By Jane Perlez LONDON: As part of his series of farewells, Prime Minister Tony Blair on Monday addressed a government-organized conference on Islam and declared that the “authentic voices” of the religion should be given a stage over the voices of extremism. Blair, who has said he will take a special interest in interfaith affairs…
An international conference on Islam is being held in London next week but without the participation of such mainstream organizations as the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). Last year, the British government altered its strategy of bringing into dialogue, such organizations as the MCB, while promoting new groups that it was more prepared to cooperate…
According to Angelo Bonelli of the Green Party, critics of Rome Mayor Veltroni’s decision to invite Tariq Ramadan to a recent conference in Rome on Islam have lost all sense of reason. Bonelli particularly condemned members of the center-right Casa delle Libert_ (CDL). “The CDL, he argued, is now blinded from a sort of Islamophobia…
Tariq Ramadan will speak opposite playwright and producer British-Pakistani secular Hanif Kureishi in the final day of the Festival of the Philosophy. Critics see Ramadan’s presence at the conference as support for what they consider a radical position. Daniela Santanch_ (An) accused the Mayor Veltroni of Rome of having invited “a declared fundamentalist, a bandit…
LONDON – More than 1000 Muslim protesters have gathered in east London to demonstrate against an anti-terror raid in which a man was shot. Demonstrators waved placards emblazoned with a variety of anti-government and anti-police slogans, including: “Tony Blair terrorist”, “Stop police brutality”, and “Blair: shoot first ask questions later”. But the family of the…
