Ban on Muslim minarets casts shadow over Switzerland… and Europe.

Switzerland has banned the building of minarets, after its people passed a referendum  to outlaw the slender mosque towers. The move is widely seen as an attack on Islam, generated by the ultra-conservative Swiss People’s Party (SVP), one of the largest parties in the country. European countries are growing increasingly concerned about rising Islamophobia. The [...]

BNP on Question Time

So has Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time given the BNP a new lease of life? Not for long, I reckon. He certainly had an opportunity to make a big impact. He had the chance on national TV to spin a false impression that he was a credible politician. And I think he blew it. [...]

The Testimony Project

For those of you who were inspired by Refugee Week last month, have a look at this. In fact, even if you missed it completely, I urge you to take a look at the website of The Testimony Project. It may change your perspective on refugees. And if you’re an asylum seeker or a refugee, [...]

Look Beyond the Label and World Refugee Day 2009: is there declining support for the most vulnerable?

Today is World Refugee Day 2009, and for the first time, you can see a live video webcast of life in a refugee camp, featuring interviews with refugees. It’s streaming until 2am tonight on RefugeeDayLive.org. (To turn off the annoying sound of the instant messenger on the right of the screen, press the volume icon [...]

Look Beyond The Label

I’m changing my status for the Red Cross campaign, Look Beyond The Label. (LBTL) I urge you to look at the videos – not just the one on the main page, but the individual stories of Eric, Aldijana and others. I’ll put them up soon, and we’ll see what the Red Cross told me about [...]

Refugee Week

This week is Refugee Week 2009 in the UK and Saturday is World Refugee Day. So what is a refugee? A refugee is an individual who has fled their country and has  been granted asylum somewhere else. An asylum seeker is someone who is seeking refugee status. Added to this, we have internally displaced persons  [...]

BNP frontman Barnbrook writes on Telegraph website…

Last week, I was amazed to discover that top BNP official Richard Barnbrook is allowed to maintain his own blog on My Telegraph, the paper’s blogging platform aimed at Telegraph readers. Now, I don’t have a problem with Barnbrook blogging at The Telegraph. Strangely, my gut reaction at the moment says that I may have [...]