Tal al-Malouhi, aged 18, was arrested by the Assad regime in December 2009. She still hasn’t been released.

There are many contemporary biographies of the Prophet Muhammad. But they make him feel distant or too difficult to emulate in our times. Joel Hayward’s The Leadership of Muhammad is certainly not such a work of seerah.

At time of writing, the official death toll in Israel-Palestine since 7 October 2023 stands at 35,173 Palestinians, including over 14,500 children, 8,400 women and at least 498 people in the West Bank; and 1,139 Israelis, all of whom were killed during the 7 October attacks by Hamas and other Gazan militias.

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.

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.