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In the News

  • Telegraph: Extremist 'infiltration' in hospitals, schools and civil service to be investigated
    October 19th, 2015
    David Cameron has launched a major review into whether Islamist extremists have infiltrated the NHS, the civil service, local authorities and the country’s education system.
     
    The Prime Minister has ordered officials to carry out an investigation to make sure British institutions are protected from the threat of “entryism” by radicals.
     
    It follows the Trojan Horse plot in Birmingham, where Islamist extremists attempted to take over a number of schools and radicalise children.

    Launching the new extremism strategy today, the Government admitted that it has “inadequate understanding” of the way public bodies can be targeted by extremists.
     
    “We will therefore carry out a full review to ensure all institutions are safeguarded from the risk posed by entryism,” the report states.
  • Guardian: Christianity was the only way out, says North Korean defector
    October 19th, 2015
    The first time Joseph Kim heard the words “Christian” and “church”, he had no idea what they meant. He had never seen a church and Christianity was as unfamiliar to him in his famine-ravaged North Korea as Disneyland.
     
    “Kwang Jin”, a friend said to him, using the Korean name by which Kim was then known, “if you ever go to China, the churches will give you money.”
     
    To which Kim replied: “What’s a church? Why would they just give you money?”
     
    “Because they’re Christians,” the friend said.
     
    “What are Christians?” Kim asked.
  • CPH Online Post: Every fourth Danish Muslim wants the law to be based on the Koran
    October 19th, 2015
    Some 40 percent of Denmark’s 250,000 Muslims believe that Danish law, at least to some extent, should be based on the words of the Koran, according to a new Wilke survey carried out for Jyllands-Posten newspaper.
     
    The survey also found that about 10 percent believe the constitution shouldn’t play any role at all and that Danish law should only reflect the Koran. Conversely, about 54 percent of Danish Muslims believe that Denmark’s laws should only be based on the constitution.
  • BBC: David Cameron extends powers to block passports
    October 19th, 2015
    More parents will be able to ask for their children's passports to be cancelled if they fear the youngsters are at risk of radicalisation.
     
    The power already applies to under 16s, but will be extended to 16 and 17-year-olds as well, David Cameron is to say.
     
    He will also say that anyone with a conviction for extremist activity will be automatically barred from working with children and vulnerable people.
     
    Labour says the prime minister must ensure measures are not "heavy-handed".
     
    Parents of children aged under 16 have had the power to request the withdrawal of passports since the start of a trial scheme in July, and according to Downing Street it has already been used several times.
     
    The aim of the policy is to stop young people travelling to join terror groups, such as so-called Islamic State, overseas.
  • Guardian: Labour warns Cameron over draft surveillance and ​anti-terror laws
    October 19th, 2015
    Labour has signalled it is prepared to oppose new surveillance and counter-terrorism legislation if it is too heavy-handed, as David Cameron announces more details about his anti-terror strategy such as measures to prevent teenagers travelling to join Isis.
     
    Andy Burnham, the shadow home secretary, said Labour will support legislation that is “reasonable and proportionate” but stressed the party had a duty to make sure the government gets the balance right.
     
    He warned Cameron to proceed with the utmost caution and make sure his laws do not fuel “resentment, division and a sense of victimisation”, especially among Britain’s Muslim population.
     
    Cameron is planning to spell out more details of his strategy on Monday, as well as making the case for two new pieces of law – the investigatory powers bill and a counter-terrorism bill.
  • Times (£): Government launches counter-attack on homegrown extremism
    October 18th, 2015
    David Cameron has set up a £5 million fund for groups trying to find and dispel the “poison” of extremist ideology.
     
    The prime minister said that the money would be used for local campaigns and charities to prevent the “seed of hatred being planted in people’s minds”.
     
    Tomorrow, the government will launch its counter-extremism strategy, billed as a plan to create a national coalition against radicalisation, as Mr Cameron looks to confront the reasons why hundreds of Britons have gone to Syria to fight for Islamic State.

    The strategy is expected to include closer working between internet companies and police to detect and remove online propaganda, using the systems that are currently used to find and delete child abuse images.
  • BioEdge: The scary advance of gendercide in Nepal
    October 17th, 2015
    In these pages we have published a number of stories documenting the practice of sex-selective abortion in India and China; it is, however, not restricted to these countries. Rates of sex-selective abortion in Nepal are incredibly high, even though the practice is technically prohibited and hardly ever mentioned in Western media.
     
    One heart-stopping statistic tells the story: for second births among the richest urban women, just 325 girls were born for every 1000 boys.
     
    University of Oxford demographer Melanie Dawn Frost was the lead author of a paper in BMJ Open about widespread sex-selective abortion in Nepal since abortion was legalised in 2002. She found that as soon as abortion became readily available, the sex-ratio began to drop. Several factors were at work, but the decline in the fertility rate was particularly important. “Nepal has seen one of the most dramatic fertility declines in history, with the total fertility rate falling from 4.1 to 2.6 in just 10 years,” she observed. As family size shrinks, it becomes more important for the second child to be a boy, if the first was a girl.
  • Telegraph: Conservative MPs' rebellion to sink Sunday trading hours relaxation
    October 16th, 2015
    Shops could be prevented from opening longer on Sundays due to a rebellion by Conservative MPs who plan to vote against changes to trading hours, The Telegraph can disclose.
     
    At least 20 Tory MPs are set to join forces with Labour and vote against the changes when they are debated within the next 10 days.
     
    The proposals, which were unveiled by George Osborne, the Chancellor, in his Budget earlier this year, would allow local councils to relax Sunday trading laws in their areas.
     
    Currently, only the smallest shops are allowed to open for more than six hours on a Sunday.
     
    But Tory traditionalists argue that relaxing the rules would threaten family life and would harm the Church.
  • Telegraph: Terminally ill man announces his death on LinkedIn days before travelling to clinic in Switzerland
    October 16th, 2015
    A businessman and care home director suffering from motor neurone disease updated his LinkedIn page to announce the date of his own death at a clinic in Switzerland before it had happened.
     
    Simon Binner, 57, added an entry in his employment history entitled “Patient, Motor Neurone Disease”, explaining his decision to take his own life.
     
    The Cambridge graduate was diagnosed with the degenerative condition in January and plans to end his life at the Eternal Spirit clinic in Switzerland on Monday 19 October.
     
    The message on the professional networking site also gave the date of his planned funeral as Friday 13 November.
  • Irish Times: Issue of assisted suicide 'coming down the tracks' for Ireland
    October 16th, 2015
    The EU Ombudsman has said some insurance companies are now paying out for euthanasia procedures and that the broader issue is “coming down the tracks” for Ireland.
     
    Addressing the Conference on Strengthening the Voice of Older People in Dublin on Friday, the former Ombudsman for Ireland Emily O’Reilly recounted the “love and compassion” that was shown to her own dying mother during her hospice treatment over the last two years, and referenced some “nuanced” objections to the introduction of assisted suicide legislation in European countries.
     
    “I do not think that I would be wrong to speculate that over the next few decades, as the older population increases as people live longer with chronic illnesses such as dementia, that EU cultural norms will develop around these matters, and that Ireland will not be immune to these,” Ms O’Reilly said.
     
    “It would appear that some health insurance companies are already providing insurance to pay for euthanasia and assisted suicide, a dry commercial procedure that further embeds the normalising of what to us in this country is not considered to be a normal act.
     
    “A more nuanced objection is that endorsing euthanasia in any form is the start of a process of normalising medically-assisted dying which will gradually spread into areas currently deemed taboo,” she said.