From my experiences in living in three different and distinct regions in the world, I have always maintained that an intellectual Islamic resurgence has the greatest chance of starting in the West. Dr Tariq Ramadan in his reasons for not attending the ISNA and RIS conferences very clearly outlines the following, which are as pertinent to the West as ...

This is a boy from Burma who was arrested in Malaysia for not having proper papers. He may well be a Rohingya who fled persecution to Malaysia, though I don’t know. This is one of the most melodious Qur’anic recitations I have listened to, I say this on the authority of having listened to a lot. Please do listen, Muslims ...

Originally posted on TIME: It has been a weird week in health news. First doctors said that Justin Bieber might save young boys’ lives (the “hip” bowl cut is actually a form of sun protection — skin cancer be gone!), and now scientists out of the University of Exeter insist that smelling farts could actually prevent cancer, among other ...

First Published for Groundviews and the Colombo Telegraph. There was a protest that took place yesterday by a group of Sri Lankan Muslims in Britain outside the Sri Lankan High Commission in London mostly regarding the spate of anti Muslim activities that have been occurring in Sri Lanka. But in this instance what the group responsible for yesterday’s protest ...

For all those leeching off Mandela’s legacy, politicians, activists, pacifists and everyone else, it is only right that his legacy is seen for what it is, every single aspect of it, not just selective veneration. David Cameron who in the 80’s was intrinsically a lead part of organisations that sided with Apartheid and produced ‘hang Mandela‘ posters, will of ...

I am back to blogging is what I meant to say. For those of you who have been in this long enough I have been blogging here since May 2006. But over the last year I have been inundated with a lot of things and never really got the chance to blog properly for one reason or the other. ...

First published here for The Platform.  Buddhist extremism has been on the rise in Sri Lanka and the way that Sri Lankan Muslims react in politically difficult times such as these will determine how they are perceived in the future The last few months have seen a rapid increase in anti-Muslim sentiment amongst sections of the political class in ...

As I type this post, Troy Davis, a man convicted of killing a policeman twenty years ago awaits death. He will be executed by lethal injection in a matter of a few hours, two at most. I post paragraphs from one of my favourite essays ‘A Hanging’ by George Orwell, about death, killing and what it means to execute a ...

I write this post with some level of pain and sadness. I write this also as a Sri Lankan and as a Muslim. My credentials in the Sri Lankan blogosphere are established, if not anything at least as someone with genuine love to Sri Lanka where I was born, where I lived except for five years of my life and ...

I am currently reading Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim. This is a semi autobiographical account of the author Ziauddin Sardar, a Pakistani immigrant who came to the UK as a child in the 1960′s. It deals with how he had to negotiate two identities, that of a Pakistani and that of a child growing up in Britain and ...