LAST year Channel 4’s Dispatches programme, Undercover Mosque, secretly filmed a nest of fanatical Muslim clerics and teachers in Birmingham doing what they do best: spewing hate.

Among the comments made by imams during the film were:

Take that homosexual man and throw him off the mountain.

and

We hate the kuffar [non-Muslims].

Other quotes from preachers and teachers included “Allah created the woman deficient” and “by the age of ten, it becomes an obligation on us to force her to wear hijab and if she doesn’t wear hijab, we hit her”.

West Midlands constabulary investigated carried out an investigation of the content of the documentary, but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) concluded there was not enough evidence to bring criminal charges for a breach of public order against any of the clerics.

Then, in a move that completely beggars belief, the police asked the CPS to consider a prosecution against Channel 4 for broadcasting a programme containing material likely to stir up racial hatred.

The police maintained that the documentary had edited the preachers’ words “to give them a more sinister meaning”, and that the documentary had had a negative impact in the community and the cohesion within it.

In other words:

Let’s capitulate to these lame-brained hate-mongers; let’s shoot the messenger instead.

When a prosecution against Channel 4 was ruled out, the police and the CPS reported the programme makers to Ofcom, the TV regulator, alleging “complete distortion” in the way the programme had been edited.

Once again the police and the CPS were left with egg on their faces. Ofcom rejected the complaints in a decision published in November 2007.

Despite Ofcom’s conclusion that the documentary was a “legitimate investigation, uncovering matters of important public interest”, West Midlands Police failed to take down the original press release, entitled Broadcast Out Of Context, from its website.

Channel 4 then took legal action to force its removal, and today news broke that the police are to pay Channel 4 £100,000 in damages and will apologise at the High Court for the false allegations it made.

Here is the police’s full apology.

Kevin Sutcliffe, deputy head of current affairs at Channel 4, said:

We have been very pleased to get the result.

And he asked:

Why did they go after the programme in such a way? It seems to us a large amount of public money and time spent trying to bring us down.

David Henshaw, executive producer and managing director of Hardcash Productions said:

This was a thorough and detailed one-hour documentary, made over nine months and at personal risk to the undercover reporter. The abhorrent and extreme comments made by fundamentalist preachers in the film speak for themselves.

They later claimed they had been taken out of context - but no one has explained the correct context for arguing that women are ‘born deficient’, that homosexuals should be thrown off mountains and that ten-year-old girls should be hit if they refuse to wear the hijab.

This is a clip of the imbecile Abu Usamah in full rant, from the Dispatches in question:

HAT TIP: Mediawatchwatch.

A LETTER written by Einstein the year before his death says that God is the product of human weakness and that the Bible is “pretty childish”.

The letter, which being auctioned in London this week, adds more fuel to the debate about the Nobel prize-winning physicist’s religious views. It is expected to fetch around £6,000

Einstein, who became a US citizen in 1940, helped unravel the mysteries of the universe with his theory of relativity, expressed complex and arguably contradictory views on faith, perceiving a universe suffused with spirituality while rejecting organised religion.

According to KansasCity.com, the letter, written to philosopher Eric Gutkind in January 1954 — Einstein died in April 1955 at Princeton, N J – suggests his views on religion did not mellow with age.

In it, Einstein said:

The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.

He added:

For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions.

Addressing the idea that the Jews are God’s chosen people, Einstein wrote:

The Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people.

John Brooke, emeritus professor of science and religion at Oxford University, said the letter lends weight to the notion that “Einstein was not a conventional theist” — although he was not an atheist, either.

He is rather quirky about religion.

Einstein famously said:

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

But he also said:

I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil. My God created laws that take care of that. His universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws.

NOVA Scotian Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal is a 44-year-old convert to the Religion of Perpetual Outrage.

And she is outraged over the fact that her husband Qayyum Abdul Jamal was arrested in 2006 in an anti-terrorism raid.

Now the Muslima in her one-woman tent says she “wants millions” in compensation from the federal government for the suffering her family allegedly went through as a result of her husband’s arrest.

This demand prompted Nova Scotia’s leading newspaper, the Chronicle Herald to run a cartoon depicting a woman in a burqua holding a sign that reads:

I want millions … I can put it towards my husband’s next training camp.

