Year after year, it never changes: the public bickering of scholars and sheikhs, and the clamour of their friends and supporters, or the tumult of their opponents. The terrible ego of the venerated academic once more on display for all to see. The bitter conceit of his adversary made apparent to all who walks by …
In the age of social media, the old ways have been discarded. The advice dispensed used to be: be nice, be kind, be generous, be interested, acknowledge your mistakes, be grateful, make other people more important.
An Oxford University professor of theology has been sentenced to a year in prison and placed on the sex offender register in France for downloading 27,000 images and 1000 videos depicting child abuse. The scholar, best known for his expertise in Syriac versions of the bible, Qumran manuscripts and the Septuagint, acknowledged the charges, describing …
I have conversations with myself all the time, mostly in self-reproach. It is the natural order. In my writing too, I converse away, opening my inner ramblings to passersby, even as daily I almost delete it all.
If we could call his long-winded discussion with self-described apostate, Ridvan Aydemir, a debate, we would have to concede that in his ability to trounce his opponent Daniel Jou won hands down.
You’re not calling anyone to faith; you’re driving them away. You’re not defending your religion; you’re undermining it. There is nothing attractive in your harshness and vitriol. Those that encounter you see nothing but the insecurity of narcissists massaging their fragile egos, and turn away repulsed. You say you’re keeping it real, defending true faith from …
Don’t judge your religion by the risible antics of your celebrity preachers. Every circus must have its performers. Leave them be and delve deeper.
Strive to maintain balance and hold to the middle way. Beware of manipulators, sending you astray. Not all is always as it seems. The growing army of white supremacists and of far right Muslims, activists for every cause. A cyber war is in full swing, raging on virtual battlefields everywhere. The protagonists not always teenage keyboard …
If what we have seen unfolding around us is America’s Arab Spring, be sure that it only manifests itself because protesters have been given permission to rise up. “Pharaoh said: How dare you believe in him before I have given you permission?” — from Qur’an 20:71
We could not stop 150,000 people attending Cheltenham Festival in March, nor 6,000 running the Bath half marathon, nor Liverpool’s Champions League, nor the Manchester Derby, nor VE Day street parties, nor Bank Holiday weekends spent at the beach. All will have contributed to the spread of Covid-19 and led to more deaths. We reap …
The number of influential Muslims promoting conspiracy theories to their vast followings online seems to be growing. Proponents of coronavirus conspiracies have now incorporated a second strand: the murder of George Floyd, which sparked protests across the US this week.
The conspiracy theories never end. Turns out nationalists and patriots are as nutty as Muslims when it comes to pushing alternative explanations for the events of the day. Well, they’re all peas from the same pod. Everything is a false flag, always, as nationalists and Muslims feed off each other, recycling each other’s claims.
The crisis is over. At least, that’s what the government wants you to think. Hence they’re starving the public of information. From their daily briefings, first international comparisons disappeared from the slides, then the R number, then testing data. On the nightly news, thronging crowds filling beaches, queues forming in shopping parks, the House of …
We say: “My sect is bigger than yours, therefore it is the truth.”
I don’t consider myself a Quranist — a peculiar term of denigration deployed by traditionalists — but I completely understand why, for some, it seems to be the only way ahead. Whenever I encounter a scholar or preacher piling into Quran-centric folk, picking apart their take on religion, I just think to myself: “Just leave …
