Lord Justice Wall denied the request and went on from there.

The judge dismissed evidence from a Muslim scholar who argued that continued placement would exacerbate the physical risk to the children by increasing the shame wrought on the family. He said that despite flaws in the care proceedings, placing the children with the non-Muslim family had given correct priority to the physical safety of the children.

The judge went further, however, stating that “the time has surely come to rethink the phrase ‘honour killings’”. He described it as a “wholly inappropriate oxymoron”. He added: “In this case, the family may wish to reflect on the fact that it has lost five of its children: one by death, one by the legitimate flight from gender-based violence inflicted on his mother, and three to the care system.”

h/t: International Campaign Against Honour Killings

A Muslim mother who forced her two daughters to marry their cousins in Pakistan has been jailed for three years and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register.

She told her elder daughter that if she didn’t have sex with her new husband, she would tie her to the bed, blindfold and strip her, a court heard.

The woman, from south Manchester, also said she would be there to make sure the marriage was consummated. She cannot be named to protect the teenage victims.

She was convicted of inciting or causing a child to engage in sexual activity; two charges of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence; and two of intending to pervert the course of justice. She had denied all charges.

The mother was convicted last month. Judge Clement Goldstone denounced the woman’s conduct when he handed down her sentence yesterday.

PC SENSITIVITIES must not block efforts to protect women from forced marriage and violence, a leading Muslim peer said yesterday.

Sayeeda Warsi believes “white liberalism” – the belief people cannot talk about such matters because there are sensitive religious and minority group issues involved – has stopped politicians from making it clear that it is unacceptable to force women into marriage.
[…]
“It is the worst form of discrimination because it’s saying that brown and black girls who get taken overseas to be subjected to forced marriage can be overlooked. But if this was happening to young white girls we’d be up in arms about it.”

Baroness Warsi maintains that forced marriage is contrary to civilised society and not a legitimate practice of any religion.

The 38-year-old peer was recently named the most powerful Muslim woman in the UK.

h/t: International Campaign Against Honour Killings

The Cinderella Effect is the name given to analysis in Canada, the US and Britain which suggests that children are at far greater risk from stepfathers and non-blood “relatives” than from natural parents. Detailed Canadian research over 20 years has put the risk of being killed by a stepparent at between 50 to 100 times greater than the risk of being killed by a parent. A 1989 study by the University of Iowa found non-biological fathers four times more likely than natural fathers to sexually abuse children in their care.

In Britain, NSPCC research has found that children living with biological parents are between 20 and 33 times safer than those living in any other type of household – despite the NSPCC being inclined to play down family breakdown.

Poverty must surely be a factor. But the American researchers Daly and Wilson, who have done the most detailed work on this subject, say that poverty pales into insignificance compared with “the presence of a step-parent, which is the best epidemiological predictor of child abuse yet discovered”.

Not only are children generally safer with their natural parents, studies show that women living with their husbands are much less likely to be victims of domestic violence than are women living with men to whom they are not married.

h/t: The Christian Institute

Since October last year, some 30,000 Sovereign Account holders with the ministry have donated more than £24 million in support to charities, churches and mission workers.

Stewardship Chief Executive, David Jones, said: “Our clients tend to have a planned approach to their giving. As such, they are less likely to see giving as a discretionary expenditure and cut back in difficult times.”

On the negative side, donations made by British Christians to support overseas missionaries have lower value because the pound has declined.

ATAA Jewellers in the west end of Glasgow was raided by two Asian men entirely covered apart from their eyes.
[…]
The two girls working at the time were left so shaken there are plans for a sign banning anything covers the face.
[…]
Rukhsana Sadiq was in the shop when it was robbed. She spent hours showing what she thought were the two women gold, but she never saw their faces.

Inevitably, the BBC finds a Muslim to claim the ban would violate her rights.

Madihah [Ansari] wears a Burkha and always has her head and body covered. Sometimes she chooses to wear a Niqab as well, meaning her face is covered.

[...]

“Just because two guys did a crime and they were dressed up in that kind of outfit you can’t prejudice everyone else.

