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"We Are All Husseins"
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| 03 Jul 2008 |
| Julian Hussein Madison: I urge every one of you to temporarily adopt "Hussein" as your middle name as a sign of support for Obama against the racist and Islamophobic campaign against him.... continued
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The next ten years: an open letter to the MCB
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| 28 Jun 2008 |
| Yahya Birt: As the Muslim Council of Britain marks its first decade, it seems an appropriate moment for reflection... continued
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Fatwa against terrorism
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| 19 Jun 2008 |
| Ziauddin Sardar: The beginning of the end of the war of terror has started. Mullahs in India have issued a fatwa unequivocally denouncing terrorism ... continued
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Vive la difference? It's a recipe for political disaster
|
| 18 Jun 2008 |
| Daniel Finkelstein: The party that is first to let the voters know what it really stands for... loses... continued
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Not a day more
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| 05 Jun 2008 |
| Asim Siddiqui: The proposed extension to 42 days pre-charge detention is unnecessary, counter-productive and an affront to our freedoms... continued
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Awol Christian soldiers
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| 02 Jun 2008 |
| Sunny Hundal: Christian fundamentalists have hit upon a brilliant plan: to use fear of Islam to bring lapsed Christians back into the fold... continued
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My Mercy overcomes My Anger
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| 26 May 2008 |
| Usama Hasan: God's mercy and compassion can enable us to survive tremendous ordeals... continued
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Sssh! It's the silent majority
|
| 16 May 2008 |
Musab Bora: There's no way these poor Muslims can represent themselves, so others must speak up for them - and there are a lot who want to
... continued
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Muslims misguided enough to abandon Islam are free to do so
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| 12 May 2008 |
| Mohammed Amin: Those who argue that entry into Islam is a one-way street are wrong theologically. Islam pioneered freedom of religion; that is something to be proud of, instead of denying it... continued
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Proposed moratorium on the death penalty in Pakistan
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| 10 May 2008 |
| Mirza Amjad Hussain: My brother, Mirza Tahir Hussain, was released after spending 18 years on death row. It gives me immense pleasure to see this reprieve being extended to all condemned prisoners in Pakistan... continued
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I'm the wrong kind of Muslim for the TV
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| 28 Apr 2008 |
| Huma Qureshi: If anyone has been missing their near-weekly dose of jilbabs and jihadis, fret not - the good old BBC is bringing Muslims back again. Woohoo! ... continued
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To lionise former extremists feeds anti-Muslim prejudice
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| 24 Apr 2008 |
| Ziauddin Sardar: The embrace of former extremists is a slap in the face for Muslims who have worked tirelessly to build a British Muslim identity and foster inclusion by constructive community activity... continued
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The third way
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| 18 Apr 2008 |
| Asim Siddiqui: The launch of two liberal Muslim groups is indicative of a corrective mechanism taking place amongst British Muslims... continued
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The American Muslim Community's "Obama" Problem
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| 14 Apr 2008 |
| Firas Ahmad: Given his perceived "closeness" to Islam... it could be strategic suicide for the Obama campaign to vocally acknowledge organized Muslim support. At a time when endorsements are worn like badges of honor, no major candidate is looking for the Muslim vote... continued
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Terrorist + Muslim = "Muslim terrorist"?
