CM03: Fear and Loathing

Merryl Wyn Davies explores what we fear, AbdelWahab El-Affendi tackles Islamophobia and Orientalism in the age of liberal paranoia, Arun Kundnani charts the rise of the English Defence League and the far right in Europe, Vinay Lal is perplexed by Hindus who love Hitler, Gordon Steffey joins Christian fundamentalists at ‘Liberty University’, Fanar Haddad is appalled by sectarian schisms in the Arab world, Gary McFarlane watches the Tottenham riots, Muhammad Idrees Ahmad traces the roots of Muslim anti-Semitism, Shanon Shah ponders why Muslims find it so difficult to talk about homosexuality, Farouk Peru wonders why he hates himself, Claire Chambers deconstructs ‘Four Lions’, Peter Clark is unimpressed by the Orientalist guru Bernard Lewis, and Peter Moray offers a critical assessment of the Canadian Muslim writer, Irshad Manji.

Plus a short story by Suhel Ahmed, six poems by Stéphane Chaumet, Anita Sethi’s dangerous bus ride through Iran, Michel Abboud’s design of the so-called ‘Ground Zero’ Mosque, top ten ‘please God’ gadgets, and Ziauddin Sardar’s topology of beards of Islam.