Shaimaa Khalil discusses the rising trend in the UK of primary school girls wearing the hijab, whether there is a need for concern about this, and who, if anyone, has the right to decide what young girls wear.
A claim made by the Spectator in September, 2017 that “there are an estimated 32,000 Muslims eager to commit the next terror atrocity” has been found to be “significantly” inaccurate by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). It took the article five months to be corrected, during which time countless readers will have read the false statistics, which misrepresent British Muslims.
Nick Cohen discusses how the British left-wing fail to support, and sometimes undermine, liberal progressive Muslims who are fighting inequalities endorsed by culture and religion in their community. But his argument fails to appreciate the nuances of the current debates surrounding British Muslim communities.
A January article from the Spectator discusses the emergence of two distinct Muslim cultures in Britain. Cohen writes of the reaction to St Stephen’s primary school in Newham banning the wearing of the headscarf for girls under the age of eight, drawing links to issues of Muslim engagement with public life and counter-extremism efforts in the UK.