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| 07 Apr 2008 |
| Mohammed Amin: Many Muslims complain when the phrase "Muslim terrorist" is used in the media. Why is this complaint made, and is it valid?... continued
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Blair's jihad for faith
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| 04 Apr 2008 |
Asim Siddiqui: In a speech last night Tony Blair set out his vision of the problems facing humanity - a vision in which faith plays a crucial part
... continued
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Muslim reformer's 'heresy': The Islamic state is a dead end
|
| 03 Apr 2008 |
| To call a state Islamic is to attempt to silence political or theological dissent, argues Professor Abdullahi Ahmed an-Naim. The Qur'an does not prescribe a form of government, but speaks only of the community of Muslims. He argues that there has never been an Islamic state.... continued
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Forced marriages disgrace Islam
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| 27 Mar 2008 |
| Ziauddin Sardar: The first step to dealing with honour killings in the UK is to criminalise forced marriage... continued
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'We live in a nightmare. Death and carnage is everywhere' Ali, Baghdad resident
|
| 20 Mar 2008 |
| Ghaith Abdul-Ahad: In most cities of the world a person might expect to be feted for surviving a single bomb attack. In Baghdad, survival stories can be found on every street corner.... continued
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Open Letter - A threat to our freedoms
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| 15 Mar 2008 |
| Open Letter: Leading opinion formers sign open letter against government plans to extend pre-charge detention to 42 days... continued
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We believe in miracles
|
| 10 Mar 2008 |
Seth Freedman & Asim Siddiqui: Yes it looks bleak at the moment, but the vast majority of Israelis and Palestinians still want peace. Here are our ideas
... continued
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'Engage, excel, be patient'
|
| 07 Mar 2008 |
Jenny Taylor: The flyers advertising The Upstart Festival at the Tricycle Theatre on 2 March said: 'Cutting-edge artists from Muslim and Jewish backgrounds... working together' - as if that was something difficult to imagine. Those three elliptical dots...
... continued
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Better words mean better thinking
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| 05 Mar 2008 |
| Mohammed Amin: Use of new turn of phrase by David Cameron provides a better understanding of the multiculturalism debate and allows us to move forward towards building the cohesive Britain that most of us desire.... continued
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The dollar versus gold? No contest!
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| 28 Feb 2008 |
| William Rees-Mogg: Gold has retained its value, though with fluctuations, over centuries. Even now its purchasing power in terms of physical assets is not far distant from 300 years ago, before Isaac Newton's recoinage of 1717. Most paper currencies lost more than 98 per cent of their purchasing power in the 20th century alone. ... continued
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Who needs a caliphate?
|
| 27 Feb 2008 |
Asim Siddiqui: The new edition of a book by a respected academic highlights just how illusory the Islamist project really was
... continued
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A call to dialogue and understanding between Muslims and Jews
|
| 25 Feb 2008 |
| An Open Letter to Jews: Muslim scholars have facilitated the following letter to the international Jewish community. This letter is intended as a gesture of goodwill and to further build bridges between Muslims and Jews.... continued
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Video of 'OLD POLITICS, NEW ACTORS: Christian-Muslim-Jewish relations in the Holy Land'
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| 24 Feb 2008 |
City Circle Event: An address by The Right Reverend Riah Abu El-Assal, former Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem. The ongoing humanitarian tragedy in Gaza is only the latest in a series of disasters to have befallen the Holy Land. How can Jews, Christians and Muslims work together to achieve peace and justice for all?
... continued
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Video of: 'KINGDOM OF GOD: the Archbishop, the Sharia and the Law of the Land'
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| 18 Feb 2008 |
| City Circle Event: The Archbishop of Canterbury's historic lecture on "Islam in English Law" at the Royal Courts of Justice last week has ignited a national debate about the relationship between law and religion in the United Kingdom. ... continued
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What is Sharia?
