Every Muslim in Britain, irrespective of race, gender or theological persuasion, should be prepared to be stopped and interrogated at airports under Schedule 7. On Tuesday 1st October, upon returning from a 10-day work trip in Canada, I was detained under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act at Gatwick Airport. Shortly after being stopped, I was […]
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On Wednesday 20 April 2016, David Cameron defamed Imām Sulaiman Ghani from Tooting at Prime Minister’s Questions as an “IS supporter” – a popular acronym for ISIS.[1] Downing Street’s Press Office later clarified that Mr Cameron really meant Imām Ghani supported “an” Islamic state.[2] The basis of this claim, Downing Street argued, was the ‘Quiz […]
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‘What do British Muslims really think?’ Neither Trevor Phillips nor the mainstream media have sincerely attempted to answer that question. On Monday 11 April 2016, the market research company ICM published the findings of a juniper survey on British Muslim opinion, which coincided with Channel 4’s What Do British Muslims Really Think? documentary. Some 1,081 participants […]
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Islam is the second largest religion in the UK with more than 3 million adherents. Muslims are regionally spread across Britain, covering a wide spectrum of ethnicities and races. With this come many challenges in the way Islam is understood by the wider non-Muslim population. In recent months, and arguably for some years now, there […]
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Islam is the second largest religion in Britain with more than three million adherents, and within this expanding population, much diversity exists in terms of ethnicity, race and political leaning. Unsurprisingly, with such diversity come many challenges in the way Islam is understood by the wider non-Muslim public. The War on Terror saga and its […]
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5Pillars will be publishing a groundbreaking report on the views of British Muslim leaders and Islam later this month. The research entitled “Normative Islam Report” was commissioned by 5Pillars in August 2015 and will be published on Wednesday 17th February 2016. A survey consisting of 95 statements on Islamic beliefs grouped under 12 categories was […]
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Speaking to The Guardian’s Owen Jones last week, journalist Peter Oborne described how a “soft apartheid towards Muslims” was emerging in Britain. His assessment of the government’s categorisation of good “secular Muslims” and bad “non-violent devout Muslims” was spot on. The compartmentalisation of Muslims was the inevitable outcome of the UK Government’s flagship counter-terrorism Preventstrategy, […]
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Speaking to The Guardian’s Owen Jones last week, journalist Peter Oborne described how a “soft apartheid towards Muslims” was emerging in Britain. His assessment of the government’s categorisation of good “secular Muslims” and bad “non-violent devout Muslims” was spot on. The compartmentalisation of Muslims was the inevitable outcome of the UK government’s flagship counter-terrorism Prevent […]
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A modern-day Dickensian tale is being played out in the heart of London; a story of how powerful property developers, Schroders UK Property Fund and Telford Homes, have used their influence with local politicians to force out the working poor. In this sorry process, much-needed community facilities and social housing are being swept away in […]
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Over the past couple of weeks, social media has been inundated with controversial videos and statuses from two groups of Muslims on the permissibility of celebrating Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) birthday, known as the “Mawlid”. In recent years, this debate has been commonly attributed to Muslims from “Salafi” and “Barelvi” backgrounds. Personally, I […]
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Dilly Hussain is the deputy editor of British Muslim news site 5Pillars. He is also a blogger for the Huffington Post UK, a freelance contributor for Al Jazeera English, the Ceasefire Magazine, the Middle East Eye and the Foreign Policy Journal.