One of the most persistent criticisms of postcolonialism is that it promotes an antipathy to imperialism that tends to focus on the experience of European colonial empires and neglects other, non-western instances of imperial hubris. The articulation of Islam and empire has not been subject to sustained postcolonial investigation; rather, the relationship between Muslims and...

Two major narratives have emerged to explain the so-called ‘Arab Spring’. The first and most popular narrative sees the removal of Ben Ali and Hosni Mabarak as part of the continuing long march of democracy. According to this view, the Arab Spring is a result of westernised youth wired up via social networking media, fired...

Of the many strange permutations that the so-called ‘war on terror’ has thrown up perhaps none is stranger than the process by which the distinctions between left and right that orientated western metropolitan politics since the time of the French Revolution have seemingly collapsed in relation to the ‘Muslim question’. The demise of the left–right...

The reasons given for imposing some kind of restriction on women’s choice to wear the burqa can ostensibly be grouped into three clusters of assumptions, assertions and arguments. Firstly, there is a set of assumptions that consider the burqa a security and safety issue. Secondly, there are the assertions that the burqa is a means...