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
Reports that the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer intends to appoint Baroness Louise Casey as a minister if he is elected, show his intentions to govern without difference in style or substance. Apparently Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is considering appointing the cross bench peer Dame Louise Casey of Blackstock as a
Arzu Merali on News Review (Press TV) talking about the crackdown on political activism against Muslims in Austria and the consequences that has for pro-Palestinian activism.* Watch the interview below the text. From Press TV: “A group calling itself „Students Against Genocide“ protested inside the University of Vienna, Austria, the biggest German-speaking
The Times has reported a dossier of comments on social media and in lectures by Sheikh Jaffer Ladak, the resident alim at Baab ul-Ilm Centre in Leeds has been passed to West Yorkshire Police. Ladak’s comments cited by The Times, are not unusual or in the current moment even controversial. This piece
Some thoughts from Twitter posted on 2nd March 2024 regarding an opinion piece in The Guardian on Michael Gove. This article argued that despite appearance of courteousness and clam, Michael Gove was in fact someone who had ‘toxified’ the political culture of the Tories. The tweet threat is unrolled below, but as
From the landmark employment tribunal victory of Professor David Miller to the Safety of Rwanda Bill, recent events in the realm of UK law are revealing the political and legal discourses of unaccountable power and control. It’s been happening a while, but the transformation of the image of Kenneth (now Lord) Clarke,
As German far-right politicians attend a meeting at the British House of Parliament today, Arzu reflects on the crises of racism gripping Germany Today former Tory now independent MP, Andrew Bridgen hosts members of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party from Germany at the Houses of Parliament. If the appellation ‘far-right’
Arzu looks at The Sunday Times’ TV critic Camilla Long’s most recent attack on hijab, praying at school and the rights of Muslim children in her column Given its proclivity for Brexit (and thus one assumes the proclivity of its readers similarly) it is odd to find appreciative readers of Camilla Long’s
Arzu argues that the normalisation of the TalkTV journalist’s behaviour in a recent interview should be too much even for institutionally racist media companies to stomach. The video of Julia Hartley-Brewer ‘interviewing’ Palestinian MP Mustafa Barghouti last week is doing the rounds. Rightly so. It is a shocking piece of invective,
Notes from 2023: I had the great privilege of interviewing Houria Bouteldja once more, this time abut her book, Whites, Jews and Us: Towards a Politics of Revolutionary Love in March 2018. The interview took place for IHRC, who stock the title in their fundraising bookshop here. I really, really love this
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