Dear old Tariq Ramadan was on Newsnight on Friday evening having a heated discussion with Douglas Murray about sharia. I had been pondering Professor Ramadan’s role earlier that day.

Tariq Ramadan's book was quoted by Archbishop Williams

Some people accuse Douglas Murray (“Murray” as Professor Ramadan calls him) of secularism, an enmity to all religions, not just Islam. In reply, Mr Murray has sent round an email to a list of contacts, saying:

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As I write, the Archbishop of York has said precisely nothing in defence of his fellow Primate, the man now being described in conservative Anglican circles as “the Imam of Canterbury”.

Will Dr John Sentamu remain silent on the controversy?

The silence of Dr John Sentamu – there’s a phrase I thought I’d never write – is surely significant. As is the absence of comment from the vast majority of the Church of England’s bishops. No doubt they will voice their support for Williams at the forthcoming General Synod. Or maybe not.

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The most extraordinary political tale of the weekend is Charles Clarke's outburst against Gordon Brown   in which he describes the Prime Minister as a "ditherer" who "lacks courage". This precisely echoes the Tories' attacks on Brown.

Clarke won't be rejoining the Cabinet any time soon

Clarke also reels off a list of former Blairite ministers such as Stephen Byers, Alan Milburn and John Reid, dubs them "an opposition" and declares, with barely concealed menace: "It's unlikely that people will keep quiet much longer."

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If you have half an hour to spare this afternoon I'd recommend looking through the World Press Photo photographs of the year. There are some extraordinary images from across the globe in several categories including news, sport, portraits and nature.

Rockets launched from Gaza City towards Israel, Emilio Morenatti

Given the quality of the winners it's a shame the presentation isn't better. It would be great to be able to see these images in a larger size, for example. Sadly, the site seems to be focused more on protecting copyright than promoting the work of the photographers. If you right-click on one of the pictures you get a message asking you not to copy the picture. They seem not to realise that a screen-grab and five minutes in Photoshop will yield a perfect copy.

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As promised last night, Alan Cochrane reveals today that Andrew Fulton, a former senior MI6 man, is being lined up to become chairman of the Scottish Tories. Read the full story here.

Scottish politics may never be the same again

In the style of Fleming, Alan also imagines David Cameron giving Fulton (007) his orders on the terrible dangers the agent faces on his mission.

Full coverage of the US Elections 2008
He had the looks, the hair, the money, the job experience and the money, but Mitt Romney didn't even come close.

Mitt Romney never made it clear enough what he stood for

He won small states and home states. Everywhere else it was "silver medals" as he put it, and quite a few bronzes too. 

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Full coverage of the US Elections 2008
TV presenter David Shuster has been suspended by NBC for remarks about Chelsea Clinton on MSNBC after asking if she was being "pimped out" by the campaign, which is using her to make calls to undecided super-delegates. 

Filling in for Tucker Carlson on 'Tucker', Shuster said, "Doesn't it seem like Chelsea's sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?" Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson called the comment "beneath contempt" today and said it could threaten Clinton’s participation in further debates on the network. 

He pointed to a history of hostile comments towards the Clintons on MSNBC after hostile questioning from Tim Russert at debates, and Chris Matthews' comment a couple of weeks ago that Mrs Clinton got where she is on a sympathy vote.

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Say what you like about the Archbishop of Canterbury, he keeps his website up to date. The full text of his lecture on sharia and a transcript of the Radio 4 interview are there and much more.

Islam lays down the death penalty for Christian converts

I wonder what Dr Williams really thinks about death sentences for apostates from Islam. In his lecture he says: "To recognise sharia is to recognise a method of jurisprudence governed by revealed texts rather than a single system.  In a discussion based on a paper from Mona Siddiqui at a conference last year at Al Akhawayn University in Morocco, the point was made by one or two Muslim scholars that an excessively narrow understanding sharia as simply codified rules can have the effect of actually undermining the universal claims of the Qur'an.  But while such universal claims are not open for renegotiation, they also assume the voluntary consent or submission of the believer, the free decision to be and to continue a member of the umma."
 
