Your Silence is Tacit Approval

Written by Karima Hamdan

The public discourse in the west regarding Islam has a distinct needle-stuck-in-a-groove quality to it. First the niqab, then minarets, then shariah, then the niqab... and so on. More recently, the discourse has become even more repetitious with just one issue being reported over and over again - the niqab.

Unveiling Groupthink

Written by Karima Hamdan

An alien passing by this small blue-green rock orbiting around an isolated yellow star would be quite frankly puzzled if it tapped into some of our recent media.

His (or more accurately "its") puzzlement would be on several levels.

France's Confusion

Written by Muhammad Tahir

To describe France's relationship with religion in general, and its Muslim minority in particular, as "tortured" would be something of an understatement. Since the French revolution, France has sought to portray itself as the vanguard of secular liberation from the tyranny of religion. Despite the revolution being over 210 years old, old habits still die hard: it was only in 2007 that France crossed the threshold of being officially less than 50% Roman Catholic, while at the same time seeing a steady rise in the number of people describing themselves as atheist's (31% in 2007 vs 23% in 1994).