Dan Leger, the Herald’s director of news content, said the cartoon did not take aim at all Muslims.

The whole purpose of that cartoon was to comment on the outrageous demands of this individual for compensation long before any hearing into her case had ever been held.

Our cartoonist MacKinnon] depicted her exactly the way she looks and used her own words, and that’s the genius of cartooning that you’re able to do that.

Now the The Chronicle Herald is being hauled before the province’s human rights commission for an alleged “hate crime”. More than that, the paper has been contacted by the police, too.

In his excellent blog, Ezra Levant, reveals that the complainant here “is not Mrs. Jamal, the money-grubbing wife of the accused terrorist. It’s Sheikh Ziaullah Khan, of Halifax’s Centre for Islamic Development”.

Levant also reveals that, when attractive Canadian teenager Aqsa Parvez was killed last year by her father for, amongst other sins, not wearing a hijab, Khan, in a YouTube video, did not focus his fury on Parvez’s father, but on the “hatemongers” in the media for covering the horrible story. Says Levant:

I’m surprised he didn’t file a human rights commission complaint back then.

He adds:

Why is it that Khan, whose job description is the promotion of Islam in Halifax, has allied himself with the Jamals? It’s because, regrettably, too many imams in too many mosques in North America are radical themselves, and even if they don’t preach terrorism, they excuse it, or in this case, sympathize with the accused terrorist. If only the Khan’s of this world were as eager and angry to speak out against Muslim terrorism, instead of media coverage, or Canadian counter-terrorism efforts.

Here is the bearded weirdie Khan in full-fat rant mode

REASON alone is “dangerous” to society; it has to be tempered with faith if we are to avoid repeating horrors committed by the likes of Hitler and Stalin.

So said Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales, when interviewed this morning on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, following a lecture he gave yesterday.

He lamented the fact that “the Christian voice” was increasingly being stifled in the UK, and made the astonishing claim that people in Britain want Church leaders to speak out on key policy issues.

The Cardinal sounded less than pleased when interviewer John Humphrys put it to him that that religious leaders, in the view of people like Professor Richard Dawkins – interviewed earlier on the programme – “talk rubbish”, and should, therefore, not be permitted to interfere in government matters.

The Cardinal’s then went on dish out some garbage about atheists “constructing God” simply in order to knock him down, and to repeat the claim that Britain was a “Christian country, with 70 percent of the population professing a belief in the Christian faith”.

He added:

Britain should not be allowed to become a God-free zone.

Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, lost no time in launching an excoriating attack on Cormac-O’Connor in this morning’s Guardian.

Murphy-O’Connor … speaks with forked tongue when he tries to portray the Catholic Church as some persecuted institution that means harm to no one. He says the Catholic Church is caricatured as ‘some heartless, insular institution that wants to deny people their freedom’.

Cardinal - this is not a caricature. It is the truth. Your own actions and pronouncements confirm it. You have tried to deny human rights to homosexuals, you have tried to rob women of the right to choose contraception and abortion and thereby take control of their lives, you have tried (and continue to try) to interfere with scientific research that may lead to the alleviation of enormous suffering.

You have attempted to manipulate the political process by pressurising Catholic MPs. On a personal level you - and your Church - try to control every aspect of your followers’ lives, from telling them what to think, what to eat and when to eat it, to telling them who they can sleep with and even what they can and cannot do when they get between the sheets …

THE right-wing head of Spain’s Catholic church, Cardinal Antonio María Rouco Varela, has expressed outrage over just about every reform introduced by the country’s socialist government – but nothing could have shocked this posturing old ninny more than seeing a picture of his niece on the cover of a best-selling soft porn magazine, Interviú.

Topless and dressed in suspenders, Magdalena Rouco Hernández stripped off to embarrass her uncle, who is head of the Spanish Episcopal Conference and also a friend of Pope Benedict XVI.

According to the Guardian, the mother-of-two posed bared her breasts on eight pages of the magazine – a curious mix of female flesh and serious investigations.

