Muslim Women in Britain

yourcanterbury.co.uk, Politics lecturer named in Muslim women power list "A politics lecturer at the University of Kent has been named one of the top 20 most powerful Muslim women in Britain.

"Dr Gulnur Aybet, who is director of the BA in conflict, peace and security and of the MA in international security and the politics of terror, has held high-profile teaching positions around the world and has given evidence to the House of Commons and Lords committees on security issues."

Omar Bakri Muhammad

Dominik Lemanski, Daily Star, Bakri's A-Team on Global Jihad, 6 Apr 09, "Omar Bakri Mohammed claims he is training up to 400 extremist activists in a bid to win over the 'hearts and minds' of western converts ...

" ... We are already doing this in the UK with the use of the internet but we need Muslim intellectuals on the ground who can speak -English and French as well as Arabic."

Islamic banking

Birmingham Post, How Islamic banking operates within sharia law, 2 Apr 09 overview

Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil

huffingtonpost.com, Victoria Lautman, Mosques, Moolah, and the Importance of Tradition, 1 Apr 09 profile of Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil, architect of (among other buildings) the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies

More on ArchNet: Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil

It was 20 years ago... 'British Islam after Rushdie'

Anshuman A Mondal, Prospect Magazine, British Islam after Rushdie, April 09 "As I found out in a journey across Britain, the central conflict in Muslim communities is not between secular and Islamic values, but between the generations of the Muslim families who live here." Also available as a pdf

Also in Prospect:

Hanif Kureishi, Kureishi on the Rushdie Affair, April 09 "Kenan Malik talks to Hanif Kureishi about the Rushdie fatwa and why no one would write such a book today."

That interview is taken from Kenan Malik's "From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and its Legacy" (Atlantic), which sounds like an interesting book (out this month).

Tariq Ramadan - review

Mona Siddiqui, Times Higher, Radical Reform: Islamic Ethics and Liberation, 2 Apr 09 review of Tariq Ramadan, Radical Reform: Islamic Ethics and Liberation, Oxford University Press

Siddiqui writes, in this useful review: "He wants the whole of Muslim civil society to come on board to find solutions to social and moral problems, without committing himself to various concrete positions. His is a pertinent voice, but in the end, it is just not bold enough."

Opinion Piece on Channel Project

Saudi Gazette, Sabria S. Jawhar, Controversial program set to alienate Muslims in UK "We need to be vigilant to identify young people caught up on extremism but we shouldn’t be vigilantes. That is why if the Channel Project is to succeed then a transparent and thorough training program must be in place to establish what defines probable cause to identify a person as a potential extremist."