Author Archives: Guest

The Other Muslims

This is a cross-post of an interview by Barry Rubin with Zeyno Baran, senior fellow of the Hudson Institute and editor of The Other Muslims: Moderate and Secular, recently published by Palgrave-Macmillan. Continue reading >>
Posted in Islamism, Secularism | 142 Comments

David Miller only raises more questions

This is a guest post by Shiraz Maher Professor David Miller, who operates the SpinWatch, SpinProfiles and Neocon Europe websites, has responded to a piece by my colleague Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens. At best, Miller’s answers are evasive and inadequate. In the comments section of Alexander’s article, Miller writes: Meleagrou-Hitchens argues that his profile should not appear on our website [...]
Posted in Your View | 20 Comments

Questions David Miller must answer

This is a crosspost by Shiraz Maher My colleague and comrade Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens has today explained why he wanted his profile removed from the SpinProfileswebsite operated by Professor David Miller of Strathclyde University. Hitch the younger was characteristically generous in his response, omitting the wider questions relating to David Miller’s websites and views. I am honour-bound to [...]
Posted in Your View | 6 Comments

The History of Alcohol in Islam

This is a cross-post by Lord Curzon from Coming Anarchy Muslims are prohibited from drinking alcohol. But why? In objectively reviewing for the ban in the Koran, one can only leave bewildered. Occasional passages that do not refer to alcohol as it is known today is interpreted as being a complete prohibition on alcohol consumption, [...]
Posted in Esoterica | 17 Comments

Islamism and the misunderstandings of the Left

This is a cross-post from Harry’s Place by Igor An article on Comment Is Free lauding the recently deceased Lebanese Grand Ayatollah, Muhammed Hussein Fadlallah, provides a vignette of how leftists tend to interpret the statements and actions of Islamists according to their own frame of reference, and more often than not get it hopelessly wrong. Ian [...]
Posted in Islamism, The Regressive Left | 2 Comments

Hizb ut Tahrir – we hate it here but let us stay

This is a guest post by Abu Wannabe Arab The global Islamist group Hizb ut Tahrir recently held an annual conference in Sydney Australia. The speakers at the conference, many of whom were British, spouted all the usual nonsense about western conspiracies and an Islamic state taking over the world. However, in the run up to [...]
Posted in Islamism | Leave a comment

Partisans of Allah

Philip Delves Broughton’s review of Partisans of Allah, a book by Ayesha Jalal In 1953, a group of Muslim leaders in the Punjab agitated to have a rival group de- classified as Muslims by the still young state of Pakistan. The government’s response came in the Munir Report, an eloquent expression of the state’s position [...]
Posted in Review | 1 Comment

Fear and silence

This is a cross-post by Mohsin Hamid, author of the novels Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist. WHY are Ahmadis persecuted so ferociously in Pakistan? The reason can’t be that their large numbers pose some sort of ‘threat from within’. After all, Ahmadis are a relatively small minority in Pakistan. They make up somewhere between 0.25 per [...]
Posted in Anti Muslim bigotry, Freedom of Religion | 9 Comments

True Colours of the MCB

This is a cross-post by Andy Lambert The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), which claims to be Britain’s ‘largest Muslim umbrella organisation’, has been attacked in the past for promoting extremist speakers and being controlled and run by Islamists. In response, they have often gone to great lengths to clear their name, providing the media with entertaining [...]
Posted in Islamism | 18 Comments

Bunglawala and Faisal Shahzad betraying Afghans

This is a cross post by Shiraz Maher from Standpoint Over at his new blog Inayat Bunglawala is already tying himself in knots over the guilty plea by failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad. During his plea hearing Shahzad told the court: Unless the US pulls out of Afghanistan and Iraq, until they stop drone strikes in [...]
Posted in Islamism, Terrorism | 1 Comment