In this emotional polemic, Arzu Merali looks at the possibilities of a better world as a result of the US war on Iran and its allies regardless of immediate outcomes. The world she argues, will never be the same again. What does the near victory look like? We recite the verse
Things need to change in mainstream pro-Palestine civil society movements in Western Europe argues Arzu Merali, when so many of the racist, Islamophobic, anti-Palestinian narratives that have been employed to justify and enact genocide have been internalised by mainstream social justice organisations. The result has been to uphold those narratives and invite
Arzu Merali looks at how the Michaela School judgment fits into new narratives of nation in the UK, and how it heralds the collapse of minority rights norms. [This article was first published on 22 May 2024 in The Long View journal. Read the full issue here]. Listen to the audio or
Arzu Merali looks back at her work on women’s rights and asks whether the movements for justice, whether Muslim or not, have lost their way.* I decided one day I was a feminist. I think I was 12 years old. I was born and grew up in white working-class North London, and
If we really want to get beyond the ‘War on Terror’, argues Arzu Merali, we need to stop thinking and acting within its narratives.* The history books need to be rewritten. In the meantime, a combination of the internet, knowledge production outside of Westernised settings, social movement networks and memory (false and
As narratives of belonging get narrower and narrower, Arzu Merali argues that Germany provides both worrying precedents as well as ways to move beyond the arguments that to be a citizen in the current age means to be and believe only one thing.* If this were a story or a play, there would
With the release of the Borat film sequel, Arzu Merali argues that the racism imbued in the character cannot be forgiven in the name of comedy or art.* This tweet from the Decolonial Atlas made my day. Two of history’s most consequential events were the domestications of the horse and the apple.
Co-authored with Seyfeddin Kara (lead author) Reading options here. Abstract: This study aims to scrutinise the implementation of a “vicarious retribution model” on anti-Muslim hate crimes and suggests that despite its advantages, the model is not sufficient to provide a clear picture of hate crimes alone and needs a supporting model such
İslamofobi küresel bir fenomen. Dünya genelinde birbirini tekrarlayan İslamofobik şablonlar İngiltere ve Hindistan örneğinde koronavirüs salgını esnasında da devam ediyor. Birleşik Krallık’ta her zaman istisnai olma gibi bir tasavvur vardır. Bu istisnailik durumu, küresel koronavirüs salgınıyla başa çıkmada gösterilen benzeri görülmemiş yetersizlikle bir kez daha kanıtlanmış oldu. Yine de ülkenin “istisna olma”
The promise represented by the emergence of Muslim civil society activism in late 1980’s Britain has failed to translate into effective political agency. In fact, if anything, it has regressed under the weight of internal contradictions, powerful external opposition, and the absence of principled strategies. Arzu Merali explores how Muslims can get back