Most of us are not leaders, free thinkers or trendsetters. Most of us just follow the prevailing tide. There may be a groundswell of revulsion today at the alleged crimes of Cyril Smith, Jimmy Saville and Rolf Harris, condemnation of the Police for infiltrating the Green Movement and behaving like agent provocateurs, and intense soul …
This weekend marks four years since the beginning of the crisis in Syria. While Assad is hardly ever mentioned today, up until last summer the western media were feeding us a constant litany of his regime’s atrocities. For good reason, the Syrian conflict registered on everybody’s radar: terrible suffering, 180,000 people killed, 3 million refugees. …
We can protest about misrepresentation all we like, but the truth is that the message about Da’ish from people with popular influence has not reached those who need to hear it. If you find yourself with a position of respected influence amongst young Muslims and you have come to a conclusion about Da’ish that it …
Has history known any period as horrific as the twentieth-century? Even today’s strife seems to pale against the excesses of the last century. Are we more human now than the generation which conceived the Terror Bombing of hundreds of thousands of civilians, the use of napalm and the nuclear bomb? Or are we just ill-informed? …
It’s incredible that thousands of refugee children risk their lives to escape conflict in Syria every day, crossing dangerous seas and hostile states in search of safety… and yet relatively properous British children are prepared to go the other way, entering a brutal war zone as if it is but a playground. A sure sign …
It’s increasingly evident that a small minority of extremists are trying their best to subvert democracy in the UK. They seem to hate our freedoms and our way of life. They seem intent on destroying everything we love about this country, undermining our liberal tolerance, respect for human rights and belief in equal opportunities for all. Yes, I’m …
http://youtu.be/6tptgYRKsmI
PREVENT is nothing new. Ask the Ebionites, Cerinthus and Nazarene about their relationship with the Roman Empire.
Every murder is a tragedy, but the reality is that most murders are not widely reported. Last year there were over 500 murders in UK and close to 2000 in the United States. Most were not known by you or I. Those who seek to make political capital out of events should familiarise themselves with …
From the outside, these battles seem so straightforward. Revolutionaries countering imperialist forces. But scratch the surface and underneath we discover factions warring with factions, tribes killing tribes, families settling scores, all in the name of wealth and power. It is exactly as was foretold. A community defeated not by outsiders, but by its lust for …
A preemptive law. A pretext for war. We should fear what lies ahead.
Contemporary events puzzle most of us because we have learnt a whitewashed version of history. Many of us could enumerate the shortcomings of Winston Churchill with great ease, but would struggle to provide an account of the rule of Muawiyah or Yazid. Many of us harbour a very romantic view of Muslim history. Unfortunately ISIS …
Politics prevent us from condemning atrocities universally. Politics make us blind to some victims and extraordinarily sympathetic to others. Politics demand that we adopt a partisan morality. Politics make us say that some lives matter and that some don’t matter at all. That some crimes are more important than others. That the crimes of our …
The key lesson you should have learned from the Windows 8 palava is, “Don’t piss people off”. Assuming this is the lesson you’ve learned, please take note that users like the Windows 8.1 experience on a tablet. If you dick around with that for Windows 10, a lot of people will be pissed of all …
Today’s commentators simultaneously demand that our leaders should be like Jesus and our heroes like Winston Churchill.
