In March 2007 the London Review of Books published John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's essay 'The Israel Lobby' below. The response to the article prompted the LRB to hold a debate under the heading 'The Israel lobby: does it have too much influence on American foreign policy?'. The debate took place in New York on 28 September in the Great Hall of the Cooper Union. The panellists were Shlomo Ben-Ami, Martin Indyk, Tony Judt, Rashid Khalidi, John Mearsheimer and Dennis Ross, and the moderator was Anne-Marie Slaughter.A video of the event, produced by ScribeMedia, is now available to view online. Click here to view the debate.

The Israel Lobby

John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt

For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centrepiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering support for Israel and the related effort to spread ‘democracy’ throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardised not only US security but that of much of the rest of the world. This situation has no equal in American political history. Why has the US been willing to set aside its own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance the interests of another state? One might assume that the bond between the two countries was based on shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives, but neither explanation can account for the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the US provides.

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By FIONA MacRAE -

Children find food in McDonald's packaging up to six times more appetising than the identical snacks in plain wrappers, research shows.

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Channel 4 aired the Dispatches 'Undercover Mosque' show in January

Police asked the CPS to consider a prosecution of Channel 4 under the Public Order Act 1986 for showing material likely to stir up racial hatred

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Where now are all the headlines about this case to reverse the extreme demonisation of our community as a result of this case and many others in the media? I have a sneaking suspicion that this man was tortured by Pakistani intelligence leading him to confess to anything they suggested to stop his pain. This is the problem with the current position of many western governments including Blair's; that evidence potentially extracted by torture can be utilised.

UK 'plot' terror charge dropped
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6175427.stm

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If the news story doesn't confirm the current anti-Muslim narrative, ignore it in the mainstream media.......

TWO Pendle men have appeared before Pennine magistrates accused of having "a master plan" after what is believed to be a record haul of chemicals used in making home-made bombs was found in Colne.

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Jonathan Freedland
Wednesday October 18, 2006

Politicians and media have turned a debate about integration into an ugly drumbeat of hysteria against British Muslims

I've been trying to imagine what it must be like to be a Muslim in Britain. I guess there's a sense of dread about switching on the radio or television, even about walking into a newsagents. What will they be saying about us today? Will we be under assault for the way we dress? Or the schools we go to, or the mosques we build? Who will be on the front page: a terror suspect, a woman in a veil or, the best of both worlds, a veiled terror suspect.

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The implementation of Pakistan's hudood laws are an affront to Islam, and have blackened the name of Islam and its system of Shariah.

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The subject of ijtihad occupies a recurring theme across much contemporary Islamic literature. A tool employed by Islamic jurists, it holds the key to Islam's continual relevance and to defining an Islamic approach for solving problems in a post-modern world. Akmal Asghar provides an overview of ijtihad and its role in presenting an Islamic alternative.

"Islam has long vanished from the stage of history, and has retreated into oriental ease and repose", were the words of the German philosopher George Friedrich Hegel in the middle of the nineteenth century. But as Martin Kramer, senior associate of the Moshe Dayan Centre at Tel Aviv University, remarks at Hegel's 'endist' predictions, "The persistent refusal of Islam to do just that
remains one of the principal flaws of 'endism,' from Hegel to this day…"

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Hamas and Israel's "Right to Exist"

By VIRGINIA TILLEY

To the great consternation of most of the world, the European Union, followed now by Norway and Canada, has halted payments to the Hamas-led government of the Palestinian Authority (PA). The stated reason is that Hamas has not recognized Israel's "right to exist" or "renounced violence," but the action so violates all common sense that its logic requires our closer scrutiny.

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