Islam
The Spectator’s Notes
‘Persecuted and Forgotten?’ is the name of the latest report by Aid to the Church in Need. Unfortunately, there is…
Imran’s biggest test
It’s been a long journey for Imran Khan. He founded his political party, PTI (Pakistan Movement for Justice), in 1996,…
Ya Allah!
Last month Luigi Brugnaro, the mayor of Venice, warned that anyone who yelled Allahu Akbar (‘God is the greatest’) in…
Age concern
Stephen Sondheim’s Follies takes a huge leap into the past. It’s 1971 and we meet two middle-aged couples who knew…
Straight to hell
No, The State (Channel 4) wasn’t a recruiting manual for the Islamic State, though I did feel uneasy about it…
We’re losing the cat-and-mouse terror game
I wonder how Mohammad Khan is getting on in his legal action against Virgin Atlantic. Mo — a Muslim, the…
The many sides of satire
Brexit the Musical is a peppy satire written by Chris Bryant (not the MP, he’s a lawyer). Musically the show…
Tricky, and slightly sicky
The Big Sick is a rom-com that’s smarter than most rom-coms, which isn’t saying much, admittedly. It stars a Muslim…
My fears about the new ‘extremism commission’
The Egyptian-born Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi was once invited to speak in this country — and the row which developed…
Islam’s “barbaric fury”
Andrew Urban has lived up to his famous namesake, Pope Urban II (1088-1099), in his warnings that evil thrives when…
A woman of some importance
It might seem unlikely that a Christian noblewoman could have had influence over a Muslim city in the 13th century,…
Burning passions
This is a book which, as one eyes its lavish illustrations and dips into its elegant prose, looks as if…
Barometer
Secrets of the stars The astrologer Jonathan Cainer died after beginning his last horoscope for his own star sign: ‘We’re…
Moderate Muslims are not particularly moderate
‘What’s in the news this week?’ I asked my wife as she browsed the first newspaper we had seen for…
Courting Sultana Isabel
The idea for a mechanical cock was never going to work. In 1595 the English ambassador to Constantinople, Edward Barton,…
Everything in black and white
This is a quite remarkable book. Badly written, devoid of anything even vaguely approaching a methodology, patronising, hideously mistaken on…
What do all these evil maniacs have in common?
More bad publicity for the Islamic State’s ‘Kafir Tiny Tots and Babycare Service’. A burka-clad madwoman wandering through the streets…
Why are children in Guernsey extolling Islam to their parents?
I have never been to the island of Guernsey. This is a large world and we have a finite amount…
High life
This is going to be one hell of a year, hell being the operative word. It will be the year…
We need Christianity more than ever in this Age of Atheists
Have we ever needed Christianity more than we do today? It’s a rhetorical question, for sure, because the loss of…
Hug, hold hands . . . then stampede to the right
What a pleasure it was to see two socialist parties triumph in the most recent elections. First, Labour increased its…
It is political correctness, not maniacal bigots, that will end civilisation
What does one do, attend or refuse a party after a tragic event such as the recent Paris outrage? My…
The French might as well bomb Belgium
I am always open to spiritual guidance from any quarter, all the more so if that guidance is of practical…
Of gods and men
Tom Holland on Egypt, where the deities were born and history itself began
France’s new reactionaries
The nation’s intellectuals are being roiled by issues of immigration, sovereignty and freedom of expression
