Renowned atheist Professor Richard Dawkins received a surprise standing ovation in the traditionally Christian community of Stornoway last night, following a two-hour speech in which he said there was probably no God.
The 71-year-old described Islam as “one of the great evils of the world” in his lecture, The God Delusion, as part of a rare visit to the Western Isles.
In April of this year, Saadiq Long, a 43-year-old African-American Muslim who now lives in Qatar, purchased a ticket on KLM Airlines to travel to Oklahoma, the state where he grew up. Long, a 10-year veteran of the US Air Force, had learned that the congestive heart failure from which his mother suffers had worsened, and she was eager to see her son. He had last seen his mother and siblings more than a decade ago, when he returned to the US in 2001, and spent months saving the money to purchase the ticket and arranging to be away from work.
The day before he was to travel, a KLM representative called Long and informed him that the airlines could not allow him to board the flight. That, she explained, was because the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had placed Long on its “no-fly list”, which bars him from flying into his own country.
Long has now spent the last six months trying to find out why he was placed on this list and what he can do to get off of it. He has had no success, unable to obtain even the most basic information about what caused his own government to deprive him of this right to travel.
In April of this year, Saadiq Long, a 43-year-old African-American Muslim who now lives in Qatar, purchased a ticket on KLM Airlines to travel to Oklahoma, the state where he grew up. Long, a 10-year veteran of the US Air Force, had learned that the congestive heart failure from which his mother suffers had worsened, and she was eager to see her son. He had last seen his mother and siblings more than a decade ago, when he returned to the US in 2001, and spent months saving the money to purchase the ticket and arranging to be away from work.
The day before he was to travel, a KLM representative called Long and informed him that the airlines could not allow him to board the flight. That, she explained, was because the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had placed Long on its “no-fly list”, which bars him from flying into his own country.
EDL News profiles “Yorkshire Nici” who along with fellow Nazi sympathiser Trudie Toker has announced that she will be attending Remembrance Day in London next Sunday.
The previous coalition government, which involved Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam PVV in a supporting role, did have an image problem abroad, civil service documents supplied to website nu.nl show.
Ministers repeatedly said foreign governments understood the relationship between the minority coalition and Wilders and that he was not officially part of government.
However, official papers show “time after time” that diplomats wanted proper instructions on “how to avoid reputation damage as much as possible” – for example, when Wilders published a new book. This often did not work, the documents state.
Plans for a super mosque close to the Olympic stadium reveal that it could hold almost 10,000 people. Architects’ drawings show that the vast mosque will be about the same size as Battersea Power Station. By comparison, Britain’s largest cathedral, in Liverpool, can hold 3,000 worshippers.
Newham Council in east London is due to decide whether it will grant planning permission for the structure next month.
Former councillor Alan Craig has launched a campaign to stop the project. He has produced 100,000 leaflets, which were being distributed throughout the borough yesterday. Mr Craig said: “The mega-mosque is proposed and planned by a particularly disturbing Islamic sect called Tablighi Jamaat.”
He said that Tablighi Jamaat had been promoting itself as open and socially integrated. However, progressive Muslims who support the campaign against the mosque view its beliefs as “narrow and divisive”. He said: “In my view we would be mad, barking mad, if we let the project go ahead.”
Asif Mahmud on media double standards over sexual abuse.
Halloween night provided the backdrop for a panel at the Divinity School’s Swift Hall dismantling an alleged fear among Americans: the encroachment of Islamic Shari’a into American courts and public life.
Shari’a, an Arabic word for “the way,” is the general term for the efforts by Muslims to interpret sacred Islamic texts and beliefs into guidelines for living an Islamic life.
The first panelist, Wajahat Ali, called Halloween an “apt and appropriate day” to discuss anti-Shari’a sentiment since it is a day “when we Americans spend millions of dollars to be scared by boogeymen and manufactured threats.”
A man launched a drunken attack on a mosque after watching a news report about the desecration of Commonwealth graves in Libya.
Barry Stanbury, 42, was caught on CCTV cameras at shortly before 2.30am on March 5, wandering around the Exeter Mosque before a window was smashed, Exeter magistrates heard.
Ministers are facing criticism after the removal of the only black and Muslim members of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission from their posts, heightening fears that the coalition will place less emphasis on fighting discrimination.
Leading commissioners Simon Woolley and Lady Meral Hussein-Ece have discovered that their contracts as commissioners will not be renewed when they expire in December. Though both were invited to reapply for further terms by Lynne Featherstone, the equalities minister, before the reshuffle, neither has been shortlisted or called for interview.