Director’s Blog

The view from Cumberland Lodge

I am interested in how institutions or civil society organisations can use new media technologies and practices to enhance their communications. In that sense I don’t think faith groups are different to other social bodies. So when I gave a speech to a conference at Cumberland Lodge on Religion and the News, I sought to set faith groups in the context of Networked Journalism rather than the other way around.

In practice, of course, people of faith do behave differently as individuals and groups, and so I will be fascinated to see (more…)

Why has Archbishop Rowan Williams chosen to open up a public debate on Sharia law? The argument has provoked the usual heated comments that arise whenever Islam hits the headlines, so he must have had a good reason to stir things up. (more…)

I worry a lot on this blog about the media and Muslims. Last week POLIS had another seminar in which I was joined in my worrying by various journalists and representatives from the British Muslim communities. But what caught my eye today was an excellent article by Camilla Cavendish in The Times. It highlights an exciting Muslim youth project, (more…)

At first I thought it was a parody, so awful were the production values. But Desi DNA, a programme on BBC 2, really was glorifying and celebrating a variety of Hindu and Islamic youth activists who campaign to reduce freedom of expression. (more…)

Thanks to digital technology and the internet it’s never been easier to express yourself. Word processors have made writing as easy as tapping your fingers. So the Sacred exhibition at the British Library is a useful reminder of how for thousands of years writing was both difficult and valued. It is quite simply the world’s greatest display of Muslim, Jewish and Christian holy texts. I was somewhat suspicious of the preachy way the show pushes its inter-faith harmony agenda but these days even humanists have to hope that God-botherers get along a little better with each other. But the real message you got from (more…)

Why does the media treat the Churches’ pronouncements on slavery with such reverence? Over the last few days I have heard a lot of bishops and other clerics saying that the government should apologise for slavery. I personally don’t think that we should apologise for a number of reasons: I don’t think we should perpetuate a victim-hood culture among black people; I can’t see why or how I should accept blame for something that has nothing to do with me; and with forms of slavery still so rampant in the world, I don’t like the idea of playing games with history. But I can see that there is an argument in favour of an apology. But what annoys me is when the men of the cloth take to the airwaves to argue the case. (more…)

It seems that the Government has not heard of reverse psychology in its dealings with Muslims community leaders. Ruth Kelly says she now only wants to support Muslim community groups that join the fight against extremists:

“the government in the past has sometimes fallen into the trap of setting too much store by the voice of a small number of organisations. We must make sure we hear the voices of those, such as Muslim women, who have too often been overlooked. The government has shifted funding to the organisations which are taking the lead by forging stronger links with other communities, providing high-quality teaching about Islam and standing up to extremist messages.”

I think that is something of a slap to the Muslim Council of Britain which used to be the Government’s favourite Muslim group until it realised that the MCB was politically opposed to much of New Labour domestic and foreign policy. But as I found out at a recent POLIS meeting which looked at this issue through the news media’s eyes, that policy is going to make the MCB very popular among disgruntled young Muslims. (more…)

I am not Jewish but I do have some sympathy with accusations that Lord Levy is coming under fire partly for his Jewishness during the current ‘cash for peerages’ investigation. David Rowan, editor of the Jewish Chronicle, (who I should declare is an acquaintance of mine), believes that anti-semitic language is creeping in to the coverage of the affair, which, of course, now has little or nothing to do with cash for peerages and everything to do with a power struggle between the police and Number 10.
But is the Establishment and the news media being anti-semitic? I (more…)

If I had a tenner for everytime somebody has told me that there is too much ‘negative’ news about this or that, then I would now have enough money not to need to sit here typing away. (more…)

Now here’s an unusual take on Muslims and the media: a feminist woman with a Muslim background who believes that young Muslims are falling victim to a Death Cult fuelled by misogyny. (more…)