The 27-year-old, who went to mass every day as a girl, said she chose to do the photoshoot to expose her uncle’s “hypocrisy” following her father’s death.

My uncle never tires of repeating that the family is sacred and that you have to respect it. But then he does not respect it and abandons his own. When my father died, [Rouco] did not come to the funeral, didn’t send flowers or tell my mother of his sorrow. He told us he had a meeting with Pope John Paul II, but it was not true.

Magdelena also claimed Cardinal Rouco did not call her family after her mother’s death and failed to help her when her husband lost his job.

I wanted to bare naked the hypocrisy of my uncle.

Cardinal Rouco, 72, leads a conservative wing of the Spanish church which has clashed repeatedly with the socialist government over social reforms including the legalisation of gay marriage, quick divorces, educational reforms and stem-cell research.

The Cardinal’s hypocrisy appears to go further than just family matters.

It was recently revealed that he has been investing heavily in the Pfizer pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which manufacturers both Viagra and an injectable contraceptive, Dep-Provera, used by 30 million women worldwide.

Alas, as a result of the recent crisis over sub-prime mortgages, his investments of some 80,000 Euro a year have slumped by around 20 percent.

Awww!

THE Religion of Perpetual Rage has found something new to annoy it – an Islamic studies course at the University of Western Sydney which they claim is too sexually explicit, promotes lesbianism and derides the Koran as misogynistic.

According to The Australian:

Students, community members and the Australian National Imams Council have complained about the content of the course, Women in Arabic and Islamic Literature, being taught at the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies. They say it gives a negative view of women in Islam.

The imams’ council has circulated a petition recording its

Deep concern with regards to the course structure and content which involves repeated and unjustified attacks upon Islam.

Another group of nutty rug-butters, Muslims for Peace, has branded the centre as “evil” and demanded lecturer Samar Habib be dismissed and the course abolished. A bulletin on the Muslims for Peace website reads:

Now that its wicked nature should be crystal clear for all to see, Muslims should fear Almighty Allah and break all connections with this diabolical centre of Kufr (non-believers).

The course includes excerpts from The Perfumed Garden by Sheik Nafzawi, a book on Arabian erotica written in the 16th century and translated into English in 1886 that has been likened to the Indian Kama Sutra.

Dr Habib, who has written her PhD thesis on female homosexuality in the Middle East and has written an introduction in an erotic lesbian novel published overseas entitled I Am You, has been accused of promoting lesbianism.

Dr Habib has also been accused by Muslims for Peace of teaching that it is not obligatory to wear the hijab, that the Hadiths (sayings of the Prophet Mohammed) are just Chinese whispers and that Muslim scholars can be ignored because they are males.

The imams’ council does not believe the course represents the normative traditional Islam as practised by most of the world’s Muslim population.

ANIC president Sheik Moez Nafti wrote:

The subject’s emphasis on sexuality and its explicit sexual content is not reflective of normative Islam, which is what we thought the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies would attempt to portray.

Habib’s Female Homosexuality in the Middle East: Histories and Representations (ISBN: 0415956730, publisher, Routledge, 2007) is the first full-length study of its kind.

It dares to probe the biggest taboo in contemporary Arab culture with scholarly intent and integrity – female homosexuality. Habib argues that female homosexuality has a long history in Arabic literature and scholarship, beginning in the ninth century, and she traces the destruction of Medieval discourses on female homosexuality and the replacement of these with a new religious orthodoxy that is no longer permissive of a variety of sexual behaviours.

A RELIGIOUS discrimination lawsuit has been brought this week by a burqua-clad Detroit Muslim against a district court judge.

Ginnah Muhammad claims that she was discriminated against by Judge Paul Paruk, who would not allow her to testify in a 2006 small claims case unless she removed her veil
She then indicated that she was willing to lose the case rather then compromise her religious principles.

But, according to the Detroit Free Press, when she showed up on Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Detroit to testify against the Hamtramck judge, the 44-year-old Detroit Muslim not only removed her veil, but also her black burqua. She also produced a Michigan driver’s license bearing a photo of her unveiled face.

A contradiction? Not so, Muhammad and her lawyer, Nabih Ayad, said after a 30-minute hearing before US District Judge John Feikens.

