News/Politics

A few years ago, at a conference in the Middle East, I met a man called Mustapha (which is another name for the Prophet Muhammad). Interesting guy, Mustapha. Passionate about social justice issues, outspoken against Islamophobia, strident critic of Israeli occupation, a strong believer in equal rights. But … someone needs to take Mustapha’s parents […]

Recently a fellow blogger wrote an excellent column criticising South Africa’s shameful decisions with regard to rape, Burma and Zimbabwe at the United Nations Security Council. But, he diluted his fine comments by limply saying toward the end that his comments came “as an ANC supporter”. What did he mean by that? That criticism only […]

The ANC Women’s League’s endorsement of Jacob Zuma for the party’s presidency is mind-boggling. I just can’t fathom it. I acknowledge that the body can and should support whomever it wants. People accusing the league of missing an opportunity to give a woman a fighting chance at the top seat are blithely missing the fact […]

Gillian Gibbons is an Englishwoman who teaches at Unity School in Sudan. On Sunday, the Sudanese police arrested her on account of blasphemy arising out of her allowing her class to name a teddy bear “Muhammad”. This has caused a furore of note, with many, including the Muslim Council of Britain, saying that it is […]

Here is the previously unknown text of a loony letter that the Aids denialist Anthony Brink asked me to deliver to Thabo Mbeki a mere three days after he introduced himself to me in a Cape Town book shop. The letter is so very obviously bonkers that I, of course, never gave it to the […]

Since Jacob Zuma has come out tops in most provinces in the nomination race for the ANC presidency earlier this week, many of my colleagues, relatives and friends have voiced their concern about what will become of this country. Some said they will leave the country if JZ becomes president; others decided they will not […]

Once upon a time, in the northern part of a land known as Palestine, there existed a village called Lubya. The village of Lubya is well-known among the people of that land as the hometown of one Abu Bakr al-Lubyani. Al-Lubayni was a prominent Muslim scholar of the 15th century who taught Islamic religious sciences […]

As I pointed out in my last post, “Gevisser on Aids”, the Aids-drug lobby (which has long overstated the centrality of antiretroviral treatment in an effective Aids policy for Africa) join in a complicity of opposites with the Aids denialists (who deny that HIV causes Aids and that Aids exists) when it comes to President […]

What does it mean to govern effectively in a highly unequal society? The African National Congress answer to this question is that governing is about “advancing the national democratic revolution”. At its essence, the NDR is about changing social and economic conditions created under apartheid, through tackling structural nature of poverty, inequality and unemployment. There […]