A Very Convenient Illness

The prominent Swiss academic and Islam scholar Tariq Ramadan has not appeared in court for the first day of his trial in Paris on charges of raping three women in France between 2009 and 2016.The head judge in the case adjourned proceedings until Wednesday and ordered a medical report on Ramadan’s health, after his lawyers said he was in hospital in Geneva because of his multiple sclerosis.

How very convenient. 

Ramadan, who advised previous British governments on Islam and society, denies all the charges in a case that has been seen as one of the biggest repercussions of the #MeToo movement in France.Ramadan, 63, was a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at the University of Oxford before taking a leave of absence in 2017 when rape allegations were first made against him. He took early retirement from Oxford in June 2021.

It's always the ones you least suspect, isn't it?  

Henda Ayari, 41, a former Salafist Muslim who is now a feminist campaigner, went to the police in 2017 to accuse Ramadan of rape, sexual violence, harassment and intimidation. She said he had raped her in a hotel room in the east of Paris in the spring of 2012 during a conference where he was speaking.Another woman, known by the pseudonym Christelle, told investigators Ramadan had raped her in a Lyon hotel room in October 2009 during another conference and subjected her to a violent attack. A third woman said Ramadan had raped her in 2016.

At the start of the investigation in 2017, Ramadan, who is married with four children, denied any form of sexual encounter with the first two women. In 2018, he changed his account, telling investigating judges that he did have sexual relations with Ayari and Christelle, but that they had sought the encounters and fully consented to the “dominant-submissive” relationship.

Bang to rights. Is he going to plead Taqyia?

In 2024, a Swiss appeals court found Ramadan guilty of raping a woman in a Geneva hotel in 2008 and sentenced him to three years in prison, two of them suspended. Switzerland’s highest court upheld the conviction in a ruling last year. Ramadan’s Swiss legal team announced they would take the case to the European court of human rights.

Why do human rights apply to those who don't believe in them? 

It’s A Note Of Warning No-One Needs

For those looking to divide and exclude, ham is still a weapon of choice, half a millennium later.

So says Abbas Asaria, a food writer and chef based in Madrid. But isn't Spsain rightly famous for its cured pork products?

I’m not sure how widely understood the Inquisition’s legacy on the Spanish diet is, but seeing history repeat itself is a sign that the past has not been fully reckoned with. So while I’m not here to stop anyone from enjoying their favourite foods or traditions, I’d like to sound a note of warning. Jamón eating is once again being weaponised online as a means of social exclusion among the young Spanish far right against those from Muslim and north African backgrounds.

OH NOES! The vast right-wing conspiracy has discovered 'food racism'! Weaponising cultural diets!  

Last November, a content creator made national news when he shared AI-generated viral posts showing shirts and phone cases made from jamón. The posts even featured a superhero called Ham-Man, who would, he said, protect people from being mugged by illegal immigrants of “Maghrebi and north African origin”. And it risks becoming a wider trend.

Well, good luck expecting the Spanish people to go along with the banning of pork products just to please the Mohammedans and their useful idiots like you, Abbas! 

Even before Ham-Man, the comment sections beneath Spanish news articles and videos about crimes committed by young, racialised men elicited dog-whistle phrases such as “¿come jamón?” (does he eat ham?). This meme has been popular for a number of years among the Spanish far right as a way to persecute Muslim immigrants.

Sounds to me as if it’s persecuting Muslim criminals. And who wouldn’t want to see more of that? 

I'm Not Seeing Any Sign Of It, Sadly....

...but then we all know they are inveterate liars, don't we? 

Racial and religious hate crime on public transport is on the rise according to new data obtained by the Guardian, as community groups report how people are restricting their daily journeys because they fear abuse or assault.

Courtney was travelling by train out of Glasgow city centre in August this year when an elderly woman boarded the carriage and sat opposite.“I didn’t think anything of it, I had my earphones in and was just choosing music,” says Courtney.

A black woman playing music with her earphones on? This tale starts out unlikely, and forges ahead into the even unlikelier... 

“Out of nowhere, she began making racist remarks, which got progressively louder after she put on a face mask. I stayed quiet because I was genuinely taken aback, you never expect that kind of hostility from a stranger.”

Throwing a bit of cloth over your mouth increases volume, eh? I never knew that! 

Like many twentysomethings, Courtney vlogs parts of her day for TikTok. “But what prompted me to start recording was when she took out a Dettol disinfectant spray and sprayed it in my direction. At that point, I felt I needed to document what was happening for my own safety.”

Are you allergic to antiseptic then?  

The woman eventually moved seats but continued to verbally harass Courtney, telling her: “Go back to your own country.” At this point, some fellow passengers stepped in to support her.

 And then the entire carriage tood up and gave her a standing ovation, I suppose? 

Akeela Ahmed, the chief executive of the British Muslim Trust, said the data echoes the stories her organisation are picking up all over the country and calls on local authorities, transport operators and community safety partners “to take urgent and meaningful action” 

 Such as? We don't find out, probably because there aren't any that come to mind.

“For visible Muslims in particular, the top deck of a bus or a half-empty train carriage can mean threatening behaviour, verbal abuse or even violent attack simply because of their faith,” said Ahmed. Attacks on public transport reported to the trust are “some of the most complex and distressing cases we have handled to date,” she adds. “Many Muslims now feel compelled to micro-analyse every movement, expression or gesture out of fear that it may be misinterpreted, recorded and weaponised against them.”

 Really? Doesn't seem to have inhibited the ones all over my social media feeds who never lose an opportunity to whine about Israel and how oppressed they are by being rexpected to obey the UK laws everyone else has to obey...

Dave Rich, the head of policy at the Community Safety Trust, said: “Although these figures are for all racial and religious hate crime on public transport, it is telling that the recent increase over the past two years aligns with the rise in antisemitic hate crime since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October of that year. This is an ongoing problem that shows no signs of abating and it is vital that police, the CPS and transport operators are doing everything they can to catch and prosecute perpetrators of this hatred.”

Thsnk you for reminding us who has a legiimate complaint, Dave.  

The Cousins Won’t Like This, Khan…

No separate entrances at the mosque for men and women, then? 

Combating the “pernicious influence” of misogynists such as Andrew Tate in primary schools is a vital part of teaching children about equality and respect, the mayor of London has told teachers. Sadiq Khan has written to every primary school in London urging them to counter the online misogyny of influencers such as Tate through new classes and workshops that are being set up across the capital as part of plans to tackle violence against women and girls.

Oh, of course. Ignoring the elephant in the room and declaring an Internet nobody Public Enemy No 1. How surprising...  

The mayor’s office has launched a £1m toolkit to help teachers counter dangerous messages from influencers after research revealed that one in three young males have a positive view of Tate, a self-proclaimed misogynist, and one in 10 children have watched pornography by the time they are nine. The toolkit, developed by the healthy relationships charity Tender, trains teachers how to run workshops, drama and interactive classroom sessions to teach nine- to 11-year-olds how to recognise and call out inequality and sexism.

And if they start calling it out when they are taught about Islam? What then? 

Susie McDonald, the chief executive of Tender, acknowledged that discussing gender inequality and healthy relationships could be difficult, but said primary school was a critical time for children to learn about communication, empathy and respect. “It’s imperative that children learn about healthy relationships and are supported to build positive attitudes and behaviours,” she said. “By challenging potentially problematic attitudes at their root, we can prevent a culture of abuse against women and girls.”

There's people banged up in jail at the behest of our lying coward  of a Prime Minister for doing exactly that, Susie.