Muhammad said she would have removed her veil in Hamtramck had Judge Paruk allowed her to testify before a female judge. But Paruk is the only district judge in Hamtramck. He also declined her request for a change of venue.

Paruk demanded she remove her veil so he could assess her credibility. But Ayad said judges in other countries assess the credibility of Muslim women by watching how they use their hands.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Feikens hinted that he might take no action. If that happens, Ayad said he would appeal to the US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. He said he was willing to take the case to the US Supreme Court.

Muhammad, who runs a skin-care business in Oak Park, sued a car rental company for $3,000 in 2006 after it tried to charge her to repair damage caused by thieves.

Ayad told Feikens that Muhammad, who runs a skin-care business in Oak Park, is a devout Muslim who has been wearing a veil since she was 10, and argued that Paruk violated her right to practice her religion and denied her access to the court. The lawyer added:

She feels she is fighting for all similarly situated Muslims.

HUMANS alone practice religion because they’re the only creatures to have evolved imagination.

That’s the view of anthropologist Maurice Bloch of the London School of Economics, who has challenged the popular notion among some anthropologists that religion evolved and spread because it promoted social bonding.

According to ABC News, Bloch argues that at first:

We had to evolve the necessary brain architecture to imagine things and beings that don’t physically exist, and the possibility that people somehow live on after they’ve died.
Bloch believes our ancestors developed the necessary neural architecture to imagine before or around 40-50,000 years ago, at a time called the Upper Palaeological Revolution, the final sub-division of the Stone Age.

At around the same time, tools that had been monotonously primitive since the earliest examples appeared 100,000 years earlier suddenly exploded in sophistication, art began appearing on cave walls, and burials began to include artefacts, suggesting belief in an afterlife, and by implication the “transcendental social”.

Says Bloch:

The transcendental network can, with no problem, include the dead, ancestors and gods, as well as living role holders and members of essentialised groups. Ancestors and gods are compatible with living elders or members of nations because all are equally mysterious invisible, in other words transcendental.

Religious-like phenomena in general are an inseparable part of a key adaptation unique to modern humans, and this is the capacity to imagine other worlds, an adaptation that I argue is the very foundation of the sociality of modern human society. Once we realise this omnipresence of the imaginary in the everyday, nothing special is left to explain concerning religion.

DUTCH film director Paul Verhoeven has got up the nose of America’s Catholic League President Bill Donohue by suggesting, in his forthcoming biography of Jesus, that “the son of God” may have been the result of a union between Mary and a Roman soldier who raped her during the Jewish uprising in Galilee.

Donahue said the director’s claim was “laughable”, and ranted:

Here we go again with idle speculation grounded in absolutely nothing. He has no empirical evidence to support his claim, which is why they say ‘may have.’ He’s been working 20 years trying to sell this argument and hasn’t come up with anything. This won’t make a dent with Christians, nor with scholars somewhat wary of the biblical account. It’s a European version of Hollywood. He should go back to Sharon Stone’s legs.

He was referring to Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct, featuring Stone, who topped a poll in 2004 to find the sexiest leg moments on screen.

The actress beat the likes of sex sirens Marilyn Monroe, Halle Berry and Cameron Diaz in the survey, for the moment when she uncrosses her pins in Basic Instinct. The poll of 600 men and women was conducted by the Veet company.

The 69-year-old Dutch-born director also directed Showgirls — starring Elizabeth Berkley in one of the most panned films of the ’90s – and sci-fi action movies like Total Recall, RoboCop, and Starship Troopers.

According to Worldwide Religious News, Verhoeven claims that he and co-biographer Rob van Scheers have written the most realistic portrayal of Jesus ever published.

The book, due to be published in the Netherlands in September, also states that Christ was not betrayed by Judas Iscariot, one of the 12 original apostles of Jesus, as the New Testament states.

HOT on the heels of the Indiania “In God We Trust” licence plate controversy comes the news today that the Florida legislature is to consider a speciality plate with a design that includes a Christian cross, a stained-glass window and the words “I Believe”.

According to this Google report, it’s the brainchild of Craig Dobson from Faith in Teaching who submitted the design for consideration. The group supports “faith-based” schools activities.

