Remember? The UK Blog that Rocked the Boat

This past July, bombs went off on public transport in central London.

The Guardian newspaper chose to honor the victims by printing this:

"Comment - We rock the boat - Today's Muslims aren't prepared to ignore injustice - Dilpazier Aslam - Wednesday July 13, 2005"

Dilpazier! Now I remember why I gave him the nickname Dippy!

A few edited highlights:

"The Muslim community is no monolithic whole. Yet there are some common features. Second- and third-generation Muslims are without the don't-rock-the-boat attitude that restricted our forefathers. We're much sassier with our opinions, not caring if the boat rocks or not."

"I prayed my Eid prayer in a mosque in Sheffield and, though most there were sickened and angry about events in Iraq,-"

(Note: I think he means this year, not the time when Sodhim was torturing the country)

"the imam chose not to mention Falluja either. We "youngsters" - some now in our 40s - had seen it before. This was deliberate silence, in case the boat rocked."

"Perhaps now is the time to be honest with each other and to stop labelling the enemy with simplistic terms such as "young", "underprivileged", "undereducated" and perhaps even "fringe". The don't-rock-the-boat attitude of elders doesn't mean the agitation wanes; it means it builds till it can be contained no more."

"Dilpazier Aslam is a Guardian trainee journalist (sic)"

This was jumped on by blogger Scott Burgess at The Daily Ablution who wrote a post on the same day:

"Although the Guardian article unaccountably omits the fact (presumably for reasons of space), Mr. Aslam is on record as supporting a world-dominant Islamic state, notably in his writings for London based site khilafah.com ("Khilafa" translates as "Caliphate". The site's tagline expresses its aim: "then there will be khilafah rashida [a righteous Caliphate] on the method of Prophethood [i.e., sharia]")."

Hizb ut-Tharir was the organisation that helped a schoolgirl fight against wearing the standard school uniform:

"At home, Miss Begum was in an increasingly vulnerable position. Her father had died in 1992, and her mother died in April 2003. Her main source of protection and support was her brother, Shuweb, who has been frequently reported as being a supporter of Hizb ut-Tharir, a fundamentalist Islamic organisation which is banned in much of the Middle East, and which has admitted advising Miss Begum on her case. "

Their court case was successful and the young teenager "won" the right to wear a burka! Who got the first interview?

'I could scream with happiness. I've given hope and strength to Muslim women' - Schoolgirl tells Guardian of her battle to wear Islamic dress - Dilpazier Aslam - Thursday March 3, 2005

Blogs went crazy for "Sassygate" and Dippy was fired from the Guardian on the 22nd.

This appeared on the 23rd:

"The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Saturday July 23 2005"

"At the end of this article, we identified the author Dilpazier Aslam as a Guardian trainee journalist but did not say that he was a member of the political party Hizb ut-Tahrir."

"The Guardian accepts that Mr Aslam's membership of the party should have been explicitly mentioned. "

On July 29th Albert Scardino, the Guardian's executive editor for news, resigned and Scott blogged about it:

"Last night I was informed by a journalist that Albert Scardino, the Guardian's executive editor for news, has resigned as a direct result of Sassygate. My impression from that source's report is that his position had become untenable because of the split between Mr. Aslam's supporters and those who wanted him fired (the latter including, to his credit, Ian "Clark County" Katz).
According to that source, Alan Rusbridger has conceded that the Aslam affair and its internal repercussions constitute a significant crisis for the paper."

"Today a second source, with close connections to the Guardian, has independently confirmed Mr. Scardino's resignation. This person also cites the Aslam situation as the primary factor."

'Sassygate' should be remembered as a another example of the role blogs play in shining a spotlight on the cracks in "old media's" credibility.