Happiness Will Prevail
Back in the 1980s, Doctor Who featured a storyline in which The Doctor was transported to a land ruled by so-called happy people, a land in which sadness is illegal and punished by the...
Category: Community
The dangers of racism in the anti-FGM crusade
The Thursday before last was apparently “Zero Tolerance of FGM day”, accompanied by widespread media coverage of various campaigns against it, a petition which apparently gained two signatures per second, interviews with anti-FGM campaigners...
World Hijab Day: DoA
Earlier this week, there was a so-called Day of Acceptance (of Disability), organised by a company called 3E Love, which markets a variety of merchandise, like T-shirts, stickers etc, bearing their logo of a...
Why Muslims don’t join the Christian Right
The new intolerance: will we regret pushing Christians out of public life?: A Challenge to the Left Cristina Odone's headline article in this week's New Statesman describes how a liberal consensus has taken hold...
Not the ‘ally’ Muslims need
In today’s Guardian, there’s an article by Laurie Penny attacking those who have been campaigning against the supposed gender segregation on British university campuses (meaning, the separate seating arrangements at some Islamic society gatherings),...
More on “segregation” pseudo-controversy
Following my entry on the fake controversy over "segregation" (i.e. separate seating for men and women) at Islamic society events in London, Channel 4 News covered the issue this evening, featuring interviews with Maryam...
FGM and the fallacy of symbolism
Sarah Sands: We cannot lose the battle for liberal values – Comment – London Evening Standard Sarah Sands is the editor of the London Evening Standard, and this article by her appeared in yesterday's...
Muslims must pay to save Academy
Recently I saw a number of appeals on Facebook and other social media to sign a petition to save a “mosque” in Manchester, the Islamic Academy of Manchester, which had been sold to a...
City University: Friday prayers are part of campus life
BBC News: University locks Muslim prayer room (video here) Last Friday it was reported that City University in London had locked the room used by Muslim students for Friday prayers, having asked the organisers...
Christmas, converts and that fatwa
Just before last Christmas, the Egyptian Muslim scholar (currently Grand Mufti of Egypt), Ali Gomaa (or Ali Jumu’ah) replied to a question from someone whose mother had left Islam, as to whether he and...
Christian persecution campaigners lose Sunday work case
Christians have no right to refuse to work on Sundays, rules judge – Telegraph This is the latest appeal in the case of Celestine Mba, a former carer for children with learning disabilities in...
Bishops are not mere middle management
I’ve been pretty astounded at the tone of the response to the Church of England’s General Synod’s decision to reject the appointment of female bishops on Wednesday. The motion had been supported by the...
Dr Leon Moosavi on “white privilege” and converts
I just attended a talk by Dr Leon Moosavi, who some readers may know from Facebook, on the experience of converts from different backgrounds after they enter Islam. He mentioned the concept of “white...
Why don’t Muslims condemn every bad thing a Muslim does anywhere? by Cristina Odone
How many Muslim women martyrs do we need before Muslim leaders speak out? – Telegraph Blogs Cristina Odone is asking why Muslims didn’t loudly condemn the shooting of Malala Yousufzaid in Swat, Pakistan, as...
Rochdale grooming and the “Asian” dimension
Last week, the issue of the grooming and sexual abuse of girls in Rochdale and other northern towns was in the news again, as a report by the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Board was...
On ‘child brides’ and irrelevant imams
I saw two stories in the mainstream press today that were about the state of the British Muslim religious establishment. One was in the Daily Mail by Baroness Cox which was based on a...
Muslims and the care of those with learning disabilities
A few months ago I wrote here about the needs of some converts, particularly those with disabilities, which was reproduced on MuslimMatters a few weeks later, and mentioned the problems with setting up a...
Niqab ban reflects Islamophobia and a security-obsessed culture
Lessons in Islamophobia (from CounterFire) This is an article about a Muslim mother who was barred from parents’ evening at her son’s school because the staff insisted on her removing her face-covering for “security”...
Postal vote reform and Britain’s disabled voters
Last week the issue of postal voting reform in the UK was in the news again, after a judge who had found six Labour councillors in Birmingham guilty of postal voting fraud in 2005,...
What If Malcolm X Were Alive Today? (with no mention of Islam)
What If Malcolm X Were Alive Today? – Jack & Jill Politics This article was published on 20th February, but I only noticed it when it was linked off the Womanist Musings weekly link...