A number of bloggers are discussing racial profiling at the moment. But what if the enemy is in disguise? Simon’s Brain ponders the imponderable!

What if the Hasidic guy was an Islamist in disguise? I knew the absurdity of what I was thinking but I also new I was onto something. The guy had a bag on the floor and a large rucksack on his back. I looked up to see his face. He was fairly dark skinned. I started wondering how dark Jewish people can be. I knew I was being stupid and ignorant and probably racist but the thoughts kept coming. Wouldn’t dressing as a Hasidic Jew be the perfect disguise? Who would ever stop you and check your bag? And what about all those mad clerics who believe in Zionist plots to take over the world? They’d have a field day when they saw the CCTV footage on the news. Oh brain, please, no more!

Why Do You Stay Up So Late?—a Poem. (Via Boingboing.)

Brownie of Harry’s Place fame appears to have had a slightly frustrating time on the UK’s Question Time programme.

Don’t be cowed by the loud-mouthed membership of the UK branch of Baathists Abroad. Give them both barrels, deride their isolationism, be appalled at the apologia, heap scorn on their childish anti-Americanism, and be proud of the fact that you believe people you will never meet, living in a country you will never visit, deserve a chance to experience the democratic and free existence that is the birthright of every last one us.

If the Daily Ablution gets any better I think it will explode…Not only has the Guardian’s executive editor for news now resigned over the Aslam affair…

But the Ablution also points out that the newspaper published a comment and analysis piece today by a black reporter about the racism of British policemen shooting Brazillian Jean Charles de Menezes who was, unfortunately for the Guardian reporter, white!
Read it and weep.

On London appeared in Danish today—in one of Denmark’s national newspapers Weekendavisen! Unfortunately, it is behind a paywall, so none of you can laugh at the stupid headshot that accompanied the piece, which was taken at 8am the morning after too much red wine the night before. I had to trim about 400 words off the original post and tweak a few things to make it fit for print, but it is essentially the same piece…

It also completely slipped my mind to mention that if you are in the Boston area between now and January, 2006, you can check out an audio tour I wrote for the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston. The exhibition is called Sounds of the Silk Road, and covers musical instruments from across Asia: Japan, China, Korea, Indonesia, Burma, Thailand, Tibet, India, and Turkey. One of the highlights of the exhibition (apart from the audio tour) is a Javanese gamelan, a traditional Indonesian orchestra, which will be performing every other Wednesday evening between July 13 and December 14, from 7 pm to 9 pm in the exhibition gallery, culminating in a gamelan concert in January 8, 2006. The tour was a lot of fun to write and has some excellent music on it…

This just in from Dover…

Family appeal for tortoise’s swift return
A FAMILY have been left distraught after their tortoise, which was a family
heirloom, was stolen.
Speedy was taken from a cottage in Station Road, Martin Mill, some time
between 9pm on Tuesday, July 19, and 7.15am on July 20.
His owner, Lynn Parker, said Speedy belonged to her aunt, who asked her to
look after him shortly before she died.
“I am just gutted he has gone,” said Mrs Parker.
“He was in his pen, and I did not see him when I left for work, and we would
just like him back.
“I live in the middle of a field and we hardly have any visitors, so someone
must have known he was here.”
Anyone who may have Speedy or has seen him is urged to contact police on
01304 240055. He may have traces of white paint on his shell, and Mrs Parker has
another way of identifying Speedy from other tortoises.
Dover Mercury, 28 July 2005

(Via the Chief)

There seems to be a constant murmuring going on among more extreme Muslim elements that there is still no proof the London bombings were the work of Islamic extremists and that they are being victimized. For example, here is Mohammad Naseem, the chairman of Birmingham’s Central Mosque, speaking last Thursday (via Harry):

Muslim bashing seems to be more earnest than the need for national unity and harmony. Terrorists can be anybody – we will have to see [whether the bombers are Muslims]. The process is not open; the process is not transparent; the process is not independent. I do not have faith in the system as it stands.

And here is the latest statement, released last week by our friend Aslam’s Hizb ut-tahrir group:

A few hours after the bombings on Thursday 7/7/2005; before any investigation and before revealing even the reality of the bombings as to whether they were planted or human bombs, the hateful crusader comments began to be made: Blair immediately pointed to ‘extremist’ values while hinting at Islam. Others declared that Islam is, “an evil and brutal religion.” In this manner their crusader hatred of Islam and the Muslims has appeared. They know that many explosions have been carried out by extremists from their own countrymen though they did not describe them in this way nor did they describe their religion, values or culture in an inappropriate way but confined their discussion to the individuals involved (sic).

Yet at the same time, in the eyes of groups like Hizb uh-tahrir, there is every good reason for the bombers to attack us, as their same statement helpfully continues:

O Muslims:

You can see these states, especially the colonialist states and those which have ambitions over our countries, may disagree on everything but they are united against you and against your Deen. Here they all move in one direction; they want to keep the issue of the Muslims in a state of crisis, separated and disconnected; they want the Muslims to be under their sphere of influence and under Jewish influence, so that, as they themselves admit, they can prevent the Muslims from returning as one Ummah in one state; the Khilafah Rashidah which will put the world in its right place and give back the rights to its people, and spread goodness to all corners of the world.[...]

Hizb ut-tahrir is steady in following this path, it will not undertake material actions nor does it view that as a correct solution. It does not accept the killing of civilians or the harming of those who have security. But despite this, it takes the view that because the powerful nations spill the blood of Muslims, violate their honour and desecrate their sanctities, that these are the real reasons which produce these material reactions. If the big nations wanted to put a stop to these actions they would have thought and reflected on the questions that we mention above – but we know that the arrogance of these states will stop them from thinking in a sound manner and following the correct path.

So there’s no proof that extremist Muslims did it. But it’s obvious why they did it.

PS To the Guardian NUJ members, is this the kind of minority representation your newspaper needs?

Theirs is not just a war against the Egyptian economy and government, it is a war against the entire Egyptian people, as it is against all the people of Britain, of Spain, of Lebanon, of Iraq, of Indonesia, of the US — of everywhere. The terrorist is at war with the entire world.

It is not enough to hunt down and destroy these men of evil. The thinking that drives them must also be destroyed. That puts a special responsibility on decent human beings everywhere. These fanatics claim to act in the name of Islam. That has to be shown to be a lie.

Their vision of the faith is so warped, so twisted, that it has nothing to do with Islam. They pollute it, they make it feared, even hated elsewhere in the world, they bring shame and humiliation to the faithful. They have departed from Islam. Muslims here and elsewhere must tell the world, not just once but again and again, every time the fanatics attack, that they have nothing to do with Islam, that they have been cast out.

Editorial in Arab News. (Via someone but I forgot who!)