The British writer Hanif Kureishi decided to mark the 20th anniversary of the Rushdie affair by adapting for the stage his 1995 second novel “The Black Album”. The novel is set in 1988/89 and the Rushdie affair and radicalization of young Muslims are its central themes. The Black Album charts the cultural and political development…
Hanif Kureishi has turned his own vibrant 1995 novel into a play. The result is a busy, hectic affair that raises all kinds of issues about religious and political faith, fatwas and censorship and the purpose of art. But, as so often with adaptations, you get the bones without the thickness of texture that was…
Abbas Taj, 30, a mini-cab driver, was found guilty of conspiracy to firebomb the home of Martin Rynja, the publisher of The Jewel Of Medina. He was to be the getaway driver, but was stopped in his car and arrested by armed police near Angel Tube station in the early hours in September last year,…
A nightly radio phone-in show in Paris has opened up a forum for French Muslim youth to ask questions about religious practice. The show is hosted by Ahmed el Keiy, a lawyer-turned-journalist, who invites imams to help answer questions a wide range of topics, from perfume and hair gel, to prayer. Citing a lack of…