Later he says: "A significant number of contemporary Islamic jurists and scholars would say that the Qur'anic pronouncements on apostasy which have been regarded as the ground for extreme penalties reflect a situation in which abandoning Islam was equivalent to adopting an active stance of violent hostility to the community, so that extreme penalties could be compared to provisions in other jurisdictions for punishing spies or traitors in wartime; but that this cannot be regarded as bearing on the conditions now existing in the world.  Of course such a reading is wholly unacceptable to 'primitivists' in Islam."

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Full coverage of the US Elections 2008
Whenever the name John Edwards comes up on Barack Obama's campaign plane, the candidate smiles serenely and gives nothing away but makes it quite clear he's in very frequent contact with the former North Carolina senator.

Barack Obama catches up with the news while en route

En route from New Orleans to Omaha yesterday he was asked: "Have you had a conversation with John Edwards lately?" He replied: "I have not talked to John today. I talked to him yesterday and I've had ongoing conversations with him." He won’t say anything – even off the record - about the content of the conversations. But it seems significant that he's speaking to Edwards almost daily. Can we expect an announcement soon?

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There's a fabulous battle of the Manolo Blahniks and cosmopolitans currently unfolding on American television. Two new, very similar series have just begun that are vying to take the place of HBO's hit comedy Sex and The City. What's more they are both the work of Sex and the City producers.

The battle is on: the stars of the rival shows

Candace Bushnell, the real-life Carrie Bradshaw who wrote the newspaper columns on which the Sarah Jessica Parker-starring series was based, has just seen her latest offering, Lipstick Jungle, air on US TV. It debuted on NBC on Thursday night.

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More belligerence from Vladimir Putin today. The Russian leader says that a “new phase in the arms race is unfolding in the world.”

Putin's hard talk on military spending is undermined by the facts

America has ignored Russia’s “well-founded concerns” about the proposed missile defence shield in Europe and Nato enlargement has taken place despite the Kremlin’s heated objections.

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Has rugby become too hard? I only ask because every time I pitch up at England's training camp, there’s another player crocked.

Injuries: has the game become too physical, too hard?

Five down since this time last week, with another two, Phil Vickery and Toby Flood, still carrying varying degrees of doubt about their fitness for Sunday's game at the Stadio Flaminio.

What is it with England this last nine months? They have endured a terrible run of bad luck. Well, I say bad luck? Is that what it is,  a set of unfortunate circumstances.

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Philip Glenister might be a hit as 1980s telly cop Gene Hunt, but my colleague Richard Edwards reports that he is not good news for modern day crime fighting.

Buried under paperwork, some police must long for the old days

Apparently modern-day coppers are so taken by Hunt and his particular way of policing that the new series of Ashes to Ashes on BBC 1 is a must-see for the boys in blue.

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Today the European Commission breathed a huge collective sigh of relief after France ratified the new EU Treaty, through parliamentary procedures, on Thursday night.

Maybe Barroso should not feel so smug just yet

José Manuel Barroso, European Commission President, could not resist gloating, by calling his first post-ratification press conference.

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Chinese whispers on the streets are that Amir Khan will be at home again in Bolton for his next fight – in April -  which could be a challenge for Belarussian Yuri Romanov's European lightweight title. It makes sense.

Returning home: Amir Khan could next fight in Bolton - again

Frank Warren, Khan's promoter, is doing the smart job of bringing the lightweight through the ranks – ignoring the clamour for Khan to step in against a world champion now. It is the next great move.

But so too was Warren's desire to take Khan to box in Las Vegas either on the day before, or the afternoon of Joe Calzaghe's light-heavyweight contest with Bernard Hopkins, which will be at the light-heavyweight limit of 175 lbs, and not 170lbs, as had been suggested earlier this week.

