identity

A collection of 29 posts

CAIR and the Islamic Society of Tulsa sue Broken Arrow over a denied mosque

The Islamic Society of Tulsa has owned a parcel of land in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma since 2014, with plans to build a community center housing a food pantry, retail space, a medical clinic, and a mosque. In January, the city council denied the rezoning application needed to proceed. On August

CAIR documents a 183% rise in mosque incidents

The Council on American-Islamic Relations reports that incidents targeting Islamic places of worship in the US rose 183 percent over a recent three-month window compared with the same period a year earlier, spanning a terroristic attack on a mosque, arson, threats, and organized opposition to mosque construction on explicitly religious

identity

Virginia's Dar Al-Nur center heads to a July 16 harassment hearing

On July 16 the Dar Al-Nur Community Center — one of the Washington region's oldest Qur'an schools, serving Northern Virginia, Maryland and DC families for more than two decades — had its day in Fairfax County General District Court. The hearing follows more than two years of reported

identity

Pope Leo and a Jordanian institute renew the Muslim-Christian dialogue case

In May 2026 Pope Leo received members of Jordan's Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies, alongside the Vatican's Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, for a colloquium on human compassion and empathy in modern times — and urged Christians and Muslims to 'revive humanity where it has grown cold.

identity

UK's first Islamophobia tracker finds a 377% surge in incidents

The Islamophobia Response Unit — a UK legal-response charity — published its first annual report on 30 January 2026, and the numbers describe a change in kind, not just degree. The IRU investigated 906 cases between 2021 and 2025 and recorded a 377% surge in incidents between 2023 and 2024; Muslims now

CAIR's 2026 report tracks a narrowing of Muslim civil rights

CAIR's 2026 civil rights report logs 8,683 discrimination complaints received in 2025 — the highest in the organization's history — and argues that the 'right to be different' narrowed across employment, education, immigration, and public life for American Muslims. The number itself is only part

identity

OSCE: anti-Muslim intolerance is now a social-cohesion problem

In a March 2026 statement issued under Switzerland's chairpersonship, marking the International Day to Combat Islamophobia, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe framed hostility toward Muslims not only as a matter of individual rights but as a security and social-cohesion problem. The framing is the substance:

Identity: Diaspora

No Solutions to British Muslim Problems without Mutual Respect

From the archive (2015): answering Quilliam — no solutions without mutual respect; partnership with communities’ own institutions, not suspicion.

Identity: Community

Third Annual QeRN Muslim Identity Award – 2012

From the archive (2013): the third QeRN award, to Loonwatch — recognising patient documentation over viral outrage; method survives.

Identity: Islamophobia

Academics Finally Take Note of Islamophobia

[http://www.qern.org/en/academics-finally-take-note-of-islamophobia/islamophobia-journal-spring2012/] For a number of years, we have been taking academics to task for not doing enough to tackle rising Islamophobia.  Academic research makes it way into public policy sooner or later, and a certain paralysis had descended upon the academic community after the

Identity: Diaspora

What Happened to Canada?

From the archive (2012): Chris Hedges asks what happened to Canada — a change that was not a mood but policy moving through institutions.

Identity: Diaspora

Muslim Identity in Britain: Sadiq Khan MP on British Museum Hajj Exhibition

adapted from London Evening Standard, January 26, 2012 While the capital is home to an estimated 40 per cent of the UK’s Muslim population, there are still many mysteries surrounding the faith that I follow. For I was born and raised a London Muslim. I attended mosques and madrassas

Identity: Community

Second Annual QeRN Muslim Identity Award - 2011

From the archive (2012): QeRN’s second Muslim Identity Award — an early instinct to recognise builders over talkers, now this site’s whole programme.

Identity: Islamophobia

Anti-Muslim News Corp Comeuppance

From the archive (2011): News Corp’s hacking scandal after years of anti-Muslim output — institutions are checked only by comparable institutional power.

Identity: Dialogue

Exploring the True Unity of Islam in a Global World

From the archive (2011): Islam’s unity as lived practice, not slogan — an argument that now needs shared institutions to become operational.

Identity: Diaspora

Muslim Engagement at the Community Level in UK

From the archive (2011): an East London lament about declining community influence — and the plain answer: influence is organised, not lamented into existence.

Identity: Diaspora

The Question of Islam and Democracy

Dr. Mohamed Elmasry's Arab Spring-era essay on Islam and democracy — reread in 2026, when the question has become whether communities can build the institutions democracy requires.

Identity: Islamophobia

Muddled Cameron Swerves Hard Right

From the archive (2011): Cameron’s ‘muscular liberalism’ — values rhetoric as exclusion, answered since less by argument than by civic capability.

Identity: Diaspora

The Brutal Killing of Aqsa Parvez

From the archive (2007): on the killing of Aqsa Parvez — precision about the crime, honesty about the community questions, both at once.

Identity: Islamophobia

Denmark's obsession with Muslims

Cumhuriyet yesterday [21 November 2006] reported that Denmark, which started a crisis when one of its newspapers printed cartoons of Prophet Mohammed(PBUH), has included the phrase “All terrorists are Muslims” in primary school textbooks. Cumhuriyet claimed the textbooks used in Denmark’s schools teach about Islam under chapters titled

Identity: Islamophobia

Denmark Incident: the sinister conclusions

From the archive (2006): the cartoons affair and the selective breaking of taboos — an asymmetry now running at machine speed, answerable only institutionally.

Identity: Community

As QeRN predicted - Turkey trying to find its identity

Sep 4, 2004 – When Europe ran out of excuses, it told Turkey to stay Muslim. Turkey obliged. History is being made. Erdogan defends adultery-law change (courtesy Al-Jazeera) Saturday 04 September 2004, 17:20 Makka Time, 14:20 GMT Erdogan says the stronger the family, the stronger the country Turkish Prime

Identity: Dialogue

The Trouble with Islam: A Discussion

From the archive (2003): the Manji debate — internal critique processed defensively, and the scholarly depth that metabolises it on the merits.

Identity: Dialogue

A glimpse into the versatility of Islam

From the archive (2003): Islam’s versatility across cultures — adaptability that was always the work of scholars and institutions, era by era.

Identity: Dialogue

Open Letter in Response to Salman Rushdie

From the archive (2002): answering Rushdie with pity, not outrage — measured response as the dividend of scholarly confidence.