If approved Florida would be the first US state to have a licence plate featuring a religious symbol that it is not part of a college logo. The plate would cost drivers an extra $25 annual fee.

Democrat representative Edward Bullard, the plate’s sponsor, said people who “believe in their college or university” or “believe in their football team” already have licence plates they can buy. The new design is a chance for others to put a tag on their cars with “something they believe in,” he said.

But Bullard isn’t sure all groups should be able to express their preference. If atheists came up with an “I Don’t Believe” plate, for example, he said he would probably oppose it.

His plan is not without opposition.

Said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida:

The problem with the state manufacturing the plate is that it sends a message that Florida is essentially a Christian state, and gives the appearance that the state is endorsing a particular religious preference.

Simon added that approval of the plate could prompt many other groups to seek their own designs, and they could claim discrimination if their plans were rejected.

That could even allow the Ku Klux Klan to get a plate.

And some lawmakers warn that the state should be wary of the plan. Rep. Kelly Skidmore, a Roman Catholic, believes the “I Believe” plate is inappropriate for the government to produce. Said Skidmore, a Democrat who voted against the plate in committee:

It’s not a road I want to go down. I don’t want to see the Star of David next. I don’t want to see a Torah next. None of that stuff is appropriate to me …

This isn’t the first time a Florida license plate design has created religious controversy. In 1999, lawmakers approved a bright yellow “Choose Life” license plate with a picture of a boy and girl. It raises money for agencies that encourage women to not have abortions.

That generated a court battle, with abortion rights groups saying the plate had religious overtones. But it was ruled legal, and about a dozen states now have similar plates.

A “Trust God” license plate was proposed in Florida in 2003. It would have given money to Christian radio stations and charities, but was never produced.

FOOTNOTE: I don’t know whether Americans are as wary of vehicles bearing religious slogans as we are in the UK.  Certainly, the most dangerous drivers I have encountered in 30 years of motorcycling in London and the South East have displayed the fish and other Christian symbols, and on one occasion I was almost wiped out by a driver whose bumper sticker read:  “God is the driver, I am only the passenger.” When I furiously banged on his window and asked where the hell God got his driver’s licence, the quivering driver stared straight ahead, and maintained a white-knuckled grip on his steering wheel.

PROBABLY the worst-turned out Darth Vader in the entire galaxy – he had a black binbag for a cape and a metal crutch for a light sabre – found himself before a magistrate today charged with assaulting two Jedis.

According to the BBC, Arwel Wynne Hughes, 27, from Holyhead, Anglesey, admitted assaulting Barney Jones and cousin Michael with the crutch. They suffered minor injuries.

Wearing his rubbish costume, Hughes jumped over a garden wall, then, shouting “Darth Vader”, first attacked Barney Jones, an avid Star Wars fan who had founded a local Jedi Church with his brother.

The court heard that Hughes had the best part of a 10 litre box of wine inside him when he carried out the drunken assault.

When Hughes failed to arrive in court on time, District Judge Andrew Shaw issued an arrest warrant, saying:

I hope the force will soon be with him.

In the event, Hughes turned up and the case at Holyhead magistrates court resumed.

Outlining the case against Hughes, prosecutor Nia Lloyd said Barney Jones had recently started the Jedi church in Holyhead - in honour of the Star Wars’ good knights. It had about 30 members locally and “thousands worldwide”.

The cousins had been filming themselves playing with light sabres in the garden before the attack.

She said that Hughes hit Barney Jones over the head with the crutch, leaving him with a headache. He then laughed and hit Michael Jones on one thigh, causing bruising. She added:

The pair believe very strongly in the church and their religion.

Hughes said he could not remember the incident and only realised what had happened when he read about it in local newspapers, the was court told.

The court heard that Hughes had previous convictions, including affray, assault and disorderly behaviour. He was warned by the judge that jail remained a possibility. The case has been adjourning for pre-sentence reports until 13 May.

The 2001 census revealed that 390,000 people across England and Wales are devoted followers of the Jedi “faith” made famous by the blockbuster films. Census officials bowed to pressure after a massive internet campaign to include Jedi on the list of British religions.

