Posts by Myriam Francois-Cerrah

Francois Hollande: The Candidate for Change? Not for French Muslims

Last Wednesday night’s presidential debate saw Socialist hopeful Francois Hollande pitted against ‎incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy on key points of the political agenda including nuclear ‎energy, the relationship with Europe and the economy. Hollande has marketed himself as the ‎candidate of  ”change,” the central concept in his slogan and the leitmotif of his speeches, ‎banking [...]

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IWD: To celebrate or to mark?

On the 101st International Women’s Day – like many women, I’m faced with a mixed bag of emotions. I want to celebrate our achievements, our gains, our pioneers – but I’ve also just returned from a trip to Bangladesh which was a timely reminder of why we ought to be marking, rather than celebrating, international [...]

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The case of Hamza Kashgari: When political oppression masquerades as the defence of Islam

The case of Hamza Kashgari has entered a new and deeply worrying phase as Malaysian authorities have deported the 23-year-old journalist back to Saudi Arabia, where he currently risks execution. There has been widespread and rightful opprobrium of the Saudi government’s response, but few seem to question the official Saudi line that their indignation at [...]

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Why a war with Iran is the real threat

The war drums are beating. Yesterday’s announcement that the EU has formally adopted an oil embargo against Iran follows the news that Britain, America, and France are sending six warships led by a 100,000 ton aircraft carrier through the highly sensitive waters of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran had threatened to close in response [...]

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The Search for Meaning

Philosophy, religious or not, attempts to deal with the inescapable and fundamental question of the meaning of life. Why are we here? What is our purpose, if any? In my teens, I was engrossed by Jean-Paul Sartre, both by the poignancy of his plays and by the existentialist philosophy which underpinned them. A lapsed catholic with a residual belief in God and a keen interest in theology, I’d always been fascinated with the choice some humans make to adopt a profoundly disciplined lifestyle, often marked by austerity and asceticism, in a world where the only things which appear to be valued are new, glittery and irreverent.

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When does it not pay to be Muslim?

So Lowe’s, the US-based chain of retail home improvement and appliances, has decided to pull its advertising from the reality TV show All-American Muslim. Most of us aren’t stupefied with shock. Its not like we don’t know anti-Muslim bigotry is now acceptable beyond the ranks of Tea Party conventions, but for it to be just so [...]

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The Firebombing of Charlie Hebdo: Free Speech vs Islam?

The firebombing of Charlie Hebdo offices following its decision to run an edition featuring Prophet Mohamed as “guest editor,” is a sad reflection of France’s uneasy relationship to Islam and religion more generally. Sadly, there are some who do not believe that Charlie Hebdo should have the right to publish a satirical issue, in which [...]

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Victory Porn or Accurate Journalism: Covering Gadhafi’s Demise

rituals of death also tell us a lot about the living. So what does our portrayal of Gadhafi’s death say about us?
were graphic images an essential part of telling the story or were they merely victory porn, dehumanizing both the watcher and the watched through a desensitazation to images which should otherwise be deeply distressing?

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Banning Religious Symbols: A Threat to European Values

As part of its campaigning, the party gave away computer games in which the player shoots at mosques, minarets and muezzin.

Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin’s book “Germany is doing away with itself, in which he claimed Turks (around 5% of the population) were “dumbing down” the country with their inferior gene pool is currently in its 14th edition, and Germany’s bestselling book since WWII.

in 1928, the Nazis achieved less than 3% of the national vote in Germany. Today, many fascist parties have ten times that number. Their influence is therefore commensurate and cannot be ignored.

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