Arzu refers to a recent article for more information on education and the ideological drift of Islamophobia in the UK. I stumbled upon this piece in LRB this week ‘Making Media Great Again’ by Peter Geoghegan on the media tycoon Paul Marshall. It provides more information on Ark Academy schools, which I alluded
Nuanced reading is possible without having to label every enjoyable work decolonial, argues Arzu. Fatima Manji’s Hidden Heritage: Rediscovering Britain’s relationship with the Orient (2021) is exquisitely written. It is beautifully vivid in its descriptions not just of the objets d’art, historical artefacts and buildings she finds on her travels around British
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
November in the UK has been designated Islamophobia Awareness Month. Arzu gives some thoughts on what seriously tackling Islamophobia requires. It is coming to the end of the Julian year and my review of past works is barely started. As I have written on Islamophobia for the best part of three
Some notes on the arrest of the Israeli filmmaker and academic at the protest against the Israeli genocide on Friday 1st November 2024 under anti-terrorism laws. This is for my non-UK friends in particular. I wish I could say I am shocked or stunned. To do so would mean I still believe
Arzu appeared on TRT’s Roundtable to discuss the causes of the race riots in the UK in the past few weeks. Riots by far-right groups in the UK have left many Muslims feeling scared and isolated in the country they call home. What do these actions say about the state of race
As race riots erupt across the UK, Arzu looks at the pivotal role of the UK’s counter-terrorism regime, particularly its Prevent program, in inciting this hatred. Listen to the article or read it in full below. If you haven’t been embedded in discussions about the UK’s anti-terrorism regime for
Some quick comments from Arzu on the unfolding situation in England. Why is the government and media reluctant to use the term ‘riot’? My auto-prompt suggested 2011 after I started typing in today’s date. It is the thirteenth anniversary of the killing of Mark Duggan by police officers in London, justice for which
It is time to stop blindly replicating previously failed attempts to leverage the Muslim vote in the UK, argues Arzu Merali. Listen to the audio or read the article below. I: Learning from the Past “…nations have no permanent friends and no permanent enemies, only permanent interests.”
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
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