Category Archives: Identity Politics

The Hijab Debate

By Yossarian | Published: August 6, 2009
This is a very interesting take on the hijab debate – a video about a British Muslim woman who decided to take off the hijab after realising she was wearing it not for personal pious reasons but political ones – contrary to what Islamists claim. She is of the opinion that it’s better for society [...]
Also posted in Fashion | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Our selective moral outrage is shameful

By Guest | Published: July 27, 2009
This is a guest-post by Ibn Khaldun **** Muslims living in Britain and around the world are often outraged when Muslims are killed or Muslim holy sites attacked. This is a normal and often admirable reaction. However, I am increasingly frustrated that this moral outrage is often highly selective and is only ignited when it is non-Muslims [...]
Also posted in Antisemitism, Human Rights, Moral relativism, Your View | 4 Comments

What Muslim Women Want

By Guest | Published: July 17, 2009
This is a guest post by Lucy James, a research fellow at Quilliam **** South Asian Muslim women are the most economically disadvantaged group in terms of religion, ethnicity and gender in the UK today. A recent poll of unemployed South Asian Muslim women showed that not only are they disadvantaged, but that they are misunderstood and [...]
Also posted in Feature, UK Politics, Your View | Tagged , | 9 Comments

What are you?

By Guest | Published: July 1, 2009
This is a guest post by Raziq ******************** “You are not British, Pakistani, Indian, Bengali, Arab or African.  These are colonial identities, you are only a Muslim and that’s what god wants you to be” (Member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir) After the Second World War issues of national identity began to change.  The introduction of foreign cheap labour (from former [...]
Also posted in Islamism, Your View | Tagged | 7 Comments

The “Arab Street” is One-Way

By Faisal | Published: June 20, 2009
Rafia Zakaria makes a profoundly necessary point about Obama’s “muslim speech” in Cairo. Not the content of it – that’s been done to death – but how muslim reactions to it throws particular Arab perceptions of Southasian issues into stark relief. In particular, this is a comment on how Arab muslims interpreted the parts of [...]
Posted in Identity Politics | 12 Comments

Why not to use the “Muslim World” term

By Faisal | Published: June 10, 2009
In the much-vaunted delivery to Muslim delegates in Cairo last week, President Obama’s speechwriters scored a small but significant point. They did this by making the conscious decision to have Obama avoid using  the term “Muslim world”, wisely replaced instead by other terms like “Muslim majority countries” or “Muslim communities”. To me this is just good [...]
Posted in Identity Politics | Tagged | 15 Comments

Europe’s faith hinges on its secularism

By Houriya | Published: June 6, 2009
The question: Is Europe’s future Christian? [My piece was originally posted in Guardian's Comment is Free: Belief] The influx of people from a variety of cultures to Europe has seen Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and others practicing their faith as they see fit. Coupled with these relatively new religious practices there is an increasing sense of a [...]
Also posted in Freedom of Expression, Secularism | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Obama: A new beginning

By Zorro | Published: June 5, 2009
Obama has completed the third and final leg of his "Islamic World" 'Odyssey'. In his speech from Turkey he stated that America was not at war with Islam.
Also posted in Democracy, Human Rights, International Affairs, Islamism, Politics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment