Lord Ahmed and Yvonne Ridley Tour Sudan with David Hoile

The new Private Eye (1209 p. 7) reports on a peace initiative in Sudan led by Lord Ahmed and Yvonne Ridley, and supposedly launched on behalf of British Muslims. Alas, the signs are not good:
Bizarrely, Ahmed and Ridley were stewarded around Khartoum and Darfur by David Hoile, whom older readers may recall from the 1980s [...]

Archbishop Duncan Williams Marries US Businesswoman

New wife was Assistant US Trade Representative for Africa
One of the more interesting African neo-Pentecostal leaders is the Ghanaian Archbishop Nicholas Duncan Williams, founder of Action Faith Ministries International. Duncan Williams, who preaches a message of prosperity and success, underwent a turbulent divorce and remarriage to his first wife Francisca between 1998 and 2001, and their [...]

Daniel Pipes, Demagogue Part 94

Admits NY “Madrassa” claim was “a bit of a stretch”
From the New York Times:
Debbie Almontaser dreamed of starting a public school like no other in New York City. Children of Arab descent would join students of other ethnicities, learning Arabic together. By graduation, they would be fluent in the language and groomed for the country’s [...]

Court Case over “Censorship” of Electoral Broadcast

MediaWatchWatch draws attention to a statement from the Christian Legal Centre:
A LONDON Mayoral candidate is taking the BBC and ITV to the High Court for ‘censoring’ his Party Election Broadcasts in the run up to the May 1 elections.
The Christian Choice candidate, Alan Craig, has instructed the Christian Legal Centre to file papers this morning [...]

Farah: WND Column was “Satire”

The Joseph Farah-CAIR dispute continues: as my previous two blog entries noted, Farah has been complaining that CAIR has incorrectly attributed to him the idea that pigs blood should be air-dropped over Afghanistan, and that such a false statement is defamatory and dangerous. CAIR has now corrected its statement, pointing out that in fact it [...]

CAIR: Joseph Farah Threatens Libel Action

From WND:
Now consider how dangerous it is for me when the spokesman for this Islamic lobby, with countless connections to terrorism, asserts this prima facie libelous mischaracterization about me – an Arab-American seen by some in the Arab world as a traitor because of his pro-American stands, his commitment to Jesus Christ and his defense [...]

Joseph Farah Looks Forward to Riots over Anti-Muslim Book

…but has to make do with snark from CAIR
WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah rubs his hands with glee at the thought of a new WND book provoking an immoderate reaction from Muslims:
“If Muslims rioted around the world after a Danish newspaper published a political cartoon making fun of Muhammad, what will they do in response to [...]

The Jihad Seller

Back in February I blogged on the most absurd libel threat ever: Walid Shoebat, self-proclaimed Palestinian “ex-terrorist” turned evangelical Christian, was threatening to sue over claims that he hadn’t been a terrorist at all, and had in fact lied about his past. At the end of March the conservative Jerusalem Post also raised doubts:
Shoebat’s claim [...]

US Evangelist Jailed in Russia over Hunting Ammunition

News from Russia:
A Moscow court has sentenced a US pastor to more than three years in jail for illegally importing hunting rifle ammunition into Russia.
The pastor is Phillip Miles of Christ Community Church in South Carolina. Miles has been a visitor to Russia for many years, where he has undertaken mission-related activities, and in February [...]

Kimball’s One-Track Free Speech Conference

(correction made; see comments for details. And hello to readers who have come – rather unexpectedly – via Mark Steyn’s site)
In my previous post I included a link to Roger Kimball’s blog, where details can be found of a recent New York conference co-organised by Kimball and entitled “Free Speech in an Age of Jihad”. [...]