Musings on the Britannic Crescent
Abu Muhammad Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Ali Zayn al-`Abidin, the great-grandson of the Prophet, was asked: ‘Is it fanaticism if a person loves his people?’ To which he responded: ‘It is not fanaticism if a person loves his people; fanaticism is when a person considers the vices of his people to be better than the [...]
In a wonderful, lyrical work, In an Antique Land, the novelist-anthropologist Amitav Ghosh charts the story of his fieldwork in the Nile Delta. Calcutta-born and Oxford-educated, Ghosh embarks on two parallel journeys. One records his attempt to ‘understand’ contemporary Egyptian village culture, which he always sees as fumbling, somehow an ‘impossible’ stab at cross-cultural ‘translation’ [...]
The New Middle East — at least as reimagined in a US military journal. French and British colonial wrongs are righted. Nations once denied in the old dispensation arise: Kurdistan, Baluchistan, the Shia Arab State (presumably a counterweight to the Shia Persian state, Iran, which gets reunited with Persian Afghanis). Saudi dominance of the Arabian [...]
Today, Ruth Kelly, the Minister for Local Government and Communities, launched a new Commission on Integration and Social Cohesion. It is due to report in June 2007, with a remit that was described by Lord Parekh on the Today programme this morning as ‘vague’:
COMMISSION ON INTEGRATION AND COHESION — TERMS OF REFERENCE
Diversity brings key benefits [...]
When looking for explanations as to why a few British Muslims turn to terrorism, the media commentariat often look to cultural failings. This is particularly true of minority communities, who are then subjected to an extensive cultural test and are usually found wanting. These failings are then presented as drivers towards extremism. This sort of [...]
Most of Britain’s main Muslim leaders signed this open letter to the Prime Minister yesterday:
Protect Civilians wherever they are
Prime Minister,
As British Muslims we urge you to do more to fight against all those who target civilians with violence, whenever and wherever that happens.
It is our view that current British government policy risks putting civilians at [...]
