Islamic State terrorism and propaganda are designed to provoke often predictable responses. We naturally respond with displays of outrage and solidarity, but we should beware the trap of division.
Addressing violent extremism requires more than police simply knowing about the signs of radicalisation.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
We cannot ignore or underestimate the important role police can play in community-based efforts to tackle radicalisation and violent extremism.
Acknowledging and strengthening the potential of the Muslim community is key to promoting a cohesive diverse society in Australia.
Muslim Women’s Welfare of Australia
The trick for the jihadist recruiter is to find someone whose alienation will run the gamut to murder, usually by providing an affirmative role model that speaks to their unease.
Over 500 years ago, first Jews and then Muslims were expelled from Spain. This summer, Spain’s Parliament invited the former back but not the latter. Here’s what Cervantes might say to his countrymen.
Does God exist? Is piety worth it? Can violence be justified? Philosophy can offer a way to engage with these questions on which there are often widely differing beliefs.
Islamic scholarship gave rise to some of the world’s earliest educational institutions such as the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.
Wikimedia Commons/CPT photo
There is nothing in Islam that makes it dangerous or threatening to a modern Western way of life. However, those looking to incite violence and hatred are always capable of finding textual references in…
One of the over 160 million Muslims in India
Adnan Abidi/Reuters
As President Obama celebrates India’s Republic Day on January 26, he will be visiting the largest democracy in the world and one that has more than 160 million Muslim citizens. That’s roughly half the…
When violence erupts, we can be tempted to make judgements about collective responsibility based on our own allegiances, rather than consistent moral principles.
EPA/Ian Langsdon
When should we hold a group morally responsible for a member’s evil? In the wake of the Charlie Hedbo attacks, many will demand answers about Islam’s role in promoting violence. As we brace for the inevitable…
Safiya Hussien, the mother of missing 15-year-old schoolgirl Yusra Hussien, urges her daughter to come home.
Ben Birchall/PA
On the morning of September 24 2014, 15-year-old Yusra Hussien left for school near her home in Easton, Bristol. She then disappeared. News reports surfaced a few days later that Yusra and a 17-year-old…
Islamic dietary law requires that certain methods be used when preparing meat, such as that a Muslim be the one butchering the animal.
Reuters
For many Muslims, adherence to Islamic dietary laws, known as halal, is an intrinsic part of their everyday lives. Even those who are relatively lax with other rituals of the faith tend to adhere to halal…
An Australian 17-year-old must be utterly alienated from the community to feel at home with Islamic State.
Youtube
The upcoming first ever Global Forum on Youth Policies has put the spotlight on the position of young people who, the United Nations says, are our “greatest resource”. Australia is among a minority of…
Locking up convicted extremists does not prevent marginalised and angry youth from being radicalised.
AAP/Julian Smith
The dreadful events in Iraq and Syria and counter-terrorism raids in Australia have alarmed Australians, including the 500,000-strong Muslim community. These incidents represent a new episode of the “third…
Religious leaders have come together to promote community harmony, but some political and media agendas have encouraged Islamophobia.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
Many incidents of violence and harassment directed at Australian Muslims have been reported recently. These are visible confirmation of fears expressed by their community, that support for the government’s…
Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman Wassim Doureihi addresses a protest rally about counter-terrorism raids in Sydney last month.
AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott calls it “a thoroughly objectionable organisation”, “un-Australian” and “un-Islamic”. But would it be a good idea to ban the Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir? Hizb…
A US Marine covers a statue of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein with the US flag in Baghdad’s al-Fardous square in April 2003, before the statue was toppled.
EPA PHOTO AFPI/RAMZI HAIDAR
For at least a decade, attempts to understand why some young Muslims living in Western countries turn to violence in the name of religion have raised questions about Western foreign policy in the Middle…
Police and Muslim leaders have joined forces to call for harmony, but just and fair treatment in counter-terrorism operations is needed to reassure the Islamic community.
AAP/Mal Fairclough
Muslim communities in Australia feel under siege. It is evident from media reports that they feel unfairly targeted by counter-terrorism policing. They also feel vilified by much of the reporting of these…
A real national conversation about democratic values will be inclusive and challenging – not fear-mongering.
Is Azfar Ahmad/Flickr
Events in the Middle East that have both shocked and horrified us seem to have opened the doors to anyone who wants to criticise Islam, raise concerns about multiculturalism and romanticise an age when…
A handwritten Qur'an in Lahore Museum, Pakistan.
Usman Ahmed/Flickr
Islam, like Judaism, is a religion of law. The usual Arabic word for Islamic law is sharia (pronounced shar-ee-ah), originally the track leading to a waterhole in the desert. For Muslims, the morally good…
Senior Research Fellow, Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at IUPUI and Journalist-fellow, Religion and Civic Culture Center, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Associate Professor in Islamic Studies, Director of The Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation and Executive Member of Public and Contextual Theology, Charles Sturt University