A double divorce in a divided union: what’s going on in Brexit Britain? by Farrah Sheikh The Referendum British voters made the momentous decision to leave the EU in an in/out referendum held on 23 June 2015. The results were extremely close, with 52% voting to leave compared to 48% voting to remain in the EU. The demographics are important here: almost ¾ of young people aged
Beyond Citizen Khan: Muslim Representation as Political Struggle. Dr Nadya Ali In the recent BBC One documentary ‘Last Whites of the East End’ one participant outlined the reasons for why she would be unhappy if her child came home with a non-white partner. Amy Oakman said, “You see it on Eastenders with the Masoods […] I can’t think of the storyline now but they did bring a white girl
Cultural cold wars: The risk of anti-‘extremism’ policy for academic freedom of expression – Alison Scott-Baumann and Hugh Tomlinson QC Universities are under increasing pressure from government to prevent students coming into contact with “extreme” ideas. The view is that students exposed to any kind of views designated “extreme” could be drawn into terrorism. But the risk to freedom of speech and academic freedom is obvious. Society needs to avoid a
The blessings of Ramadan By Ziad A. Ramadan is a gift. Not only because of the most obvious and important sense of increased reward and multiplied blessings, but also for its ability to re-structure our environmental patterns. Negative habits within us usually feed off our established sense of routine, not stand alone impulses – since impulses are almost always based on our environment. The misunderstanding leads to a conceptual underestimating
Reflections on the 48 mile ruling by Huda Jawad Despondence and frustration were the initial feelings that came over me after reading the article published on 4th May 2016 regarding advice given by the Blackburn Muslim Association about women travelling alone. Then a number of questions arose like, such advice was given because it was sought..why would such a question be asked? Why 48 miles? That is almost the distance from
Women are the first to pay the price of Islamophobia in Europe By Sarah Isal Muslim women experience the same inequalities as other women in employment and in relation to verbal and physical violence, but additional factors such as (perceived) religion or ethnicity deepen these gender gaps. However, very little is done to collect comprehensive data and tackle this intersectional form of racism. This is the conclusion of the European
Spreading Confusion, Potentially Inciting Hatred – Trevor Phillips’ Route to ‘Active Integration’ by Professor Gus John Anyone reading the recent ‘Civitas’ publication Race and Faith: The Deafening Silence by Trevor Phillips (with commentaries from David Goodhart and Jon Gower Davies) who knew nothing about Phillips, could be forgiven for assuming that he was a protégé of or speech writer for Donald Trump, or at least a spokesman for
The Islamic relief “SubhanAllah” bus campaign – the charity responds to its critics By Martin Cottingham, Islamic Relief, Head of communications What’s in a word? A lively and sometimes heated debate, it seems, if that word is ‘SubhanAllah’ and it appears on London’s iconic red buses. Islamic Relief is advertising on 180 buses in London this Ramadan, as well as 460 more in Manchester, Bradford, Leicester and our home city of
THE WORLD OF ISLAM FESTIVAL 40TH ANNIVERSARY by Dr Paul Ahmed Keeler The World of Islam Festival was unprecedented in scale and participation; a dozen major exhibitions, held in the most prestigious venues including the British Museum, the British Library, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Hayward Gallery, assembled 6,000 manuscripts and objects from 250 public and private collections in 32 countries; a Quran recital held
Centre of Islamic Studies contributes to the The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) information paper on examinations in Ramadan Dr. Matthew L N Wilkinson, CIS Research Fellow in Islam in Education & Law and Director of Curriculum for Cohesion, was one of the scholars and signatories on the working group convened by The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) to produce an information paper for schools and
