The city of flowers that is Zamboanga enjoys the best sunset I have ever seen even if the coffee house from which I am enjoying it - outside the local Citimall - sits beside a busy road full of cars and tuk-tuks belching out lung-deforming, insidious, black smog. This place does a better apple pie than Simpson's but I assure you that any breeze off the Strand (save perhaps the stink of an anti-capitalist protest) is preferable to a Zamboanga gassing.

There are a million inhabitants living here in this city on what is the southernmost tip of the Zamboanga peninsula on the Philippine island of Mindanao. Foreigners are notably scarce here - the occasional mail-order quickie marriage buyer (more heart than head) or call-centre businessman (car window open) passes by. Any foreign adventurers rarely hang around for fear of getting snatched off the street, kidnapped and likely beheaded.

Mention you're off to Mindanao whilst in Luzon (the main island of the Philippines, where the capital Manila is located) and Filipinos there either smile or plead with you not to go depending on how much they really like you. Although there are many Westerners living and working on Mindanao - mostly up north in Cagayan and safer spots - there is the omnipresent danger of the Al Qaeda-aligned terrorist entity Abu Sayyaf coming down from their mountain hide-outs and nabbing you. Best to travel round here with local individuals you can trust and inside a blacked out MPV. Even when you step outside of your vehicle for what is locally known as a comfort break your bodyguards will accompany you - certainly no time to choose trees. It is best to quaff frappuccino in the safety of one's hotel or in a coffee house such as this with its vigilant guards and their coarse but no doubt effective pump-action shotguns.

The Islamist extremist sect Hizb ut Tahrir al Islami is using its British propaganda arm to stir up gay hatred in an effort to attract UK recruits.

A former Hizb ut Tahrir member with connections inside the sect claims that HT's UK leadership sees publicly portraying homosexuality as "evil" is drawing recruits through its doors. And since Hizb ut Tahrir Britain is not an official political party (claiming that British democracy is too unislamic to partake in) its anti-gay and lesbian policy means it is safe from British equality laws and British law enforcers.

Top of Hizb ut Tahrir Britain's web stories today is a story about how young children in Britain are to be taught about homosexuality in their maths, geography, science and English lessons. The article explains how planned Government lesson plans are designed to raise awareness about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual issues and how "in theory they could be used for children as young as four".

The Hizb ut Tahrir forum is full of anti gay material.

Hizb ut Tahrir activist Neelu drops links to a Washington Times article in 2007 about a lawsuit in the US Supreme Court claiming that the words "natural family, marriage and union of a man and woman" can be punished as "hate speech" in US government workplaces. Neelu gets what he wants ...

In reply to Neelu a senior member called Zangi writes, "for some reason the homosexuals have a strong political lobby and what makes me angry is that they keep pushing and forcing down you the rights of these evil people. It is a sobering thought that the queers have a strong political lobby to the point that they can change laws and regulations and public opinion to suit them."