by Nu’man Abd al-Wahid

One of the reasons generally given for the rise of extreme Islamism is the Arab defeat at the hands of Israel in 1967 in the six day war.

It is theorised that, from this defeat (or Naksa as the Arabs refer to it), loomed the beginning of the end of Arab Nationalism and other, largely secular ideologies, which had hitherto led the struggle to liberate the Middle East from western domination and zionist colonialism. This defeat created the vacuum political Islamism has supposedly filled since.

Continue reading →

Today, as Britain seeks diplomatic links with India and as Churchill is championed as a hero of multiculturalism, Madhusree Mukerjee’s shocking account of the exploits of the Empire is well worth reading.

James Woudhuysen

Britain’s conduct in the Indian subcontinent has largely disappeared from memory – at least in Britain.

Soon after British prime minister David Cameron had pleased his hosts during a visit to India earlier this year by contending that some in Pakistan were ‘looking both ways’ over the question of the Taliban, it was discovered that his great-great-grandfather took part in the bloody suppression of the Indian Mutiny, which began in 1857. The Sunday Times simply reported the news with the tongue-in-cheek headline ‘By jingo, PM’s family killed for the empire’.

[Read more]

Saed Bannoura
IMEMC & Agencies Report
25 November 2010

A 7-year-old Palestinian child from Silwan neighborhood, south of the Al Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, was hospitalized Wednesday, after a number of Israeli policemen violently attacked, kicked and punched him.

The child, Adam Mansour Al Rishiq, was taken to a Jerusalem hospital and was immediately sent to the Intensive Care Unit due to the seriousness of his condition.

[Read more]

Apology follows settlement in which magazine and contributor Melanie Phillips agreed to pay Mohammad Sawalha compensation and his legal costs

Josh Halliday, guardian.co.uk, 25 November 2010

The Spectator and contributor Melanie Phillips today published an online apology to a prominent British Muslim they falsely accused of antisemitism.

Today’s apology, published on the Spectator website, follows an out of court settlement in which the magazine and Phillips agreed to pay Mohammad Sawalha “substantial” compensation and his legal costs.

[Read more]

Mike Harman on Nov 25 2010
UK

Around twenty students from the London School of Economics have occupied the office of Simon Hughes, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, following yesterdays nationwide protests and occupations against fees and cuts.

There is very little information as yet, but we’ll update when more comes in.

[Link]