Islam
Why will nobody publish my religious cartoons?
I am having very little success in getting my collection of cartoons of great religious founders published. Perhaps it is…
Why Muslims like me are worried about the Batley protests
To some, the persecution of a schoolteacher who showed his pupils a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed may seem like…
Bangladesh could pay for failing to crack down on its Islamist threat
Bangladesh turned 50 last week and the country has much to celebrate. Having inherited a dismal GDP growth rate of…
The Batley Grammar school row is the perfect jihadist recruitment tool
As controversy continues to rage after pupils were shown an image of the prophet Muhammad by a teacher at Batley Grammar School,…
Are Switzerland and France really ‘Islamophobic’?
Is Switzerland ‘Islamophobic’? Critics of the country’s decision to outlaw face coverings think so. The ‘Burqa ban’, which passed into law this week…
Macron is using Islam to outmanoeuvre Le Pen
There was a rally in Paris on Sunday at which a couple of hundred protestors vented their anger at the…
When will Pakistan take a stand against terror?
Last week, Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the release of UK born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh who was accused of kidnapping…
What the West can do about China’s Uyghur labour camps
Who profits from Uyghur labour camps?
It’s been a tough year for socialites
New York Here we go again, the annual holiest of holies is upon us, although to this oldie last Christmas…
Britain is still failing to confront Islamism
How time flies. In March 2014, quite out of the blue, I was commissioned by then prime minister David Cameron…
A third of Muslim voters backed Trump. Why?
Donald Trump’s defeat in the election was widely predicted. What was less anticipated was the level of support Trump received…
Pilgrimage in the age of pandemic
Pilgrimage in the age of pandemic
There is no justification for turning Hagia Sophia into a mosque
It’s a mistake to turn Hagia Sophia back into a mosque
Netflix’s Caliphate is all too frighteningly plausible
Sweden is now properly celebrated as the Land that Called Coronavirus Correctly. But in the distant past, those with long…
Islam, reform and the battle of narratives
Is a wind of change blowing in the Arab world and bringing Muslims and Jews closer together? Ed Husain made…
Islam’s reformation: an Arab-Israeli alliance is taking shape in the Middle East
When Benjamin Netanyahu visited Oman in 2018 in a gesture of goodwill to Israel’s neighbours, the welcome was not universal.…
The chilling stories from inside China’s Muslim internment camps
Vegetable-seller Kairat Samarkhan didn’t know why he had been summoned to the police station. ‘I had to empty my pockets…
The appalling vanity of Western feminists who think Margaret Atwood writes about them
Imagine a country where women have no jobs, no rights and are valued only for reproductive success. Imagine a country…
Revealed: the press regulator’s leaked guidelines on Islamophobia
If truthful reporting risks increasing tension between communities, should it still be published? Do journalists have a social duty to…
The press regulator must not turn into a religious thought police
Next year I will begin my fifth decade as a working journalist. As a writer, as an executive — and…
Is there anything that can’t be put down to a ‘condition’?
I suppose it is overstating the case to suggest that dyslexia is simply a term coined to assuage the disappointment…
Why was a finals student disqualified for criticising halal meat?
We have to talk about the schoolgirl who was disqualified from a GCSE exam on the grounds that she had…
The curious reaction to a niqab-wearing homophobe
Are we allowed to criticise the niqab yet? This question crossed my mind as I watched that viral clip of…
What does the Muslim Council of Britain have against Muslims like me?
Have you ever wondered why there are so few moderate Muslim voices in the press? It’s not because they don’t…
Billy Connolly and the death of free speech
I hope readers will forgive me for returning to a subject I addressed here recently. It was a reflection on the…