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| 16 Feb 2008 |
| Usama Hasan: An important early debate that continues today was between traditionalists and rationalists over whether the universal principles of God's law were to be known by revelation or reason, or both.... continued
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Thought for the Day
|
| 13 Feb 2008 |
| Abdal Hakim Murad: Dr Williams was not commending greater separateness, or an expansion of Muslim courts - quite the opposite... continued
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Rowan Williams and people's unwillingness to read
|
| 12 Feb 2008 |
| Mohammed Amin: The last few days have shown that the media have no interest in detail and that the Shariah inspires almost pathological hatred.... continued
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Our crimes in Iraq must not be forgotten
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| 12 Feb 2008 |
| Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: If the alliance was arrogant at the time of the invasion, it is even more so today... continued
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Opposing Sharia Arbitration Courts in UK
|
| 10 Feb 2008 |
| Ali Eteraz: Here are reasons why I oppose Sharia arbitration courts in the UK. I hope Asim Siddiqui and Yahya Birt, who are both supporting the courts (in theory), are listening.... continued
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Reinventing Sharia
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| 08 Feb 2008 |
Asim Siddiqui: While the tabloids have gone haywire over Rowan Williams' comments, it is more useful to look at what sharia should mean in a modern context
... continued
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What Islam Really Says about Violence, Human Rights and Other Religions
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| 07 Feb 2008 |
| In advance of tomorrow's City Circle event, which will cover the issues of apostasy in Islam, we reproduce the views of two British scholars: Usama Hasan and Abdul Hakim Murad interviewed for Newsweek.... continued
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Be merciful to Qaradawi
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| 07 Feb 2008 |
| Peter Tatchell: Yusuf al-Qaradawi shows no clemency to Muslims who deviate from his dogma, but we should not stoop to his inhumanity... continued
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Europe's Muslim Success Story
|
| 01 Feb 2008 |
| TIME Magazine Cover Story: Overcoming prejudice, a growing class of Islamic professionals is on the rise, writes Carla Power.... continued
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It's time to herald the Arabic science that prefigured Darwin and Newton
|
| 30 Jan 2008 |
| Jim Al-Khalili:The brand of Islam between the beginning of the ninth and the end of the 11th century was one that promoted a spirit of free thinking, tolerance and rationalism... continued
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The second plane by Martin Amis
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| 28 Jan 2008 |
| William Dalrymple: For Amis, all Islamists are the same, whether mass-murdering jihadis, or completely non-violent but religiously conservative democrats. Nor is it just the militant Islamists he dislikes: ordinary Muslims are regarded with equal contempt.... continued
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Government introduces controversial anti-terror measures
|
| 24 Jan 2008 |
| Liberty: Today the Government will push ahead with controversial plans to extend pre-charge detention periods from 28 to 42 days for terror suspects despite widespread concerns that the measures would be counter-productive... continued
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New Initiative For 2008: Helping the homeless - become a Trustee
|
| 14 Jan 2008 |
| The City Circle is working with Homeless Link - the national membership organisation for frontline homelessness agencies in England - which aims to act as a catalyst to help bring about an end to homelessness both locally and nationally... continued
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A Declaration of European Muslims
|
| 14 Jan 2008 |
| In advance of this week's City Circle, we reproduce 'A Declaration of European Muslims' made by Dr Mustafa Ceric on 24 February 2006... continued
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City Circle Appoints New Director
|
| 03 Jan 2008 |
PRESS RELEASE: The City Circle is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Usama Hasan as
its new Director.... continued
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How those in power take the Almighty's name in vain
|
| 01 Jan 2008 |
| Rod Liddle: For the MCB to embrace a pluralist, secular position and disavow the central role of Islam in determining political policy is a remarkable step forward.... continued
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Who did it?
|
| 27 Dec 2007 |
Jason Burke: There are many obvious suspects, but it is unlikely that we will ever know who is responsible for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
... continued
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Forged Receipts and Muslim Researchers
|
| 17 Dec 2007 |
| Yahya Birt: The Policy Exchange report operates under a fallacy: namely that Muslims are robots; once you find the instruction manual, you can figure out how they think, how they will behave and how they will react. ... continued
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Seasons' Greetings
|
| 17 Dec 2007 |
| Open Thread: The City Circle would like to wish you all an Eid Mubarak, a Merry Christmas and a blessed new year.... continued
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Everything in moderation
|
| 11 Dec 2007 |
| Ali Eteraz: Ayaan Hirsi Ali should note that when addressing injustice in Islam, there is a need for reconciliation between secular humanists and Muslims... continued
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10 good reasons why extending pre-charge detention is a bad idea
|
| 08 Dec 2007 |
| Amnesty International: 10 good reasons which outline a strong case against government proposals to extend the time for which police can hold terrorism suspects without charge.... continued
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Why Religion and Politics Don't Mix
|
| 08 Dec 2007 |
| Firas Ahmad: When religious authorities become politicians, bad things tend to happen... continued
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Teddies, Shariah law and civil society
|
| 04 Dec 2007 |
| Rashad Ali: How close are we to developing our own 'home-grown' organic conception of civil society and developing a discourse where we can replicate the same notion of 'Ummah' that the Prophet created in multi-faith Madinah, whilst maintaining social cohesion?... continued
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Life as a young Muslim
|
| 30 Nov 2007 |
| Hajar, aged 11, and Isahaq, aged 11, write about life as a young Muslim... continued
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Life...
