Mistress of disguise

There's a fascinating piece in today's NYT about Malika El Aroud, "one of the most prominent Internet jihadists in Europe."

What puzzles me is the accompanying picture, described as "Malika El Aroud with her husband, Moez Garsalloui."
 
Thing is...how do they know?

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Criminalising thoughts

This worries me:

Drawings and computer-generated images of child sex abuse would be made illegal under proposals announced by Justice Minister Maria Eagle.

Owners of such images would face up to three years in prison under the plans.

Under the Obscene Publications Act it is illegal to possess photos of child abuse but it is legal to own drawings and computer-generated images.

 

I have written before that I think there should indeed be zero tolerance shown to those who download images of children being abused. The likes of Chris Langham deserve, in my view, everything they get. But that's based on protecting children. The images downloaded by paedophiles are taken from a child being abused, and the law should do everything possible...

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al-Qaradawi in his own words

Thos of us who have highlighted some of the views of Ken Livingstone’s friend, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, are often told we are distorting what he says, or taking the words out of context. So this review in Democratiya by Dave Rich and Mark Gardner of a new translation of al-Qaradawi’s book Fatawa on Palestine is essential reading. It considers his words, in his official translation.   As they write:  

It is a book that promises a battle 'between the collective body of Muslims and the collective body of Jews i.e. all Muslims and all Jews' (p.77), which will hasten the end of days for mankind. This is no political analysis of the Israel/Palestine conflict, or even a faith-based lament for the Palestinian people; it is a passionate apocalyptic vision of division, war and final triumph.

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'SUV drivers not subhuman' shock

It's difficult to know what's more awful about this article: the headline (which is, of course, the Guardian's rather than the writer's) or the piece itself.

This is the headline:

The good Samaritan - in an SUV

As for the piece:

Driving home from south London, I ran out of petrol on a speed bump. An enormous 4x4 rolled slowly towards me, and I prepared for verbal abuse. "You need a push into a parking space" the blonde driver noted. She squeezed past me, and I presumed she'd driven off, which is what I would have done. But she parked, helped me push my car

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Car crash singing

Oh my sweet Lord. Please forgive me for inflicting this on you, but I have to share it with someone: Andrea Bocelli and Anna Netrebko at the Classical Brits.

Bocelli - essentially a glorified pub singer with fantastic marketing - sounds as if someone is tightening his throat with string and he's gasping for breath, while Netrebko seems to be trying to show that she, too, can do shrieking rather than singing - and that she is as capable as anyone else at ignoring the conductor's tempo.

Car crash singing (via Opera Chic).

And just to make it worse, there's three seconds of  the awful Mylene Klass to endure at the start.

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