https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPt47bhsVy8 I am writing today simply to summarize and amplify the astonishing, unvarnished insights of a man who possesses the kind of unimpeachable establishment credentials that I do not. Major General Charlie Herbert is not a brown Muslim activist. He is a retired senior officer who spent 34 years in the British Army, rising from…… Continue reading Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud (So I Don’t Have To): An Establishment General’s Verdict on the Middle East
Author: prof.t.abbas
The Unamused Critic Converted: On Riz Ahmed’s Meta-Cinematic Bait
I wasn’t quite sure what to make of Bait, the new Amazon Prime six-part series written and produced by Riz Ahmed. I was watching, thinking clearly there’s a great deal of fuss about it, so it’s either really useful and interesting and artistically well put, or people are praising it because of the Riz Ahmed…… Continue reading The Unamused Critic Converted: On Riz Ahmed’s Meta-Cinematic Bait
Branding Birmingham: The Audacity of the Demographic Dividend
We are no longer bankrupt. We are no longer apologising. We are the youngest, most diverse, most audacious city in Europe. It is time we started acting like it.
The Caliphate of Croydon: How Britain’s Bourgeoisie Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Halal Apocalypse
A dispatch from the frontlines of the Great Replacement, where every suburban cul-de-sac is a potential emirate and white women live in fear of being force-fed baklava It is 6:45 AM on a Tuesday morning in Royal Tunbridge Wells, and Margaret Whitmore-Smythe has not slept. She stands at her bay window, clutching her Yorkshire Tea,…… Continue reading The Caliphate of Croydon: How Britain’s Bourgeoisie Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Halal Apocalypse
The Geopolitics of Prayer: When Public Worship Becomes an “Act of Domination”
In the lexicon of contemporary political discourse, certain phrases reveal more about the speaker than the subject. When Nick Timothy, the Conservative Party’s shadow justice secretary, described Muslim prayer in Trafalgar Square as an “act of domination”, he inadvertently exposed the architecture of a deeper pathology. Writing on X regarding the Open Iftar event hosted…… Continue reading The Geopolitics of Prayer: When Public Worship Becomes an “Act of Domination”
The “Muslim Threat” Video: How Numbers Lie
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VatuEcSKn4U You’ve probably seen the video or presentation slides. Confident framing, a stark green background declaring “Official UK Government data”, and a simple, dangerous message: Muslims are a burden and a threat. It feels convincing because it borrows the credibility of the Office for National Statistics. But here’s how the presentation actually manipulates you. The…… Continue reading The “Muslim Threat” Video: How Numbers Lie
Between Definition and Reality: Assessing the Prognosis for the UK’s Anti-Muslim Hostility Framework
Introduction On 9 March 2026, Communities Secretary Steve Reed stood before the House of Commons to announce the adoption of a non-statutory definition of anti-Muslim hostility – a milestone nearly a decade in the making. The definition, crafted by an independent working group chaired by former Attorney General Dominic Grieve KC, arrives at a moment…… Continue reading Between Definition and Reality: Assessing the Prognosis for the UK’s Anti-Muslim Hostility Framework
Goodwin’s World: Manufactured Anxiety, Epistemic Violence, and the Architecture of Islamophobia
In his March 2026 Substack newsletter, Matt Goodwin launched a comprehensive attack on the Labour government’s new official definition of “anti-Muslim hostility”. Goodwin aggressively frames this policy as an authoritarian “assault on our free speech” that will be forced upon taxpayer-funded institutions ranging from schools and universities to the health service and local government. Relying…… Continue reading Goodwin’s World: Manufactured Anxiety, Epistemic Violence, and the Architecture of Islamophobia
The Architecture of Manufactured Anxiety: Decoding the 2025 State of British Media Report
The release of the Centre for Media Monitoring’s (CfMM) State of British Media 2025: Reporting on Muslims and Islam marks a watershed moment for those of us engaged in British Muslim studies, media narratives, and policy development. Published today, this report presents an unprecedented, data-driven diagnostic of an information integrity crisis that places public understanding…… Continue reading The Architecture of Manufactured Anxiety: Decoding the 2025 State of British Media Report
Degrees of Distrust: How Higher Education Alienates British Muslims
I’m very happy to announce the forthcoming publication, ‘The Credential Reversal: Blocked Credentialism, Ethnic Penalties, and Institutional Trust among British Muslims’, in Ethnic and Racial Studies with my colleague Özge Onay of the Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge. This short blog is a summary of its key findings and contribution to current debates. For…… Continue reading Degrees of Distrust: How Higher Education Alienates British Muslims