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Full coverage of UK Politics
Alan Cochrane has hot news tonight on the man of mystery being lined up to take over as chairman of the Scottish Tory party. Calm down, you’ll find the full story here in the morning.

The poor soul, I mean lucky winner, will have his work cut out to revive the fortunes of an organisation struggling to stay alive. No papers have been signed but if he secures the services of the front-runner it would be a coup for David Cameron, in whose gift the appointment is. Cameron expects the Scottish party to be stirred and shaken up.

There is much for the new man to do. The Tories toil under the leadership of Annabel Goldie, who commands a group of largely useless MSPs (I can think of only two who do not merit that description).

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I’ve just finished Three Cups of Tea. You should read it. Everyone should read it.

Greg Mortenson with students in Pakistan

It’s the story of Greg Mortenson, a mountaineer turned charitable demi-god who has built 55 schools in northern Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past decade. His profound, affectionate knowledge of such a complex area makes this a timely antidote to the usual crude stereotypes.

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So farewell then, Neighbours. After 22 years, the programme that gave us Scott and Charlene, Mrs Mangle, Jim Robinson, Helen Daniels, Madge Bishop, Toadfish and Bouncer will vacate its twice daily slots on BBC1 and move to Five.

Meeting Harold was like a dream come true

Cue much sadness from its many viewers - in 1990 it was getting 19million a day - who regard the strains of 'you can find a perfect blend' over their television at 5.35pm a comforting constant in a world full of turmoil. Now not even that is left. Ramsay Street may have only moved a mere flick of a switch away, but it has left many devastated. This petition  has more than 13,500 signatures begging that the Aussie soap stays on the Beeb.

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Good news for the Smith Institute, the independent think-tank which is being investigated by the charities watchdog for its close links to Gordon Brown and his circle. Its latest accounts show donations were pouring into the charity's coffers at the rate of more than £2,000 a day (the charity raised £740,000 in the 12 months to the end of March 2007, down from £860,000 the previous year).

The Smith Institute insists on its 'plurality' 

The charity's trustees use their annual return to comment on the ongoing year-long investigation by the Charity Commission in a section headlined "External Factors Affecting The Achievement Of Our Objective General".

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I’ve spent the past 24 hours as the guest of a former terrorist leader. For 16 years, Antonio Navarro was a capo of the Colombian guerilla movement M19, among whose crimes was a devastating attack in 1985 on the Supreme Court building in the centre of Bogotá.

Giving people their own land would help Colombia's struggle

A few years later, Navarro realised that he couldn’t win: his group had claimed to represent The People; but it was becoming abundantly clear that The People wanted nothing to do with it. M19 was duly demobilised, and Navarro, having negotiated himself an amnesty, went into mainstream Left-wing politics.

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Full coverage of UK Politics
A most ingenious paradox.

Yesterday, House of Commons finance chief Andrew Walker told a tribunal that MPs did not have to submit receipts because the word of an Honourable Member was his or her bond.

Today, at the same tribunal, Mr Walker refused to reveal his secret list for monitoring expenses on the grounds that if MPs knew the top limits they could claim, they would inevitably whack their submissions up.

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At the heart of the storm over Rowan Williams' thoughts on Sharia law lies what many see as the fundamental incompatibility between Western laws - made by largely secular democratic parliaments and applied by largely secular independent judges - and the laws of Islam, which derive from holy texts and is applied largely by clerics. Basically, it comes down to this simple question: do we live according to God's will, or man's?

Williams has sparked debate about religion in a secular society

Too often, the two concepts are seen as diametric opposites, the difference held up as the best illustration of why Islam and liberalism must forever be at odds. But does it have to be that way? Not everyone thinks so. I'll spare you the lecture on how Islam can accommodate individual conscience, but if you want to know more, start reading up on ijtihad.

