Islam
The death of free speech in Britain
In Michel Houellebecq’s satirical novel Soumission, the French elite submits to Islamic rule rather than accept a National Front government.…
The desperate desire to belong: England is Mine, by Nicolas Padamsee, reviewed
A teenage victim of bullying is gradually drawn into a world of online extremism in this entirely relatable story of the adolescent yearning for acceptance
Hanif Kureishi – portrait of the artist as a young man
Descriptions of the gifted author tearing up the literary landscape of the late 20th century are deeply poignant when set alongside Kureishi’s recent despatches from hospital
How dangerous is the Sunni-Shia schism?
What unites the two groups is more fundamental than what divides them, says Barnaby Rogerson, and the more serious conflict among Muslims concerns ethnicity and language
The ‘historic’ national dishes which turn out to be artful PR exercises
Japan’s ramen ‘tradition’ was created in 1958 to use up surplus imported flour, while Pizza Margherita’s specious royal connection helped boost Naples’s tourist trade
This production needs more dosh: Good, at the Harold Pinter Theatre, reviewed
Good, starring David Tennant, needs more dosh spent on it. The former Doctor Who plays John, a literary academic living…
A masterpiece: P Word, at Park Theatre, reviewed
Look at this line. ‘I’m 80 years old. I find that unforgivable.’ Could an actor get a laugh on ‘unforgivable’?…
Why is violence breaking out in Leicester?
Just what is going on in Leicester? Last night violence broke out in the city after hundreds of young men…
Salman Rushdie was never safe
The stabbing of Salman Rushdie sends a renewed message to the world: take Islamism – the transformation of the Islamic…
The madness of France’s burkini bust-up
To burkini, or not to burkini? This is the question that divides France in the run-up to the first round…
Putin and the Muslim world
Several thousand Muslim Chechen fighters are reportedly massing on the edge of Kiev. Syrian volunteers, filmed this week holding assault…
Staggeringly confident and powerful: After Love reviewed
As there are no stand-out films this week aside from Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of Death on the Nile — is…
Were the Ottoman Turks as European as they thought themselves?
This is the best of times to be writing history, since so much of what has been taken for granted,…
The Council of Europe was right to pull its hijab campaign
This week, the Council of Europe was forced to pull an advertising campaign promoting the hijab following a backlash from…
The war that changed the world in the early seventh century
It was not a war to end all wars, writes James Howard-Johnston at the start of this illuminating and thought-provoking…
Pakistan's profane blasphemy laws
An eight-year-old Hindu boy is currently in custody in the southern Punjab. He is the youngest person in Pakistan to…
Tehran is repeating the Shah's mistakes
The Iranian province of Khuzestan is oil-rich but water-poor. At the best of times, the southwestern region is a problem…
Leave, convert or perish: The fate of Afghanistan's minorities
President Biden’s decision to ‘end the war in Afghanistan’ means the complete withdrawal of 3,500 US troops by the 20th…
Is anywhere in the world still safe for China’s Uighurs?
Is anywhere safe for the Uighurs?
Labour's worrying descent into communalism
Labour’s candidate in Batley and Spen, Kim Leadbeater, reportedly pulled out of a hustings featuring George Galloway over the weekend.…
Austria's 'Islam map' is dangerous
Austria’s government has unveiled a map detailing the locations of mosques and other Muslim associations all over the country. The…
The empire that sprang from nowhere under the banner of Islam
When the British formed the basis of their empire in the 1600s by acquiring territories in India and North America,…
The Tories, Islam, and the importance of pluralism
The Conservatives will be relieved that an independent investigation has not found the party to be institutionally racist, though relief…
What the demise of Quilliam teaches us about Britain and Islam
There was much rejoicing among Britain’s Islamists last week when the thinktank and campaigning organisation Quilliam announced that it was…
