What's New

  We have written to the Jewish Chronicle concerning last week’s article by Martin Bright, the JC’s political editor, about ENGAGE. Read our letter here.

  The Guardian published a letter yesterday signed by MPs (Sir Gerald Kaufman MP pictured), human rights activists, playwrights, novelists and advocacy groups, denouncing the Government’s proposed plan to amend the law on universal jurisdiction in the Police Reform and Social Responsibility bill...

  Manchester Evening News carries a news story on the sentencing of a drunken yob who racially abused a member of staff at Eccles mosque and threatened to blow it up. From MEN: “The court heard how a member of the mosque had been locking up after prayers when he heard Walsh shouting from across...

  The newspapers are filled with news and comment (Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Scotsman, Guardian, Independent and BBC) on the Home Secretary “actively” considering an exclusion order against Pastor Terry Jones who has been invited to the UK to address an EDL gathering in Luton...

    Jonathan Wynne-Jones, the Sunday Telegraph’s Religious Affairs and Media Correspondent, wrote yesterday of the publication of plans by the Church of England to merge three diocese in the Yorkshire area into one.  He wrote: “It is also difficult not to see the merger – or axing...

  Following yesterday’s news of threats against a mosque in Wrexham and the abuse suffered by worshippers there, there are reports today of further incidents against Muslims. The Scunthorpe Telegraph today reported today of five arrests being made after a group of people “shouted abuse” and...

  In a comment piece for the Guardian’s Comment is Free section, Jacob Rowbottom questions whether “a law carrying a criminal sanction is the best way to safeguard the standards of political debate.” Rowbottom asks whether the law needs to regulate electoral speech at all and argues, “We...

  A man was arrested yesterday on suspicion of involvement in an attack on a mosque in Kingston. He is the fourth person to be arrested following the attack last month. From the Kingston Guardian today: “The man was arrested yesterday on suspicion of involvement in the disorder and damage at the...

  The Wrexham Leader today reports of a man being issued with 200 hours unpaid work and attending an offending behaviour programme for threatening two British Muslims outside a mosque in Wrexham and threatening to burn down the mosque. From the Leader: “David Jared Evans, 36, sent texts to...

    Following on from the blog article by Andrew Gilligan on ENGAGE’s appointment as secretariat to the new APPG on Islamophobia, Paul Goodman, former Conservative MP for High Wycombe, has contributed his own thoughts on the matter in an article for Conservative Home.