The shop is not prejudiced against “everyone else”, only people who cover their faces. It’s not about Islam as such, for Islam does not require women to wear a veil.

And why isn’t outraged against the men who deceived and terrorised the shop workers and caused problems for innocent Muslim women who choose to veil themselves in public?

Glasgow councillor Hanzala Malik has no problem with the shop’s decision to bar people wearing masks.

“I know in Scotland that banks will not allow their customers coming in with motorbike helmets, I don’t see why it should be different for people wearing the Niqab. It is an issue about identifying people.”

Exactly right.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAspEPVQECE[/youtube]

One wonders if this tomfoolery is an attempt to distract viewers from his “urgent” proposals. Anne Treneman of The Times:

The cinéma vérité got more vérité as he got mixed up with the autocue but, basically, he is scrapping the second-home allowance. Instead, MPs will receive extra money for coming to Parliament. He called this an “attendance” allowance. I think that is code for “showing up for work”. Wow. Extra money for actually coming to work. This is a draconian crackdown.

If I were a Brit, I would not find this video the least bit reassuring.

The Daily Mail’s Quentin Letts likens the PM to Chief Inspector George Dreyfus of Pink Panther fame.

h/t: Daniel Finkelstein at Comment Central

Whitehall officials will train pro-West Islamic groups to manipulate their Google search ranking in an attempt to drown out extremist voices online, The Register has learned.

The policy is being developed despite recent warnings from a group of international experts on radicalisation that such strategies are likely to be “largely ineffectual”.

But when has lack of effectiveness ever stopped a government programme?

The Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT), a 200-strong Home Office unit created 18 months ago, has said in meetings it wants to “flood the internet” with “positive” interpretations of Islam. It plans to train government-approved groups in search engine optimisation techniques, which it’s hoped will boost their profile online and battle radicalisation.

A recent study found that young Muslims looking for extremist information online are unlikely to resort to conventional search engines.  Such materials are usually discovered via web forums and online associates.

h/t: Faith Central

Renowned political philosopher Kenneth Minogue remarks on a paradox at the heart of contemporary British society. For many years, government policies and public institutions have been based on compassion, empathy, and concern; yet, increasingly, the result is a society manifesting the opposite qualities—indifference, lawlessness, and violence.

Young offenders are given counselling rather than punishment. Our troops are sent overseas, not to fight, but to ‘win hearts and minds’.

In large swathes of the public sector, the fashionable concept of ‘emotional intelligence’ has replaced efficiency as the central goal of the workforce.

Yet in the face of this sweeping tide of officially sanctioned benevolence, Britain is increasingly violent and degraded.

‘The gentleness of English civilisation is its most marked characteristic,’ George Orwell once wrote. How hollow those words sound today, as the shadows of aggression and disorder loom over our society. Almost any British town centre on a Friday or Saturday night is a maelstrom of drunken fury.
[...]
The state’s focus on compassion, it would appear, is being met by mounting viciousness. Officialdom’s supposed kindness is matched by deepening social nastiness.

But this is not a contradiction. It is precisely the Government’s imposition of the creed of politicised sympathy, what might be called ‘the tyranny of niceness’, which has created the culture of disorder in our midst.

Prof Minogue believes that official niceness is seen as weakness and apathy. The state effectively does not care how citizens behave. There is no penalty for evil or malicious behaviour and no incentive for civic virtue. Indeed, attempts to promote the common good or social order are seen as judgmental, oppressive, and contrary to human rights. Thus has social cohesion been undermined in Great Britain.

Read the whole thing.

While this is likely to see him involved in the Middle East and Pakistan, the bishop revealed that he also plans to work with Muslim converts to Christianity in Britain.

He said he has been inspired by the story of Hannah Shah, an Imam’s daughter who faced being killed by her family for refusing an arranged marriage before becoming a Christian.

“Bishop Michael is hoping to work with a number of church leaders from areas where the church is under pressure, particularly in minority situations, who have asked him to assist them with education and training for their particular situation,” said a spokesman.

Born in Pakistan to parents who converted from Islam to Christianity, he is the Church of England’s first non-white diocesan bishop and a vocal defender of conservative evangelical views. His decision to retire early is a great loss to the C of E.

