Daily Updates
Monday, 28th September 2020

Friday, 25th September 2020
  • Happy Publication Day to Dr Priya Atwal, who's book Royals and Rebels is out today. It is is a "dazzling" history of the powerful women and men of the Sikh Empire who forged a dynasty to rival the Mughals and the British.

  • The legend Nitin Sawhney has a new single out

  • Leeds taxi driver Sajid Pervez has been arrested on suspicion of murdering his 'amazing' mother-of-seven wife, Abida Karim, weeks after she returned from burying her father in Pakistan.

  • 25 year-old Aiden King-Eeson of Birmingham has been sentenced to eight years in prison for causing the death of 54-year-old Gurmit Singh Matharu by dangerous driving in July this year.

Thursday, 24th September 2020
  • It's another big day for UK chancellor Rishi Sunak, who is set to unveil a plan for rescuing jobs today.

  • Labour MP Nadia Whittome (pictured) was sacked from the UK Labour frontbenches last night for voting against the controversial armed forces bill.

  • Congratulations to Zayn Malik and Gigi Hamid - who have had a baby girl

  • The world-famous Akram Dance Company will mark its 20th anniversary with a live-stream showcasing its work over the last two decades. On Sunday 4th October, it will stream its work around the world on its YouTube channel and Facebook.

  • Happy Publication Day to Amer Anwar for his "bone-crunching" thriller book




Wednesday, 23rd September 2020
  • A number of Muslim organisations in the London borough of Harrow have written to the Conservative party over the 'Islamophobic' conduct of one its councillors, Kamaljit Chana.

  • The British Museum is celebrating the Indian feminine tradition of Tantra, touching on life, sex and death in an exhibition. The Financial Times reviews it:

    "Dating back as far as at least the sixth century, its wide-ranging practices vary from meditation and yoga postures to conscientious heterodoxies to break open the more hardened Hindu mind, including the ritual use of intoxicants, meat- and fish-offerings, as well as, of course, sexuality — the aspect for which the tradition is most famed in the west, though only about 5 per cent of tantric texts expound on the subject."

  • London MP Apsana Begum explains why the UK Government are wrong to prevents acts of torture and other serious crimes by the UK army from being prosecuted, if they took place more than five years ago.

  • Scotland's Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf has u-turned on his position on a new offence of "stirring up hatred". He has now accepted that police would need to provide 'proof of intent of harm' before charging people. More on that here.


Tuesday, 22nd September 2020

Monday, 21st September 2020

Friday, 18th September 2020

Thursday, 17th September 2020
  • West Yorkshire Police have found a body in the search for missing 14-year-old girl Kekshan Rashid from Keighley.

  • Toronto police are warning that two recent fatal stabbing attacks - of 58-year-old Mohamed-Aslim Zafis and 39-year-old Rampreet Singh - could be by the same perpetrator and motivated by racial hated.

  • Happy Publication Day to actress Shobna Gulati, who's book on dealing with her mother's dementia, is out today.

  • BBC Newsnight went an entire week without a single live interview with a guest from a minority ethnic background, a new report says, highlighting continued lack of diversity in UK media.

  • This should have been filmed


  • TWEET OF THE DAY



Wednesday, 16th September 2020
  • Last week a Canadian institute published an article on Khalistan written by former CBC presenter Terry Milewski. Now an unprecedented group of 50 Sikh scholars from Canada and the UK have condemned it.

  • Jas Athwal, a council leader from London, has finally had his suspension lifted by the Labour party. He said he was delighted and has called for an investigation into why it took this long.

  • Actress Shobna Gulati is interviewed for the Guardian by Arifa Akbar: 'As she publishes a moving memoir, the Corrie, Dinnerladies and West End star talks about her three-decade battle with typecasting – and almost dying of Covid-19.'


Tuesday, 15th September 2020

  • Nineteen years ago this week, Balbir Singh Sodhi became the first man in the US murdered in a hate-crime in the aftermath of 9/11.

  • Actress Shobna Gulati's book around Dementia called 'Remember Me' is out Thursday 17th Sept. She was on GMB this morning talking about it.

  • The World Organization of Sikhs in Canada was informed by Twitter that its tweets on Sikhs being targeted in extra-judicial killings in India were apparently a violation of Indian law. Outrageous.

  • The annual Jhalak Book Prize is now offering a prize for children's and Young Adult books too. It is now open for submissions.

  • Corner shops are the unsung hero of British life - it's just taken a pandemic to prove it, writes broadcaster Babita Sharma.

