The theme of the conference "Towards a Secular Islamic State" which the Muslim Institute held late last year is, for me as a European, a particularly interesting one, since it originates and is promoted, in my opinion, from the cultural basis of Muslims who live in the west and are integrated in Western society.

KARACHI: Hauled off buses, targeted in their clinics, on boulevards, in alleys, in shops, in offices, in processions and pilgrimages, is there any place left safe for Shias in Pakistan? At Ashura, they were chastised for taking out Moharram processions and giving terrorists an open field in which to attack.

The protests in Shahbagh errupted apparently spontaneously in response to the first verdict handed down by Bangladesh's domestic tribunal for war crimes committed during the war of independence in 1971. The primary demand? The death sentence.

The place looks and feels unreal. That's the conclusion I reach every time I visit a Gulf state. It is not just the Disney World architecture, the obscene display of wealth, the ubiquitous presence of poor migrant labourers, the insidious racism of the natives, and the segregation and seclusion of the women. What really strikes you is the fact that the region is totally out of sync: the contradictions between imported hyper-modernity and the reactionary and anachronistic local traditions are just too stark. I always leave thinking, "This is not going to last long".

This past Sunday, the Lahore-Islamabad stretch of the Motorway collapsed. Let me explain.

The massive shelling of Gaza by Israeli forces, which they say is in retaliation for rocket fire from Hamas, has predictably led to everyone in the western world assume their traditional positions. I don’t want to argue about which side is right or wrong, because clearly the world is starved of that debate.

I do like cold West London evenings. It reminds me of the time when I used to meet up friends for a religious natter (which may be an oxymoron!) in the Hammersmith area. There is certainly a different ‘feel’ to West London than East London where I’m used to.