“The king is dead; long live the king!”

I am sitting on my balcony in The Hague, sipping Americanos and watching King Charles III’s coronation, pondering its implications for the monarchy, the United Kingdom, and the Commonwealth. The last televised coronation in colour was in 1953, when Queen Elizabeth II assumed the role of monarch and head of the Commonwealth. Charles has awaited…… Continue reading “The king is dead; long live the king!”

Have a Very Merry Muslim Christmas

I have returned to the UK for a few days, and the experience has been intriguing. Each time I visit the UK, it feels like a completely different country compared to the Netherlands, where I now reside. The Dutch are predominantly Christian, with one in six having some form of ethnic heritage. In the Netherlands,…… Continue reading Have a Very Merry Muslim Christmas

The Football World Cup: A World in Qatari Hands—Not Quite!

The Football World Cup in Qatar started after a long build-up, and a lot of attention has been paid to issues such as the exploitation of migrant workers, corruption caused by working with and through FIFA to make this event happen, and worries about how Qatar treats people with different sexual orientations. Even though the…… Continue reading The Football World Cup: A World in Qatari Hands—Not Quite!

The Radicalisation Process

Paper presented to the panel, Terrorism Threat Assessment Radicalisation/Deradicalisation Pathways, at the Regional Conference on Enhancing Resilience Against Violent Extremism Among Migrant Workers in Southeast Asia, convened by the United Nations Office of Counterterrorism, National Counter Terrorism Agency (Indonesia), and Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Jakarta, Indonesia, 4–5 October. Many thanks indeed…… Continue reading The Radicalisation Process