Religion & Society

In Australia, conversations about Islamophobia are expanding as the Muslim minority community grows. As in the UK, the term “Islamophobia” is often used as a device to silence critics of Islam. In the following interview, I was asked a series of questions about Islamophobia by a university student newspaper that is researching the topic for the interest of its readers. 1. What is Islamophobia? Islamophobia is usually understood to refer to a fear of Islam and Muslims that is irrational. 2. Where and when did it originate? The term “Islamophobia” has its origins in a report entitled “Islamophobia: A Challenge for us all”, that was produced by the Runnymede Trust and published in the UK in late 1997. The report was commissioned by the British government and was officially launched in the British Parliament. As for the origins of Islamophobia itself, rather than simply the origins of the term, such fear of Islam dates back many centuries, probably originally to the years fol...

On Sunday June 25 I was interviewed by Clayton Bjelan on  89.9 LightFM , Australia's largest community radio station. The programme, "In conversation with Clayton", can be found here .

( Vision Radio )   A Christian academic says the targeting of young people in the fatal terror attack in Manchester shows the terrorists’ intent to inflict the greatest possible offence against their opponents.    The Manchester attack killed 22 people and injured 59 others after a pop concert at Manchester Arena.    Professor Peter Riddell, a Professorial Research Associate in History at the University of London, has told our newsroom, while he believes the targeting of young people was deliberate, the extremists operate from an ‘us and them’ mentality – whereby they see the lives of any non-Muslims as being of lesser value.    He says while there are Koranic verses that talk about the value of human life, there are references in both Koran and associated literature that prioritise the support, defence, and advancement of Muslims.    Professor Riddell says the extremists use such parts of their religious texts to justify their attacks, a...

Just over ten years ago I published a report on the Secular Islam Summit held in Florida, USA, on 4-5 March 2007. The report appeared in The Church Times (Issue 7516, 30 March 2007, p.12), and was cross-posted at various internet sites, including here . A decade has elapsed but the issues raised by this Summit remain as pertinent and as urgent as was the case in 2007. A slightly edited version of my original article appears below.  Speeches from the Summit can be viewed here . ========== In a striking example of self-analysis, about 500 delegates, including both practising and nominal Muslims, attended an inaugural “Secular Islam Summit” in March [2007] in St Petersburg, Florida. The summit culminated in a declaration, which can be read here . The declaration was signed by such luminaries as Ibn Warraq, a widely published author, who writes on such taboo subjects as the text of the Qur’an and apostasy; and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who fled to Holland in the 1990s from her native...

STEREOTYPING the world of Islam is a fruitless task; such is its internal diversity. Sectarian conflict is tearing Muslim populations apart in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. While some Muslims pursue a vision of a forward-thinking, rationalist faith, others look backwards to what they see as a pristine age when Muhammad established the first Islamic community in Medina. For the latter group, the Hadith, or prophetic traditions, are crucial in realizing their vision, enabling Muslims who want to model their lives on that of their prophet to do so. These traditions record tens of thousands of short reports about Muhammad’s actions, attitudes, concerns, preferences and prejudices. Read literally, the Hadith reports can take Muslims in many directions: to compassion for widows and orphans, to patriarchal attitudes towards women, to disdain for religious minorities, and to military jihad for the cause of Islam. Read on at the Lapidomedia website...

T HE blasphemy trial of the Governor of Jakarta, Indonesia, began on Tuesday of last week (News, 16 December). Prosecutors launched the event by accusing Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama of intentionally misinterpreting a Qur’anic verse during a speech on a working visit to Indonesia’s Thousand Islands region on 27 September.    The Governor, better known by his nickname “Ahok”, replied to the charges in tears, saying “I did not intend to misinterpret Surah Al Maidah 5:51 nor commit blasphemy nor insult Islamic scholars. I referred to certain politicians who had misused Surah Al Maidah 5:51 to avoid fair competition prior to upcoming regional elections.”    While world media outlets focus on this unfolding blasphemy trial in today’s Indonesia, the subtext to this event has deep roots in past history. W hen Indonesia attained its independence in the 1940s, the new nation was preoccupied with defining its identity. Indonesia is diverse in terms of its ethnic, ...

I was interviewed by the staff of the Zwemer Centre for Muslim Studies (USA) about the Qur'an.  The interview is available here .

   Stereotyping the world of Islam is a fruitless task; such is its internal diversity. Nowadays sectarian conflict is tearing apart Muslim populations in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. While some Muslims pursue a vision of a forward-thinking, rationalist faith, others look backwards to what they see as a pristine age when Muhammad established the first Islamic community in Medina.    For the latter group, the Hadith, or prophetic traditions, are crucial in realising their vision, enabling Muslims who want to model their lives on that of their prophet to do so. These traditions record tens of thousands of short reports about Muhammad’s actions, attitudes, concerns, preferences, and prejudices.    Read literally, the Hadith reports can take Muslims in many directions: to compassion for widows and orphans, to patriarchal attitudes towards women, to disdain for religious minorities, and to military jihad for the cause of Islam. Read on here .

There is a central idea driving Muslim youth radicalisation: young Muslims travelling this path are following a particular conceptual role model that praises activism for Islam, jihadi militancy and death for the sake of Allah. A number of intersecting elements underlie this core idea. The first element reinforcing such a role model is the influence of radical preachers in some mosques, as revealed in the “ Undercover Mosque ” documentaries produced in the UK some years ago. The subversive role of such preachers is exacerbated by easy access to radical Islamic websites and social media sites. These create the ingredients for a further key element: a peer group of real life and virtual radicalised youth which adds fuel to the pressures on young Muslims. Sadly, parents sometimes also provide a radicalised role model. The father of one of the much discussed 15-year-old jihadi brides from Bethnal Green was filmed participating in one protest led by the notorious radical preacher An...

The Marrakesh Declaration , ignored by the mainstream media, has been acclaimed as a new dawn by some commentators: as promising an era of tolerance and pluralistic harmony in the Muslim-majority regions, where religious minorities have suffered so much for so long. With so much bad news coming from the Muslim world, new voices of hope are bound to receive a warm welcome. Between 25–27 January, around 300 dignitaries gathered in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh under the auspices of King Mohammed VI of Morocco. This event represented the culmination of four years of planning, led by Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah of Abu Dhabi, President of the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies. The conference title was ‘The Rights of Religious Minorities in Predominantly Muslim Majority Communities: Legal Framework and a Call to Action’. As the name suggests, its specific goal was to address the discrimination and persecution experienced by religious minorities living under Islamic major...

Western Europe is still reeling from the terrorist attacks that struck Paris on the evening of Friday 13 November, killing 129 people and injuring over 300 more, many critically. Political leaders are discussing appropriate responses, to follow up on France’s initial airstrike against Raqqa, the capital of the Islamic State that has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Details are emerging about the eight gunman who carried out the attacks, all in their 20s or 30s. They appear to include at least five French citizens, including the Abdeslam brothers, Salah and Brahim, who lived in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, described by Belgian authorities as a "breeding ground for jihadists". Two others were born and bred in Paris, the target of their attacks. Another of the terrorists was a Syrian national who appears to have arrived in Greece and registered as a refugee in October. An obvious question that arises from the above details is the motivation of the eight young Mu...