Romanticising Shamima Begum
We Brits have entered the New Year faced by a barrage of unsolved problems from the past. Among them is the case of ISIS bride Shamima Begum, who left Britain…
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Posts by tag
Islam
50 posts
Iran’s Feminist Revolution
The current uprising in Iran is a revolution led by women. It centres on the enforcement of hijab, but the protests are about much more than the wearing of a…
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Rainbows and Hypocrisies: LGBT Activism in Football
In recent years, international sport has become immensely commercialized and professionalized. But these trends have undergone rapid change with the intervention of woke activism. People from all walks of life…
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The Courageous Women of Iran
Twenty-two-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini was recently allegedly dragged through the streets and thrown into a police van by Iran’s Guardian Patrols, often known as the morality police, on the…
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World Hijab Day: Nothing to Celebrate
Here’s an irony: World Hijab Day—an initiative begun in the US in 2013 to promote cross-cultural solidarity by encouraging woman of all backgrounds to wear a hijab for a day—is…
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Hijab is Not a Symbol of Freedom
The Council of Europe’s Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Division recently tweeted out posters containing images of women whose faces were partially veiled by a hijab. The tweets were presumably meant to…
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Double Standards in Our Attitudes to Violence Against Women
Gender-based violence against women is a social menace that threatens all women in the UK, regardless of their backgrounds.
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On Islamic Fascism: Reflections on 9/11 Twenty Years On
Where were you on 9/11? Few events are accorded such status in public memory: there is an expectation that, if you are old enough, you will remember to the second…
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The Women of Afghanistan
The fall of Kabul into the hands of Islamist insurgents will be long remembered as a horrifying tragedy for Afghan women. Perhaps even more terrifying is the way in which…
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Muslims Against Gay Rights: The Battle for Batley and Spen
From the overt intimidation of schoolteachers to the heckling and egg-pelting of politicians, the recent chaotic by-election campaign in the UK parliamentary constituency of Batley and Spen has laid bare…
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Child Marriage in the UK
Former Home Secretary Sajid Javid has recently introduced a private member’s bill that would raise the minimum age of marriage to 18 in England and Wales, with no exceptions. The…
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Crescent Capitalism: Islam and the Birth of the Free Market
Islamists, leftists and conservatives have long debated whether Islam is compatible with western liberal capitalism. Many have framed the history of capitalism as beginning in medieval Genoa and Venice, and…
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Naming the Unnameable: Salman Rushdie, Christopher Hitchens and the Defence of Free Speech
We should be wary therefore what persecution we raise against the living labours of public men, how we spill that seasoned life of man, preserved and stored up in books;…
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Free Speech in France and the Prophet Muhammad
On 16 October 2020, in France, schoolteacher Samuel Paty was murdered for showing his class caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. The vast majority of French political leaders immediately declared their…
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A Feminist Hero: “Prey” by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Ali probably has the strongest current claim to the title of most unfairly maligned person. Ever since she started speaking out against the dangers posed by Islamism and…
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The Islamic Community Does Not and Cannot Exist
There are many popular debates on the nature of Islam. Some commentators would try to persuade you—perhaps by reference to one verse or another—that the real Islam is peaceful and…
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How Accusations of Islamophobia Hinder Muslim Reform
Islam can and should be reformed. We should not conflate legitimate criticism of Islamist ideology with anti-Muslim bigotry. It is the duty of those who seek progress for humankind to…
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The Lies About France’s Alleged War on Islam
The aftermath of Samuel Paty’s brutal beheading has reignited tensions between France and parts of the Muslim world. Kuwait, Qatar and Jordan have called for the boycott of French products,…
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