Interviewed on BBC Radio 4 news tonight, Barney Jones was asked whether his Jedi group, based on a film, could legitimately be regarded as a Church, and that by calling it one he might offend members of “real” faiths. He retorted by saying that other religious were “just based on books”.

Touché Barney!

JUNE GORDON, 54, from Knoxville, Tennessee (“God’s Little Pasture”) is “filled with the Holy Spirit!!!”.

And she oozes Christian love from every pore – except when it comes to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Then she turns into a swivel-eyed, slavering wingnut:

The ACLJEW ain’t nothing but a pack of New Yorky Hebes hellbent on destroying American values! It wasn’t enough for them yarmulke-wearing idiots to KILL our Lord and Savior, they gots (sic) to OBLITERATE His Holy Name alsos! (sic) If you ask me, the so-called Holocaust was just a half-hearted start to a good thing! LOL.

On her Myspace space, riddled with cheesy angels, the lovely June, a self-confessed party animal – but a “LADY” for all that – declares:

This world is FULL of hateful folks, but I’m not one of them. Don’t you be either.

So what was it that turned the vivacious June (”sexual orientation: straight”) into one of them hateful folks she so despises.

Well, the ACLU had the barefaced cheek last year to challenge a decision by the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles to issue “In God we Trust” licence plates without the surcharge normally levied on “speciality” plates.

ACLU brought the case on behalf of Mark E Studler, an Allen County resident who has an environmental trust plate for which he had to pay an extra charge.

This week, according to Fox News, the constitutional challenge was dismissed by a judge – but Ken Falk, legal director of the ACLU of Indiana, said the ruling would challenged in the Indiana Court of Appeals.

When news of the lawsuit first broke, “In God we Trust” licence plates were vigorously defended by the hilarious Republican Faith Chat blog (motto: “Conservative Christians ONLY. Liberals, Atheists Not Welcomed.”)

And it was on that blog that June, whose heroes are “The Lord Jesus Christ and anyone who stands up to liberals”, posted her ACLJEW remarks.

Now it seems from June’s Myspace entry that she is in search of men:

I would like to meet Christian men who know how to treat a lady right. I’ve kept myself in shape and it isn’t asking too much for you to have done the same. I am very open minded, as long as you aren’t into Allah or other false gods …

June has a husband, but he is apparently out of the picture:

It is not an issue, as he left under circumstances I don’t wish to discuss. Please be sweet and don’t bring him up. Ever.

Her men also need to be exceedingly dumb. Why? Because our June has the hots for George W Bush. She even has a picture of the chimp-faced soon-to-be-ex-President on Myspace in full battle regalia (like he ever saw a battle except on TV). The caption reads:

What a fine man! (Now keep your eyes on his handsome face!!!)

Now, who do we know who’s an imbecile, filled with the Holy Spirit and likely to make June an ideal soulmate. Ah, Christian Voice’s Stephen (”Stay a Virgin, Marry a Virgin”) Green. They do seem to have soooo much in common.

ANOTHER day, another example of Islamic “apartheid” worming its way into British culture.

The Daily Mail yesterday revealed that a London man and his five-year-old son were turned away from a ‘Muslim-only’ swimming session at Clissold Leisure Centre in Stoke Newington.

David Toube, 39, and his son Harry were told that the Sunday morning session was reserved for Muslim men only.

However, Hackney Council, which runs the Clissold Leisure Centre in Stoke Newington, north London, claimed staff there had made a mistake.

Toube, a corporate lawyer, described his experiences on a blog:

I arrived at the pool to discover that they were holding what staff described to me as “Muslim men only swimming. I asked whether my son and I could go as we were both male. I was told that the session was for Muslims only and that we could not be admitted. I asked what would happen if I turned up and insisted I was Muslim.

The manager suggested that they might ask the Muslims swimming if they minded my son and I swimming with them. If they didn’t object, we might be allowed in.

A few days later, Mr Toube, who lives with his wife, 38-year-old barrister Samantha, and their two sons in Stoke Newington, North London, spoke to another leisure centre employee.

He gave me an identical story. His explanation was that it was a requirement of the Muslim religion that Muslims could not swim with non-Muslims.