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Don’t believe the hype. Islamic preacher Abu Hamza might have been given the push by Jacqui Smith, but he won’t be going to America any time soon.

Abu Hamza is here to stay for the time being

If he decides, as expected, to appeal the decision within the next two weeks, he is unlikely to get to the US before this time next year, according to Mark Spragg, a solicitor at London firm Jeffrey Russell Green.

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I’ve warned in the past of the dangers of Wikipedia as a primary source, something I that see Ian Douglas’s blog defending it confirms.

Wikipedia: an incredible encyclopaedia of our time

But the points he makes in its favour are certainly well taken. And here is an amazingly quick example of a well-attributed entry. It was up astoundingly quickly.

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What a fine lecture the Archbishop of Canterbury gave yesterday. It has provoked an outpouring of ignorant and brutish abuse, but has also exposed the sham liberalism of so many in public life and the media.

Our secular laws can give rise to intolerance too

Dr Rowan Williams's critics say he should not have given this lecture because it was bound to be misinterpreted. To me he is a hero for defying this attempted censorship and for showing us how to conduct an intelligent and good-natured conversation on a highly controversial subject.

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Full coverage of UK Politics
BBC 4 looks set to prove its worth again with what sounds like a fascinating 90 minute documentary on Thatcher and her ‘ism’ due on February 25th.

Presented by Michael Portillo, her former protégé, it promises interviews with David Cameron (why no Gordon Brown?), Ken Clarke, William Hague, Michael Howard and Lord Lamont amongst others.

Portillo, the BBC says, tells the story of her rise and fall and is frank about her, and his own, errors.

Most people who went to see Ratatouille, Pixar’s latest animation about a loveable rat with aspirations to become a master chef, will have left the cinema with a warm, glowy feeling. Odd really, considering the idea of hundreds of rodents crawling all over their food would usually cause them to shudder with horror.

This is all due to a healthy serving of animation magic – but, as Pixar's chief animator Mark Walsh tells me, there’s a lot more to it than computer trickery. Each frame goes through around seven different stages from rough sketch to fully fluffed-up finished result, and can take up to two days to complete with the input of around 15 different people.

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It’s good to see that the arrival of the Versys has launched such a lively debate about what a modestly powered bike can, or cannot, do. The Versys gives around 60bhp at the back wheel and has a top speed of something in the region of 110mph. In raw terms, these are learner, or at the very best, new rider stats. However, I am neither a learner, nor new to motorcycling, so the Versys is going to have to deliver an awful lot more than a safe, docile ride if it is not to be on its way back to Kawasaki forthwith - or maybe even fifthwith!

How long will the Versys remain part of my biking family?

Equally, I am frightened of riding fast on the road for two important reasons. First, I don’t want to get killed and secondly, and because of where we live it’s almost of the same importance, I need my licence.

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Off to the InterContinental Hotel on Park Lane last night for the tenth annual Parliamentary Palace of Varieties in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. It is a unique event in the parliamentary calendar, when the more daring of our MPs and peers take to the stage to sing, act, play music and entertain (in most cases).

Spot the odd cheeky girl out

For Stephen Pound, the Labour MP for Ealing North, it has become customary to indulge in cross-dressing for the evening. And last night was no exception, as he dressed up as a Cheeky Girl in a sketch with Tory MP Nigel Evans, Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik and the real Cheeky Girls - one of whom, lest we forget, is dating Opik. Entertaining stuff, if a little cringeworthy, but hey, it's all for charidee.

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Stop! Take stock. Britain the world's most successful Olympic nation is not even second, third or fourth in the International Sailing Federation's ranking, but fifth. This, just months before the Beijing 2008 event in Qingdao…

High five: GB are fifth in the ISF world rankings

Ahead of Skandia Team GBR is Australia (fair enough), Italy (punching above its weight), Spain (trying to recapture its 1992 Barcelona-fuelled domination) and France (slowly getting its Olympic programme on track). But fifth...

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