To be truthful: perhaps the greatest test of all. So many an activist of many a movement have proved themselves outright liars. I find it strange that our movements do not demand piety of their members. There is no appeal to the maxims of the Quran… “except those who do righteous deeds.” Instead, covering in …
Get back to the mosques, our friends petition us. Lets reconnect with the masjid, they say. But masjid literally means the place you do prostration, and our connection in that place is with Allah. The Lord of the universe and all the worlds is not contained within four walls. Personally, I do not understand why …
They have taken their scholars and monks, as well as the Messiah son of Mary, as lords besides Allah, even though they were commanded to worship none but One God. There is no god except Him. Glorified is He above what they associate! They wish to extinguish God’s light with their mouths, but God will only allow …
In 2008, a theologian I admire and hold in high regard spoke on the radio of an apparently brilliant Islamic scholar hardly anybody had heard of. He was one of the most influential public intellectuals of our age he enthused, and a spiritual guide to millions of followers. Why was it, he wondered aloud, that …
I honestly believe we get the leaders we deserve. I think of a brother depriving his siblings of their inheritance rights, and confiscating their property, enabling him to live in luxury and leaving his brothers impoverished. I think too of the son, who steels his mother’s pension money, then casts her out, abandoning her with …
In your public declarations, you now claim — contrary to what I heard you say in a private gathering twenty-two years ago — that your movement never advocated its followers infiltrating every institution of the state. Each time you are asked about the growing body of evidence that suggests that they did precisely that, you …
Our apparently pious leaders prefer the grandeur of empire to the tradition of the humble trader and shepherd who mended his own clothes.
Truly, it is a blessing to be a nobody, to have no influence on the would around you. It is a blessing to live in a little house, to live within your means. Truly, it is a blessing to be responsible for your family alone, and move in small circles, and wander on unknown.
Here is a website which claims to be an independent academic entity, dedicated to studies of a religious movement, apparently delineating fresh insights and critical thought. Here is an article on the website, written by an old friend, who presents himself as an objective observer, cut off from the topic he describes. He is no …
Make up your own mind. Think for yourself. Don’t be bullied by scholars, acolytes, cultists, proselytisers, politicians, critics, bloggers. Weigh up all the evidence you have gathered and have courage to make your own judgements. Defer to experts in their own fields, yes, but do not subserviently abdicate intellectual autonomy to others in pursuit of …
Neither is my enemy’s enemy my friend, nor is my enemy’s friend my enemy, neither my friend’s friend my friend, nor my friend’s enemy my enemy, or my friend. I will make my own judgement based on my own experience.
It is doubtful now that the great visionary will get to celebrate the wondrous 2023 centenary, as imagined way back in 2010. Under-25s, who have only ever known AK Party rule, now make up 40% of the voting population, Generation Z is reaching voting age and the older generations who remember the old days are …
The global investment firms of the Middle East are rounding on Turkish President Erdoğan for removing yet another central bank governor, after he raised interest rates to 19% last Thursday.
Personally I don’t care who H is. The big mystery I want answered is how a celebrated screenwriter can screw up the final episode of every single drama they create for television. In the past, I have patiently watched every twist and turn, silently wishing the weeks away, desperate to discover whodunnit. Then comes the grand …
We witness that a growing clamour about women’s rights in a foreign land is nearly always a precursor to military intervention. We oppose violence against women, we say, and a rising tide of femicides, then send our bombers, drones and missiles to kill and maim, as if such slaughter was the harbinger of liberty. Soon …
