While I highly admire young Muslims who are enthusiastic enough to organise Islamic Society (ISOC) events, I feel that sometimes their lack of familiarity with the cultural mosaic that is Islam leads to them being somewhat cliched in their preferences. They go for the most visible Islam without the awareness that perhaps there are a diverse ...

This blog is by way of a response to Ziauddin Sardar’s excellent book Reading the Qur’an. I begin with Al Baqarah 25: “But give good tidings to those who believe and do deeds of righteousness, that their portion is Gardens, graced with flowing streams”. Ziauddin Sardar summarises this as “those who spend will ...

‘Leaderless’ and ‘apolitical’ were the words repeated by Wael Ghonim in his account of the progressions during the course of 2010 which led to Egypt’s revolution - progressions in which he, Google employee, had played a causal role. Throughout the public discussion with Wael, held last month at the LSE on his ...

An evening last month hosted by the City Circle at the Abrar Islamic Foundation saw an audience gathered for a panel discussion on the unhappy relations between Pakistan and the US. The panel was comprised of Jonathan Paris, a political analyst affiliated to various organisations (notably the South Asia Centre for the Atlantic Council), ...

Overseas Malaysians like myself enjoy our political rants. We are not patriotic enough to actually go home and get our feet wet (or in Malaysia’s case ‘get ourselves wet’ as the Malaysian riot police routinely use their water cannons on activists). No, we’re not patriotic enough for that but when rising star ...

In recent weeks, a militant Islamic movement in northern Nigeria known popularly as Boko Haram has started to be noticed by the British press; it has even been the subject of a leader in The Guardian. It may therefore be of use here to outline some of the movement’s characteristics as it is often made to seem a newer phenomenon than it ...

Taking queue from Wadah Khanfar’s introductory address to an audience gathered at the LSE this week for a talk on the ‘reality’ of the Middle East, there is still much to be understood in the wake of the revolutionary uprisings that spread across the Arab regions last year. Khanfar, former director general of the Al Jazeera ...

To the Palestinians, the city is and will always be Al Khalil, the place associated with Ibrahim Khalil-ul-Lah, the friend of Allah and the first Muslim [according to the Qur’an]. The rest of the world knows it as Hebron, as old as Jerusalem if not older, and the place where Patriarch Abraham and his immediate family lie in eternal ...

At recent meetings of the Institute several people have drawn attention to the need to engage with the young. Before discussing the form any engagement might take I think it’s a good idea to introduce myself, to set the context. I am a Christian but am developing a huge respect for Muslims. St Augustine of Hippo who lived 1200 ...

It never fails to fill me with some pride when a friend visits Malaysia and returns with glowing reviews. They love Malaysian food (always the food gets mentioned first!), the cosmopolitan city of Kuala Lumpur (or KL) and the friendly people. All these things remind me of the Malaysia I left behind and makes me long for the familiarity of ...