Bishop Michael may have tired of resisting multiculturalism and secularism in the UK and liberalism in the church.

He has lamented “the long withdrawing roar of the sea of faith . . . nurses cannot pray, the creed cannot be recited at Christian services for fear of offending non-believers”. He warned of “the advent of a doctrinaire multi-faithism”, in which the established church was in retreat and in which radical Islam had filled the void. His views on Muslims were said to have ruled him out of succeeding George Carey as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Bishop Nazir-Ali spoke out against the soggy “anything goes” political correctness that characterises the modern Church of England.

His new ministry will involve supporting and defending Christians who suffer real persecution—people who have lost their homes, jobs, and families—for being disciples of Jesus.  May our Lord bless Bishop Michael in his calling to serve God’s people in pain and distress.

Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris detailed the extent of the illegal sex trade at the launch of a new support service to help victims.

The officer said the brothels effectively doubled as prisons.

“They are being held in captivity,” he said.

“They live in fear of awful violence as well. We know an awful lot of violence is inflicted on them by those holding them and there’s the threat of violence either to them or even to their families back home.”

The sex-slave traffic is organised by international gangs and run with the assistance of local criminals.

The Northern Ireland government has instituted a new programme for victims of human trafficking, which will provide accommodation, health care, and counselling services.

That inane claim was made by a co-host of a morning TV talk show in Britain.

Mr Atkinson, famous for his roles in Blackadder and Mr Bean, told Peers in the House of Lords: “Do I think that I would risk prosecution because of jokes or drama about sexual orientation with which I might be involved if we don’t have the free speech clause?

“Not really – but I dread something almost as bad – a culture of censoriousness, a questioning, negative and leaden attitude that is encouraged by legislation of this nature but is considerably and meaningfully alleviated by the free speech clause.”

He added: “It would provide succour and reassurance to those of us in the creative world and I would plead for its retention.”

Mr Atkinson also criticised “hate speech” legislation in general.

The Labour Government is expected to use its majority in the House of Commons to defeat a motion to retain free speech protection. If that happens, it will fall once again to the House of Lords to safeguard civil liberties in the UK.

This is not the first time that Rowan Atkinson has publicly lobbied against Labourite proposals to restrict free speech. In 2005, he spoke against a bill to outlaw inciting religious hatred that was subsequently defeated in the House of Lords.

The Human Rights Commission in the North has warned that plans to introduce checks on people crossing the Border may lead to racial discrimination.
[…]
The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commissions said it is concerned this could lead to ethnic minorities having to constantly carry documents or face frequent questioning when they cross the border.

Forced to carry documents?  Questioned when crossing an international boundary?  Oh, the humanity!

How exactly does she scare children? It’s her appearance: She was born missing much of her right arm.

[T]he decision to hire her has prompted a flurry of complaints to the BBC and on parenting message boards, with some of the posts on the CBeebies website becoming so vicious that they had to be removed.

Incredibly, one father said he wanted to ban his daughter from watching the channel because he feared it would give her nightmares.

Others claimed that they were forced to discuss difficult issues with their young children before they were ready.

One blogger wrote: ‘Is it just me, or does anyone else think the new woman presenter on CBeebies may scare the kids because of her disability?

The Guardian‘s Lucy Mangan nails it: The problem here is not frightened children but bigoted parents.

It is parents who can’t face disability on TV
Complaints that the children’s presenter Cerrie Burnell is ‘scaring children’ reveal an alarming prejudice towards disability … from adults
[…]
Burnell’s arm is likely only to give parents nightmares. It is they who do not want to confront disabilities, not now, not at teatime, not ever. To let your toddler be scared every day that Burnell has hurt herself rather than explain the truth is a failure of parenting, not an imposition by the BBC.

Earlier this week on British television, Burnell spoke about her disability and how she deals with discrimination. Far from being “scary”, she is eminently sensible and fair-minded.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK61ssge600[/youtube]

Dr Richard Sobsey, Director of the John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre, University of Alberta, perceptively notices that even the title on the above video clip has it wrong.

