for the think tank Policy Exchange. “It was a plea for sanity in the...
There’s a very interesting story picked up by the Daily Express today on a French Muslim couple who are to challenge the French government’s ban on the burqa as restricting their right to free movement within the EU. The Daily Express indignantly headlines the piece “French Muslims use our...
