Muslims in London: Challenge Boris Johnson

The claim about marches and processions is a plain falsehood, since the streets marched on become normal streets within hours of the march ending. On top of this, only Bareilawis march for religious reasons, namely mawlid, which is not a central part of Islam. Only dedicated mosques are sacred space. So Boris allowed someone to [...]

Would a world without Islam be peaceful?

Some today might wish for a “world without Islam” in which these problems presumably had never come to be. But, in truth, the conflicts, rivalries, and crises of such a world might not look so vastly different than the ones we know today, Fuller concludes. In short, Fuller has done a great job in spelling [...]

Blame Muslims for honor killings?

You couldn’t ask for a clearer disavowal of the practice, from one of the foremost Western Muslim groups around, no less. Honor killings simply aren’t sanctioned by Islam; nowhere in the Quran are honor killings justified. Groups that are, you know, actually out there doing something to fight the practice tirelessly explain that honor killings [...]

Should Obama defend Muslims?

But after a year of rumors, some Muslims say it’s time for Obama to take his response a step further and remind voters that his religion shouldn’t matter. They say he should take the opportunity to point out that Islam is one of the many religious traditions that makes America great.
The Seeker

Europe’s Islamophobes are at it again

Conversely, some may argue this is just the hate mongering of a crazed lunatic and his party and not the reflection of the general Dutch population; that Europe has shed its colonial mindset where difference was understood to be inferior. However, we are talking about a politician here who has exercised a great deal of [...]

Ken, the shaikh, the hard left and the anti-left left

Writing as a Muslim myself, I can say that Muslims are well aware that many non-Muslims drink alcohol. (Actually, some Muslims do as well, although they are not supposed to.) As I wrote in a comment on the Statesman website, I do not care as long he is not actually drunk on the job, and [...]

The Outrage Industry

The former Ex Hizb ut-Tahrirites are playing out a variant of the burden of representation but it’s a dangerous game they are engaging in. They may delight the Murdoch/Torygraph axis but at a time of increasing racial tension their posturing is unhelpful and, whether intended or not, this stance sadly does the bidding of the [...]

Getting in a State

The plain fact that Maher can’t quite get his head around is that Livingstone is a genuinely popular figure in London, including among the capital’s 700,000+ Muslims. The mayor of London has a long and proud record of opposing racism and prejudice against minorities. And frankly, who can blame them for being a bit wary [...]

Exploiting the deaths of Muslim girls

Sometimes Muslims get through the day without thinking of jihad, honor killings or what Westerners think of them. They eat, sleep, make love and fight with their husbands or wives like anybody else.
Yet somehow they are held responsible for those crazy Muslims who kill their daughters or wives in the name of honor. It’s as [...]

Bishop of Blackburn on relations with Muslims and ‘no-go areas’

In my own Diocese of Blackburn we have got areas with a high Muslim population but we have absolutely no no-go areas. We can go everywhere. We have extremely good relations with the Muslim communities.
The Church has got to accept that if you are the church in an area with a high Muslim population, then [...]

Ed Husain on Nazir-Ali’s “no-go” nonsense

What is his evidence that any part of London, or anywhere else, is controlled by this ideology? The general consensus seems to be that if they, and their Muslim or otherwise Asian inhabitants, are “controlled” by anyone, it is the social networks and conventions which were imported from “back home”. Islamists are a minority, even [...]

Familicide presented as honour killing

Admittedly, the programme also showed an incident where a house was set on fire, killing a young girl, in an apparent attempt to murder (or just intimidate) a man seen talking to the sister of one of the murderers. However, only brief coverage was given to classic honour killings, at the beginning of the second [...]

The Bishop drives another wedge into society

Ethnic communities will tend to gravitate around specific neighbourhoods. This is a commonly understood pattern of social demographics. No one is suggesting that in doing so other communities are excluded and unwelcome.
Farouq Taj

Why the silence?

As a Christian, I am disgusted by the Bishop’s promotion of a style of Christianity that is prejudiced, power-hungry and yearning for the past. As a Quaker, I am very aware that many Christian groups have themselves faced centuries of persecution and discrimination within “Christian Britain”. And I am horrified that Nazir-Ali has chosen to [...]

Bishop Nazir Ali forgets Iranian hospitality?

The Bishop of Rochester, Nazir Ali is persistently portraying multiculturalism and Muslims as bogeymen – a disservice to both his Church and his roots. Surely it cannot be Muslims – 3% of the population – that threaten “the distinctively Christian character of the nation’s laws, values, customs and culture” (Daily Telegraph, 7th January 2008).
Salaam