It is impossible to discuss religious values for very long before the word love crops up. Over the last ten years or so I have greatly admired those who seek a lone path in the pursuit of God. Those who love truth as a means toward knowing God. In my last blog I especially referenced those who are lone seekers. Eliot puts it well 

"Old men should be explorers

Here and there does not matter

We must be still and still moving

Into another intensity."

Minority Report could be the sub-title of the piece 'My British Hijab', which is published in Critical Muslim's fifth issue entitled Love and Death. It is a warm and honest  look at the position of the Muslim community in Britain some 20 years ago. Things have changed. In many ways for the better. When I see the children walking home from The Nottingham Academy I am impressed and encouraged by the way the knots in the caravan are made up of White, Afro Carribean and South Asian children in mixed groups. Racism in the UK is not dead but perhaps it will die.

I'm now back in US and I'm glad that I had a chance to attend the London debate, Have Muslims Misunderstood Evolution? It was organized by The Deen Institute and I posted some quick thoughts on Saturday.

One of the most despised words in conservative Muslim circles is the word ‘secular’. All one has to do to vilify any opinion is to say that it is ‘secular’ (or ‘modernist’ or ‘liberal’ or even ‘Westernised’) and effectively a departure from Sharia. Sharia is the fountainhead of Islamic law, the source of practice of Traditional Muslims’ religious life. To render any element of one’s life ‘secular’ is to abandon Sharia and become irreligious.

We are told again and again that it is a mistake to over simplify issues. Edward Said famously indicted the West over its whole approach to the Muslim World in Orientalism. Recently a few hours of reading has shown me that my understanding of the Palestine question was childlike. The political issues there, as elsewhere, are complex but there is a grave danger that we are lured away from the hell-hole reality by all the acronyms and alliances, they are like a deep pond, look into it but stay well away from the edge.  

"Hold fast to the hope of God, all together, and be not divided." --Quran 3:103

It is with the deepest sadness and sorrow that we announce the death of our friend, colleague, Chair of Muslim Women’s Network UK and Muslim Institute Fellow Cassandra Balchin.

Although Cassandra was only diagnosed a few months ago, she has unfortunately lost her battle against cancer.