|
| 30 Nov 2007 |
| Aya, aged 15: I haven't seen and I haven't been through as much as most, but from very recent events my eyes have opened to a lot of things. My own personal experiences have helped me a lot in knowing more about life... continued
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Muhammad the teddy bear
|
| 28 Nov 2007 |
| Open Thread: First there were the cartoons, now teddy bears. Is it "the media" that makes some Muslims look like brutal and hyper-sensitive fools or do Muslims do a good job at that themselves? ... continued
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War Rose
|
| 28 Nov 2007 |
| Salem, aged 11: War, Would you like to be beaten to the core? Violence for freedom, Freedom from violence... continued
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Race and Religion
|
| 28 Nov 2007 |
| Asma, aged 10, and Aya, aged 11, write about race and religion... continued
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My homeschooling life
|
| 27 Nov 2007 |
| Sarah, aged 14: There is something I would like to tell you about me. First of all I am homeschooled. Home schooling is much fun. I do go to Saturday school though. I have been to several schools but did not like them so I ended up home educating.... continued
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The night I saw the light of Allah
|
| 27 Nov 2007 |
| Aisha, aged 17: I am just a girl with heart and mind. Nothing is worth it when you feel worthless but one has the right to question himself. It's time for me to wise up and search what is really important in life.... continued
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Ramadan and Eid
|
| 26 Nov 2007 |
| Yousef, aged 8, and Huda, aged 9, write about Ramadan and Eid.... continued
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When I grow up
|
| 25 Nov 2007 |
Eman, aged 15: When I grow up I wonder if people will be more afraid to cry than they are to die.
Will I be able to ever see a rainbow above a green hill and a blue sky? ... continued
|
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Voice of the Youth: The Week of Young People's Blogs
|
| 25 Nov 2007 |
| Sid Djerfi: Inspired by the movie Freedom Writers, we decided to give our students at the City Circle Saturday School the chance to share their views on our blogs all of this week. The students were given the freedom to write about whatever they want and that the good pieces would be published unedited.... continued
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It is proper to challenge Islam
|
| 25 Nov 2007 |
| Jemima Khan: On the subject of Muslims, liberal intellectuals like Amis find themselves uncomfortably in bed with the neocons. They even sound alike. British Muslims that I know feel overwhelmed in the face of such hostility.... continued
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Find Your Own Formula
|
| 23 Nov 2007 |
"We do not take a fiqhi position... We do not take a political position. Each individual has to search for his or her own fiqh and political position, even a methodology" Dalia Yusuf of Islam Online interviews Yahya Birt on the mission of the City Circle.
... continued
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A civil solution?
|
| 19 Nov 2007 |
Khaled Diab: If the Annapolis peace conference fails, then Palestinians should abandon their national struggle and demand their civil rights.
... continued
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The threat from terrorism does not justify slicing away our freedoms
|
| 15 Nov 2007 |
Timothy Garton Ash: Britain is now one of the world's most spied-upon societies, where such ancient rights as habeas corpus are hacked to bits.
