Pirate's Cove

Now that the election is over, and it is a few months for Senator Neophyte starts really screwing things up as president (“say, ah, um, er, folks, I initiated this 3am conference call to see what I should do about the Iranians announcing they just exploded a nuclear weapon. Any ideas?”), we can take some time to discuss other fun issues

 My dad’s not a monster and I’m not a pole-dancer, says firebrand preacher Omar Bakri’s daughter

When the daughter of firebrand Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed was revealed to be a topless pole dancer, the conflict between their two lifestyles could hardly have been more stark.

Bakri, exiled from Britain in 2005 for inciting hatred, is infamous for his radical interpretation of Islam, which includes denouncing Western ‘depravity’ and claiming the British people brought the 7/7 outrages on themselves.

In allegedly choosing to lead a secret double life stripping for money in seedy London bars and nightclubs, Yasmin Fostok appeared to have rejected her father’s views in the most extreme way possible.

Yet while ‘friends’ described her passion for flaunting her cosmetically enhanced figure in front of men, and her colourful love life, to the Press in September, Yasmin was overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught of publicity and terrified by a slew of messages on the internet from extremists angered by her lifestyle and threatening to harm her.

The story goes on to say that Yasmon claims she was never a stripping pole dancer.

Yet although Yasmin’s upbringing was undoubtedly strict, and characterised by many of the tensions common to children growing up torn between two cultures, when she speaks of her father, it is not of the fanatical ‘Tottenham Ayatollah’ vilified for ranting about the destruction of Western values and praising the ‘magnificent’ September 11 bombers.

Instead, she describes him as a warm, kind and funny man who simply tried to protect his children from negative influences, like any other caring parent.

‘As a child I was aware that my dad was important to the Muslim community, but I didn’t know what he did,’ says Yasmin.

‘He was very keen not to bring work home with him and he would never discuss it with us. The phone rang constantly for him but he would take the calls in private.

Why does that remind me of the way Mafia figures are always portrayed as acting in movies and non-fiction books?

Anyhow, she went on to learn about the London clubs, loved dancing, and eventually, she was employed dancing, and the agency she worked for also employed escorts. And did I mention this mother of 2 started wearing tighter, more revealing clothes, and then got breast surgery to go to a DD?

No, there is no real point to this post, just a bit of Sunday fun in the wide wacky world of extremist Islam. And who can’t love a story about strippers and radical Islam?