Muslims are thought to be recent arrival in the historical memory of the British Isles. The reality is far more deeply rooted as people of the Islamic faith have encountered the natives of Britain for centuries through trade, travel, war, empire, immigration, and even maritime piracy.
Issues
Order order! This was not the cry of a butcher at a halal meat stall, but the Speaker of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain agreeing to an emergency debate on the halal meat industry in Britain.
Is this halal? Like an act of electromagnetism, Muslim dinners are drawn to this particular provocation.
It is time to move on from the superficial status halal and haram have been consigned to. Change is the order of the day.
I have a soft spot for Bonnie Scotland, and not only because I was a lecturer on the MSc. course in Applied Linguistics in Buccleuch Place at Edinburgh University for a while in the 1980s.
Three Scottish historical figures have fascinated me and entered my fiction: David Roberts (1786-1864), Charles Gordon (1833-1885), and Lady Evelyn Cobbold (1867-1963). They were born well after the Acts of Union in which the Scottish and English Parliaments united to become the Parliament of Great Britain.
During the past few years, the global environmental movement has been undergoing a period of reflection and reckoning, much like other social justice movements.
According to the 2021 Census, 1.4 percent of Scots are Muslim. Most live in Glasgow and other big cities, but they are present in the countryside too, and in the islands and Highlands.
Can you remember the first time you held a melody? Maybe it was on one of those tiny baby keyboards, where you bashed out some notes that inadvertently led to a semi-familiar tune.
The Isle of Skye, situated off the west coast of Scotland, is the largest island of the Inner Hebrides. It is inhabited by approximately 13,000 people.