Note the title, “ONE ARM Kid TV Show Host Creates Controversy,” which implies that Carrie Burnell created the controversy by having one arm. This is a little like saying that the “Jews create holocaust” by being Jews or “Negroes create lynchings” by being African or by being Black. All of these problems are created by the bigots who act on their hatred and ignorance, not by the victims. Nevertheless, this is a good video that shows Cerrie on the show and interviews her about discrimination and her choice not to hide her disability.

Burnell says, “Children can learn from me”. That’s very true, of course, but it seems that some parents are proving resistant to learning.

Ironically, CBeebies provides a great deal of information online regarding activities for children with special needs, including physical development issues.

h/t: icad and What Sorts of People

Chief Constable Julie Spence gives a few examples of calls to the hotline:

• contact from women as young as 14 fearful of being forced into marriage or wanting to escape a forced marriage but fearful of reprisals.
• a young female kept locked in the house to prevent her attending university as her parents felt she did not need further education as they had arranged a marriage for her
• friends calling to report disappearances when they fear a possible forced marriage

One of the first calls involved a young woman from Cambridgeshire who was kidnapped abroad and assaulted because she refused an arranged marriage.

h/t: International Campaign Against Honour Killings

Back to basics discipline in school would curb bad behaviour
[…]
Traditional rules such as banning children with shaven heads and those wearing designer trainers or gang colours have proved effective in maintaining order at the best comprehensives, according to a report by Ofsted.
[…]
The report examined how state schools in the most deprived areas improved standards, describing how one head teacher tackled troublemakers by suspending 300 pupils in a week.

Doesn’t suspending trouble-making students violate their human right to cause trouble?

h/t: Eye on Britain

Identified only as AT, NT, ML and AK, the young women, all from Moldova, told the High Court in London of their terrifying and abusive ordeals. Speaking from behind a black screen they described how they were fed just one meal a day, charged for the use of knives and forks and fined if they refused unprotected sex or clients’ perverted demands.

Mr Justice Treacy ordered Gavril and Tamara Dulghieru, who are already serving prison sentences for trafficking offences, to pay the four women a total of £611,000 damages.

In November 2005, Mr Dulghieru admiited conspiring to traffic in prostitution, trafficking into the UK for sexual exploitation and plotting to facilitate unlawful immigration and was sentenced to nine years imprisonment. Mrs Dulghieru was convicted of immigration, fraud, forgery and money-laundering offences and sentenced to five years.

Now several more Church of England bishops have done the same.

The Bishop of Bradford, the Rt Rev David James, said: “There is a certain political correctness which tends to target Christians especially and forbid Christian expression.

“Often people claim to be doing this in the interest of other faiths, but they welcome Christians being upfront on their beliefes [sic].

“I think in part it arises out of a secular agenda which wants to restrict religion to the private sphere. But all our faiths impact on the way we live in the public domain.

“I think the secularists have to get real and accept the fact that Christianity, like other religions, isn’t something that happens between consenting adults in private.”

London Telegraph correspondent Martin Beckford has a question:

First they came for the Christians?
[…]
[R]ecent cases give the distinct impression that what is under attack is not evangelism, nor even Christianity, but freedom of speech itself.

White Christian women are obviously an easy target, but as I pointed out last week in discussing the NHS guidelines on religion, what they are really aimed at is getting all believers to keep quiet unless they are within a designated private prayer space.

New Labour says it wants “equality”, but that apparently means that Christians must not mention any differences at all.

[A] friend of the girl claimed yesterday:

‘Her dad is a very strict Muslim who could get violent. One time he hit her with a belt just because she chatted with a couple of boys.

‘Another time he beat her over and over and said he would take her to Pakistan and make her marry.

‘She really didn’t want that. She was very frightened. Her dad would shout and swear at her and told her that she’d shamed the family.

‘Her mother didn’t really do anything to protect her.’

The girl told social workers that she was interested in converting to Christianity and wanted to go to church. Why should her foster mother be punished because the girl exercised her freedom of religion? Or is that no longer recognised by certain local councils?

If the friend’s story is true, the girl’s father should be investigated. Forced marriage is illegal in Great Britain.