Monday, 14th September 2020
  • In 1997 Geeta Sidhu-Robb, then campaigning to be an MP against Jack Straw, urged Muslims not to vote for him because he is Jewish. She did so happily on TV. Last week, after the Lib Dems picked her as their London Mayoral candidate, the footage started circulating again. Last night they suspended her as a prospective candidate.

  • UK MP Rehman Chisti, the PM’s Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion and Belief, has resigned over the government's Brexit bill. "As an MP for 10yrs & former Barrister, values of respecting rule of law & honouring one’s word are dear to me," - he said in his letter.
    Former chancellor Sajid Javid has followed him too.


Friday, 11th September 2020

  • A shocking 81% of Muslim NHS workers revealed they had experienced Islamophobia or racism within the NHS, a survey by HuffPo UK has found. More than half felt Islamophobia had held them back in career progression.

    EARLIER: the former President of the Royal College of GPs told our Mita Mistry the NHS needs to do much more on ethnic minority representation in leadership.

  • restaurant Darjeeling Express has a lovely re-opening night plan: delivering food to eight hospitals for everyone from the hospital Porter to the consultants.


  • People living in Birmingham, Sandwell and Solihull will be banned from meeting other households from Tuesday.


Thursday, 10th September 2020
  • Overseas Friends of the BJP in the US denies rumours it is under investigation from the Department of Justice. After 30 years of operations the organisation has quite suddenly decided to register as a 'Foreign Agent' - as required by US law - in recent weeks.

    Prof. Ashok Swain poses some interesting questions: "Why is Trump's Dept of Justice doing an investigation of Overseas Friends of BJP in the USA? Why has OFBJP-USA suspended all its activities? Why has OFBJP-USA President resigned?"

  • A police officer in Halifax, UK, is under criminal investigation after footage showed him apparently physically restraining an Asian man around the neck during an arrest.

  • 18-year-old Simran Sahajpal was diagnosed with kidney disease when she was just 13 years old. She is in urgent need of a kidney transplant.

  • A Haringey councillor hoping to become council leader has been accused of Islamophobia in a complaint by colleagues.

  • Former Yorkshire spinner Azeem Rafiq has urged authorities to ‘act now’ and eradicate racism from cricket, in an interview with TalkSport. He says 'lives will be lost’ if they do not
    • .

Wednesday, 9th September 2020

  • Yesterday, Moeen Ali became the first Muslim and British Asian player to captain the England Cricket team in T20 International match. He told the media it was a "great honour".

  • Dr Priya Atwal's book Royals and Rebels is out in two weeks time - she is doing a virtual book tour. More on that here.


Tuesday, 8th September 2020


Monday, 7th September 2020

Friday, 4th September 2020

  • Happy publication day to writer Kia Abdullah, who has written her second book, Truth Be Told - a thrilling, suspenseful, shocking and gritty crime fiction story. More about the book here.

  • There are concerns this morning that Leeds could go back into lockdown.

  • Nice article in the Guardian on how a cafe in Leeds played old bollywood tunes for its older clientele, some of whom suffered from dementia: ‘It's good for the brain’.

  • Three members of staff at London Ambulance Service Trust have been suspended (paywall link) from duty after comments on the trust’s internal communication channels caused “great distress” to BAME staff.



Thursday, 3rd September 2020


  • Happy Publication Day! Nadiya Jamir Hussain MBE has a new book out today, which is already #1 on Amazon in the Gastronomy section.

  • Kick It Out, a group that campaigns against racism in professional football, has found "shocking" increases in reports of racist and homophobic abuse. Its chair Sanjay Bhandari said the findings painted a worrying picture.

  • London-based poet and author Meena Kandasamy has been threatened with a police complaint filed in India over alleged "criminal intimidation" over the cancellation of a book there.

  • The family of 11-year-old Vivek Saxena were "let down" after being told he would no longer be able to get a school place due to special needs schools being full, after his family applied for his place in December 2019

  • Yorkshire Cricket Club have begun an investigation into "institutional racism" after Azeem Rafiq, the former England Under-19 captain, said his experiences left him close to taking his own life.


Wednesday, 2nd September 2020

  • Ontario's Brampton City will illuminate its city hall clock tower blue on 6th September in honour of Sikh human rights-activist Jaswant Singh Khalra. In recent weeks, the Canadian cities of Burnaby, New Westminster and Brampton have proclaimed September 6th as ‘Jaswant Singh Khalra Day’ to mark his 25th death anniversary.

  • The award-winning documentary about Punjabi-Canadian women called 'Because We Are Girls', by director Baljit Sangra, is now available on Amazon Prime.

  • "If religions preach unity through shared humanity then why are some people of faith so hostile towards those who are different to them?" Academic Dr Maryyum Mehmood has started a new thought-provoking podcast.



Tuesday, 1st September 2020