Mr Toube joked:

I asked him whether Clissold Leisure Centre would institute Whites Only swimming for racists. His answer was that they would if there was sufficient demand.

The swimming sessions for male Muslims were advertised as taking place every Sunday from 8am to 9.30am. Leaflets stipulated:

It is compulsory for the body to be covered between the navel and the knees. Anyone not adhering to the dress code or rules within the pool will not be allowed to swim. All brothers welcome.

A leisure centre spokesman said staff were wrong to refuse entry to Mr Toube.

The member of staff the user spoke with at the time was mistaken when referring to the session as Muslim-only. The men’s modesty session is not a private hire and is, therefore, open to the public. Staff cannot ask your religion on entrance and you won’t be refused entry if you don’t appear to be Muslim.

A spokesman for the Equality and Human Rights Commission said:

Segregating services may amount to unlawful discrimination and could create a sense of unfairness, inadvertently increasing community tension.

In 2006 the Daily Mail reported that Thornley Heath leisure centre in Croydon, London, had set aside one afternoon a week for Muslim swimmers.

The swimming sessions - which are for men only - are held for two hours every week at a leisure centre in London. Non-Muslims may swim during this time but only if they follow the strict dress code of swimming shorts that hide the navel and extend below the knee.

Women are completely banned from attending but have their own special swimming sessions outside opening hours.

During their sessions bathers must be covered from head to foot with their swimming costume covering their body from the neck down to the ankle.

Leisure centre member Daniel Foley, 44, said:

I turned up and saw a sign saying it was closing early for Muslim afternoon - I couldn’t believe it.

And Alex Craig, 34, said:

I think it is preposterous that a council should be encouraging this type of segregation over municipal facilities. It seems the issue here is over modesty. Surely if Muslims want to swim then they should just turn up with their modest swimwear at the same time as everyone else. To make a special provision for them is just ridiculous and strikes me as imposing an ‘Us and them’ mentality which is wrong.

But the nearby Croydon Mosque has defended the introduction of Muslim-only swimming sessions at the council pool. A spokesman said:

Muslims are not allowed to show intimate parts of their body. This is non-negotiable. Muslims have as much right to go swimming as anyone else.

A spokesman for Croydon Council said:

We are keen to ensure sporting facilities in the borough are accessible to the whole community. We appreciate that certain religious groups, such as Muslims, have strict rules on segregation for activities including sports, so in response to requests from the local community, we have been running these sessions at Thornton Heath Leisure Centre for the past year, with a women-only session on Saturday evening and a male-only session on Sunday evening. These have been successful and well attended.

Other examples of “apartheid” swimming sessions are to be found on Daniel Pipes’ website.

More bad news for the Church of Scientology – American actor Jason Beghe, until recently a poster boy for the cult – this week roundly condemned it.

In a YouTube video, Beghe who has appeared in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Criminal Minds, described Scientology as “destructive”, a “rip-off” and “very dangerous”.

Beghe began taking courses in Scientology in 1994, and even appeared in promotional footage for the cult in 2005. On one promotional site he says:

If life is a game, Scientology gives you the tools to play it with a stacked deck and win consistently. Scientology has enabled me to make my dreams come true, really. I know that it can do the same for anyone. It is a rocket ride to spiritual freedom.

According to SFGate, Beghe reportedly was said to be a “top Scientologist” or “OT5,” a rank similar to Tom Cruise and John Travolta’s standing in the church.

In the YouTube video – a three-minute trailer for a forthcoming in-depth interview – Beghe says:

Scientology is destructive and a rip-off. It’s very, very dangerous for your spiritual, psychological, mental, emotional health and evolution. I think it stunts your evolution. If Scientology is real, then something’s fucked up. It ain’t deliverin’ what it’s promised. It sure has not.

Beghe insists he has recorded the video to help those who are influenced by the religion.

He adds:

I don’t have an agenda. I’m just trying to help. I have the luxury of having gotten into Scientology and after having been in it, been out. And that’s a perspective that people who are still in and not out do not have.

Beghe’s denunciation came shortly after international protests were held against the cult. See earlier post here.