By Indigo Jo

This weekend the so-called English Defence League held a “homecoming” march in Luton, the town where a small group of al-Muhajiroun held a noisy rally against a homecoming parade by a regiment of soldiers recently back from Afghanistan and got much more publicity than they deserved, prompting the formation of one of the EDL’s precursors. Suzanne Moore’s piece in the Guardian offers a convenient litany of middle-class liberals sneering at members of the EDL as racists, hooligans and “stupid men in casual sportswear” and suggested that the “chattering classes” watched Stephen Lennon AKA Tommy Robinson’s performance on Newsnight last Tuesday and smugly “amused themselves by commenting on his chavdom”.

The arguments about family law rights in Britain's Muslim communities are bound up with racism and sexism. Those who have a political stake in being seen as the legitimate representatives of an essentialised Muslim community are part of this problem, says Cassandra Balchin.

By Humayun Nosheerwan

They say that there is no such thing as ideal in this world, and to look for one is an unavailing pursuit. But contrary to this popular notion, ideals do exist and they sustain their existence in the minds of the “idealists”. For some it must be quite surprising to know that in fact, idealists with their carefully crafted “ideals” played remarkable roles in moving and shaping modern human history and in the development of today’s dynamic civilization.

By Mehrunnisa Yusuf

The Pakistani creative and entertainment industry is in the line of fire yet again. Last week’s cause célèbre is incidental heroine Veena Malik, the Lollywood actress whose participation in the Indian reality television show Bigg Boss, has touched a raw nerve with Pakistan’s self-appointed morality brigade (media and mullah alike). She emerged from Kamran Shahid’s show Frontline as an ambassador for showbiz and entertainment.