... continued
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The rightly guided cars
|
| 13 Nov 2007 |
| Open Thread: Plans are underway to design an 'Islamic Car'. Do we need one and what features would you wish to see included?... continued
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UK detention powers already far exceed those in comparable democracies Liberty study shows
|
| 13 Nov 2007 |
| Liberty: The human rights group Liberty yesterday released a comprehensive study of terrorist pre-charge detention powers in 15 countries, including the United States, Spain, Russia, France and Turkey.... continued
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Benazir and the General
|
| 08 Nov 2007 |
| Ziauddin Sardar: Never before has a military-backed government found it necessary to initiate its own military coup.... continued
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|
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The day the Chief Rabbi popped in
|
| 07 Nov 2007 |
| Nazli Ali: Today's event with the Chief Rabbi made history. It was the first time he had engaged with a grassroots Muslim audience.... continued
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Video of 'In and Out of Islamism with Maajid Nawaz'
|
| 05 Nov 2007 |
| Watch Maajid Nawaz's talk at the City Circle and post your comments... continued
|
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The tables have turned
|
| 02 Nov 2007 |
| Sunny Hundal: It was good to see Inayat Bunglawala rediscover his love of free speech this week. Banning hate literature won't stop terrorism, but the idea has its uses.... continued
|
|
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Wahhabi Wrangles
|
| 02 Nov 2007 |
| Yahya Birt: Paul Vallely has written a background piece called "Wahhabism: A deadly scripture" in the Independant which lays a large part of the blame for hate literature in some mosques on the influence of Wahhabism in the UK. However I would like to clarify a few matters in Vallely's piece.... continued
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Campaign to reform mosques hijacked by extremists
|
| 01 Nov 2007 |
| The Centre for Social Cohesion believes the government-backed Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB) - that seeks to improve standards of governance in mosques and combat extremism - gives new authority and increased influence to hardline groups which already control many hundreds of mosques and Islamic centres around the UK. What do you think?... continued
|
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A tale of two siblings
|
| 30 Oct 2007 |
| Asim Siddiqui: The TV drama Britz shows how anti-terror legislation can lead to the radicalisation of young British Musims. It's uncomfortable viewing, but unmissable.... continued
|
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Sacrifice
|
| 29 Oct 2007 |
| Adrian Cohen: Nick Cohen claims that Mohammed Atta explicitly invoked the memory of Abraham in describing his intended 9/11 victims as sacrifices. I do not know if this is true but he seems to accept, in his derogatory description of Abraham, that Atta was on to something and, perhaps unintentionally, he thereby identifies the exegesis of three great faiths with the reasoning of a mass murderer. ... continued
|
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The Last Man-Made Ideology
|
| 29 Oct 2007 |
| In advance of this Friday's talk at the City Circle, Maajid Nawaz explains why Islamism, far from being divine, is in fact the last in a long line of man-made ideologies.... continued
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Britz: A Review
|
| 28 Oct 2007 |
| Yahya Birt: Despite its flaws, Britz is a powerful and watchable drama that does not shy away from the crucial point that no amount of cultural and religious stereotyping will make the politics of the war-on-terror go away.... continued
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The right to change one's religion
|
| 26 Oct 2007 |
| Shaykh Abdallah Adhami: From the point of view of religion, the fundamental nature of the human being is to yearn to worship God unencumbered. The private realm of apostasy had thus always reflected more complex dimensions that make ultimate human judgment impossible.... continued
|
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Muslim Cross-dressing: Why are Sufis becoming like Salafis?
|
| 23 Oct 2007 |
| Ed Husain: Let's put aside the soothing talk of Muslim unity and face a few facts.... continued
|
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Look back and learn
|
| 22 Oct 2007 |
| Mohammed Amin: Many Muslims, depressed by the current state of the Muslim world, look back to the golden age when Muslims ruled the regional superpower in Europe and the Middle East. We should indeed look back: to learn how to build our future as Muslims, but not to wallow in nostalgia.... continued
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Importance of Speech
|
| 22 Oct 2007 |
| Adrian Cohen: I was contemplating the words 'Eid Mubarak' (the Muslim greeting 'Blessed Festival'). Much is lost through English transliteration and it took me a while to make the connection with the Hebrew word 'mavorach' which means 'blessed' which is identical to the Arabic; both are derived from the shared root BRK.... continued
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Dirty Tricks? Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain and its Critics
|
| 22 Oct 2007 |
| Yahya Birt: Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain has taken measures to smear and tarnish the personal reputations of its critics that go far beyond the limits of free and fair rebuttal.... continued
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Welcome to the City Circle Blogs
|
| 22 Oct 2007 |
| Asim Siddiqui: We hope this site will draw together some of the most progressive, tolerant and positive thinking around affecting Islam and Muslims that is faithful to our traditions and our shared humanity. As with the City Circle events, this site is open to all for comments.... continued
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