Hurst & Co.

As Critical Muslim celebrates ten years of insight and thought, the theme of biography fittingly challenges its readers: to reflect on our past, our memories and our stories, and to look ahead...

In our turbulent times, all varieties of bodies face serious dangers. Bodies of water are disappearing before our eyes; bodies politic risk suppression, lying on the razor's edge of the democratic...

We are often led to believe that liberty is synonymous with freedom--but is that really so? And what does it entail? In this issue of Critical Muslim, we explore who defines the liberty we are told...

We pay a great deal of attention to pursuit of knowledge, but overlook its constant companion: ignorance. Where our world is inundated with information, from 24-hour news and social media and the...

There is more to Scotland than the intensifying debate on independence. This is a rich land, with a rich culture and past that defy commonly held stereotypes of the Scottish people. But their nation...

Ziauddin Sardar questions the question mark that is always placed in front of Pakistan, Robin Yassin-Kassab asks why Pakistan has not imploded, Taimur Khan breaks bread with the gangsters and bookies...

Aamer Hussein takes love to its logical conclusion, Robert Irwin traces the origins of the ghazal (love lyric), Christopher Shackle recites epic Panjabi poems of sacred love and lyrical death,...

We all know something has gone wrong: people hate politics, loathe the media and are now scared of each other too. Journalist and one-time senior political advisor Tom Baldwin tells the...

In early 2011 an elderly Alawite shaykh lamented the long history of oppression and aggression against his people. Against such collective memories the Syrian uprising was viewed by many Alawites,...

Defying the Dragon tells a remarkable story of audacity: of how the people of Hong Kong challenged the PRC's authority, just as its president reached the height of his powers. Is Xi's China as...

Boko Haram's appetite for violence and kidnapping women has thrust them to the top of the global news agenda. In a few years they all but severed parts of Nigeria-Africa's most populous state and...

Englishness is an idea, a consciousness and a proto-nationalism. There is no English state within the United Kingdom, no English passport, Parliament or currency, nor any immediate prospect of any...

The debate surrounding Islamist violence remains locked in oppositional sterility. Are such attacks perpetrated by Islamists as a matter of belief or do they reflect socio-economic realities? Is the...

"Europe", "Europeanness" and "European" have been important themes in the history of modern Greece, from the establishment of the new state in 1832 to the sovereign debt crisis of 2010. "Europe" has...

The European Union is often seen as a cosmopolitan rejection of violent nationalism. Yet the idea of Europe has a long, problematic history--in medieval times, it was synonymous with Christianity; in...

Wahhabism is an Islamic reform movement found mainly in Saudi Arabia. Closely linked to the Saudi monarchy, it enforces a strict code of morality and conduct monitored by mutawa (religious police),...

Decades of Pakistani resentment over India's stance on Kashmir, and its subsequent attempt to force a military solution on the issue, led to the 1965 war between the two neighbours. It ended in a...

An outstanding legal scholar, an Islamist activist and a renowned host of al-Jazeera's most popular religious programme, 'Sharia and Life, Yusuf al-Qaradawi is one of the best-known and most...

In 1935, Fascist Italy invaded the sovereign state of Ethiopia--a war of conquest that triggered a chain of events culminating in the Second World War. In this stunning and highly original tale of...

In 1977, Johnson's best selling How Long Will South Africa Survive? offered a controversial and highly original analysis of the survival prospects of apartheid. Now, after more than two decades of...

This book spells out a new framework for humanitarian aid in the long emergency of climate change. Looking ahead to the massive needs of the late 2020s and the 2030s, Hugo Slim shows how current...

The Russian government's deniable use of rogues, businessmen, enthusiasts, mercenaries and political technologists confounded policymakers as Moscow waged a covert invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Did...

Alex Salmond, a talented politician in charge of Scotland's devolved government since 2007, is mounting the biggest challenge to the British union state in its 300-year history. His fast-growing...

In the early '90s the Balkans was rocked by the collapse of communism and the violent break-up of Yugoslavia. But the last decade has seen a transformation of South-Eastern Europe into one of the...

Recent events in Pakistan, and more widely in the Islamic world, have sparked an unprecedented level of interest in the relationship between Islam and democracy. Studies of Islamic law (Shari'ah) lie...

Inside Austria is a gripping, in-depth personal report on postwar Austria's economic and social success story but also on its turbulent political history. How has this small land-locked country...

In 1920, a massive uprising took place against British occupation of Mesopotamia. This initiated a struggle for democracy that pitted nationalist leaders against the British, their local political...

In the enormous literature on the Muslim world, one of the few gaps in our knowledge is the status of Islam in inter-war Europe, an imbalance this book aims to address. The Muslim population of...

Who really built Europe's finest Romanesque monuments? Clergymen presiding over holy sites are credited throughout history, while highly skilled creators remain anonymous. But the buildings speak for...

These are challenging times for the world's fifty-seven Muslim countries and their relationship with the West. The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is the Muslim world's intergovernmental...