Abstract: This paper looks to assert the centrality of social activism as a necessary and important mode of activity by which changes in society and our own selves is engendered. It begins by laying a religious foundation for social ...
Read More »Syed Haider
A PhD candidate at SOAS and English teacher.
Read More »Reflections on Ramadan
It is well established in Islam that eeman is not simply a conviction of the heart – what in normative terms would be classified as belief. Rather actions are an integral part of eeman and, as Hasan Al-Basri wrote, ‘belief…is ...
Read More »Create me a Folk Devil
More than 200 years after the emergence of modern politics there are signs of decay exemplified by low voter turnout and party memberships. But this condition of contemporary politics in Britain is also a sign of something more profound. Whereas ...
Read More »Decolonising the Mind
‘My dear doctor,’ said Flory, ‘how can you make out that we are in this country for any purpose except to steal? It is so simple…the British Empire is a device for giving trade monopolies to the English…’ ‘My friend, ...
Read More »Thinking Through the Riots
All riots have ‘preconditions’ and ‘precipitants’ wrote Nick Jewson two decades ago and it is an attempt to try and discover these that is needed, as well as the need to curb the excesses witnessed on the streets of London ...
Read More »Darwin’s Displacement of Religion or Grounds for a New Religious Experience
What this paper will propose is that, pace Freud, science over time evolved into a type of creed itself in which Darwin’s theory (which Freud held in esteem) became a totalising factor. Thus Darwin’s displacement of traditional religion does not ...
Read More »Viva la revolucion? Insha’Allah.
The protests on the streets of Egypt have captivated many for the past few days. Before then it was the scenes that unfolded in Tunisia that captured our imaginations. Protest, rebellion and revolution are in the air; dictators take note. ...
Read More »First came the Criminals, then came the Imbeciles
Mohammed Liaqat and Abid Saddique are criminals, that much is clear. Their actions were morally reprehensible and a sad reminder that there exist individuals in the world who allow their animal passions and devilish reasoning to rule their actions causing ...
Read More »Israel’s Colonial Mentality
The extermination of the Native Americans can be admitted, the morality of Hiroshima attacked, the national flag [of the United States] publicly committed to the flames. But the systematic continuity of Israel’s 52-year oppression and maltreatment of the Palestinians is ...
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