How peculiar it is that people who spend their lives advocating for a legal system which condemns and in some cases punishes what it sees as moral crimes, all of a sudden forget all that when one of their own stands accused. All of a sudden the local law is sovereign, as they remind us …
Boycott Starbucks, reads the WhatsApp message, which goes on to highlight a series of completely (and obviously) made up facts about the company and its alleged support for Israel’s armed forces.
Most people don’t vote for the perfect candidate, only for the lesser evil. Many who vote for the ruling party do so, not because they are fanatical supporters, but because they remember the old days of poverty, persecution and failing public services. The problem for the ruling party is that the burgeoning youth, who now …
Here are my two core, intertwined Ramadan goals: to be less cynical and to be more grateful. How will I achieve this? I will try to ignore and cut myself off from both Muslim and anti-Muslim propaganda. I will try to minimise my exposure to politics, media and sectarian self-righteousness. I will try to see …
It is amazing that we forget what sin is when it is our beloved sages that stand accused. All of a sudden we are charitable, telling each other that it is not so bad, and certainly not as bad as it could have been. How utterly bizarre. Would you be so charitable to the unknown …
Critics come to me demanding to know where I stand on political violence, but despite making absolutely clear exactly where I stand, that is still not enough. Because I grant to people the rights granted to them by international law, and do not simply roll over and capitulate to the demands to deny our enemies …
They come to you brandishing what they claim to be an undoubtable historical work, in which they have absolute faith — faith much like that of any believer — which proves your misguidance. Ask them if that work is extant and they will grudgingly admit that the original has not survived. Ask if his student’s …
Everyone says these rulers are pious sages, but to me they seem to be hyper capitalists, bamboozled by development above all else, be it the environment, tradition or social welfare. They will build a glorious state, perhaps, but it will come at an enormous cost.
Being a Muslim as a minority may make you vulnerable to hostile currents, but at least you can be driven by conscience. Come to a place where Muslims are the majority and you will notice that the people of conscience are not the masses, but the dissenting minorities.
Everybody wants the world to be black and white, with the good folk on one side and the bad on the other: a simplistic binary world we can easily align ourselves with according to our disposition. Unfortunately the world is not like this at all.
I wonder. Should I be envious of my fellow converts who know themselves to be rightly guided? Should I be envious of their fanaticism, which enables them to declare others heretics with such certainty? Should I wish for a faith like theirs? Daily I rebuke myself for my sins. Daily I measure myself against truer …
How satisfyingly simple the world of Islam must appear from outside: just those two big groups of Sunni and Shia Muslims, and a scattering of obscure outliers. How peculiar is reality, once you’ve passed through the door and find yourself in that claustrophobic room looking out. Here are the multitudinous sects and sub-sects, each one rejoicing in …
It is always astonishing to encounter people who describe themselves as libertarians advocating for a final solution to deal with a group of people they have convinced themselves are a threat to us all. Remarkable all the more when they present themselves as historians, well versed in apparently obscured narratives of the distant past. If …
I will be the first to admit that I have not blasted into space on a rocket to see first hand, with my very own eyes, that the earth is spherical. However I have walked by the sea and seen the gentle curvature of the horizon far off in the distance.
Is the problem this: that we don’t do our own research? That we just parrot whatever we are told? That we don’t study history, so can’t put things in context? That we don’t look into things deeply, to probe and reflect? That we repeat what we are told without verifying it for ourselves? That we …
