In response to Israel’s deadly attack on Monday 31st May 2010, a parliamentary event was convened by ENGAGE with the Conservative Muslim Forum, Labour Friends of Palestine and Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine in Westminster on Wednesday 2nd June 2010 at 6:30pm. The event drew members...
Rights groups and MEPs have expressed their outrage over new EU plans to ‘gather data on people who voice or share “radical messages” in a bid to pre-empt terrorist attacks.’ The EU Observer writes: ‘Political activists labelled as “Extreme right/left,...
Israel has said it will be holding an internal inquiry into an incident two weeks ago in which an aid flotilla attempting to reach Gaza was attacked, killing nine people. The move has won the approval of the Obama administration, in spite of considerable pressure for an independent international...
Barcelona has become the first major city in Spain to forbid face veils in municipal buildings, including public markets, schools, hospitals and libraries. The ban will come into effect later this year. Two other municipalities in the north-eastern Catalonia region, Lleida and El Vendrell, have...
Lord Patten of Barnes reflects in the Guardian’s Comment is free section on the need for the EU to show ‘real courage’ in the Middle East, otherwise it risks being complicit in illegal acts. Calling for a new set of initiatives to diffuse tensions in the Middle East, Lord...
Roger Godsiff MP for Birmingham Hall Green has condemned the use of surveillance cameras in Muslim communities in Birmingham as ‘a grave infringement of civil liberties’, and has tabled an Early Day Motion in parliament calling on the government to intervene to ensure that the...
John Crace’s Guardian column summarises Melanie Phillips’ new book, World Turned Upside Down, providing an amusing insight into the worldview that insists ‘black is white.’ Satirising Melanie’s logic, Crace writes: ‘This book arose from a sense of perplexity...
The BBC’s Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen, has criticised the BBC Trust for finding him ‘guilty’ of inaccuracies in two reports he wrote on Israel last year. Speaking to an audience at the University of Westminster, where he was presented with the Charles Wheeler award in...
The Council of Europe has welcomed the UK government’s decision to hold an inquiry into torture and rendition, as the ‘proper response’ that other countries ought to emulate. From the Guardian: ‘The council’s commissioner for human rights, Thomas Hammarberg, said...
The European Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) has published its annual report for the year 2009 in which it has identified enforcement gaps in data protection, racism, discrimination and workers rights. The report found that during ‘the period 2000-2008, 10 of the 12 Member States which...
