An important book from a tireless campaigner' Mishal Husain 'Sara Khan is a fearless and principled voice in the struggle for the soul of Islam. Everyone who cares about combatting prejudice should read her, befriend her and fight alongside her.' Nick Cohen Across Britain, Muslims are caught up in a battle over the very nature of their faith. And extremists appear to be gaining the upper hand. Sara Khan has spent the past decade campaigning for tolerance and equal rights within Muslim communities, and is now engaged in a new struggle for justice and understanding – the urgent need to counter Islamist-inspired extremism. In this timely and courageous book, Khan shows how previously antagonistic groups of fundamentalist Muslims have joined forces, creating pressures that British society has never before encountered. What is more, identity politi and the attitudes of both the far Right and ultra-Left have combined to give the Islamists ever-increasing power to spread their message. Unafraid to tackle some of the pressing issues of our time, Sara Khan addresses the question of how to break the cycle of extremism without alienating British Muslims. She calls for all Britons to reject divisive ideologies and introduces us to those individuals who are striving to build a safer future.

In this comprehensive study of the Islamic revival from 1947 to the present, historian David Selbourne traces in detail the complex causes motivating the rise of Muslim fundamentalism in many countries and the West''s largely uncomprehending response to it. He frankly describes the hostilities, cruelties, and errors of judgment on both sides.Writing neither from the "left" nor from the "right," Selbourne pieces together up-to-date information from more numerous sources than in any other work on the subject. He highlights the grotesque role that some sections of the Western media have played and seeks to do justice to the Islamist cause, demonstrating how many of the real issues of the Islamic revival have been evaded.Selbourne argues that whether the "reawakening" of the Islamic and Arab worlds has taken the political form of Arab nationalism, as under the leadership of Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser in the 1950s, or the economic form of the OPEC oil embargo in 1973 and 1974, or the religious form of the Iranian revolution of 1989 and the present al-Qaeda suicide squads, in all its guises it is motivated by a sense of entitlement in Muslims to determine their own destiny free of Western subordination.Selbourne concludes with a warning against the illusions of the West about its superiority and ability to contain a force that is confident of its own moral superiority and certain of its ultimate triumph.Addressed both to general readers and to policy makers, academics, and journalists, The Losing Battle with Islam will stand for some time as one of the most impartial and authoritative accounts of a half century of Western conflict with Islam.

The suicide bombings carried out in London in 2005 by British Muslims revealed an enormous fifth column of Islamist terrorists and their sympathizers. Under the noses of British intelligence, London has become the European hub for the promotion, recruitment and financing of Islamic terror and extremism - so much so that it has been mockingly dubbed Londonistan. In this ground-breaking book Melanie Phillips pieces together the story of how Londonistan developed as a result of the collapse of traditional English identity and accommodation of a particularly virulent form of multiculturalism. Londonistan has become a country within the country and not only threatens Britain but its special relationship with the U.S. as well.

The expression of an Islamic political radicalism in Britain has been one of the most dramatic developments in recent decades. Islamic Radicalism and Multicultural Politics explores the nature of this phenomenon by analysing the origins of Islam and its historical contact with Western Europe and Britain, and the emergence of Islamic political radicalism in the Muslim world and in the West. Tahir Abbas draws on historical analysis and contemporary case studies to explore the post-war immigration and integration of Muslim groups, the complex relations that exist between a secular liberal Britain and a diverse but multifaceted Islam, and the extent of social and economic inequalities that affect Muslims as individual citizens and in local area communities. He shows how violent extremism among British Muslims is in reality influenced by a range of issues, including the factors of globalisation and contemporary politics, media and culture. Analysing and dissecting public policy, Abbas offers suggestions for tackling the major social, political and economic questions facing British Muslims in the post-7/7 era. An important contribution to the study of religion, ‘race’ and ethnicity in modern Britain, this accessible work will be of interest to anyone working in the field of Islamic studies, sociology and political radicalism. Cover design by Mahtab Hussain, www.mahtabhussain.com

Since 2011, with the British Government’s counter-radicalisation strategy, Prevent, non-violent Islamist groups have been considered a security risk for spreading a divisive ideology that can lead to radicalisation and violence. More recently, the Government has expressed concerns about their impact on social cohesion, entryism, and women’s rights. The key protagonists of non-violent Islamist ‘extremism’ allegedly include groups and individuals associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and Jama’at-i-Islami. They have been described as part of the ‘global Muslim Brotherhood’, but do they constitute a singular phenomenon, a social movement? This book shows that such groups and individuals do indeed comprise a movement in Britain, one dedicated to an Islamic ‘revival’. It shows how they are networked organisationally, bonded through ideological and cultural kinship, and united in a conflict of values with the British society and state. Using original interviews with prominent revivalist leaders, as well as primary sources, the book also shows how the movement is not so much ‘Islamist’ in aspiring for an Islamic state, but concerned with institutionalising an Islamic worldview and moral framework throughout society. The conflict between the Government and the global Muslim Brotherhood is apparent in a number of different fields, including education, governance, law, and counterterrorism. But this does not simply concern the direction of Government policy or the control of state institutions. It most fundamentally concerns the symbolic authority to legitimise a way of seeing, thinking and living. By assessing this multifaceted conflict, the book presents an exhaustive and up-to-date analysis of the political and cultural fault lines between Islamic revivalists and the British authorities. It will be useful for anyone studying Islam in the West, government counter-terrorism and counter-extremism policy, multiculturalism and social cohesion.

A “well-researched” account of the nineteenth-century Sudanese cleric who led a bloody holy war, from a New York Times-bestselling author (Publishers Weekly). Before bin Laden, al-Zarqawi, or Ayatollah Khomeini, there was the Mahdi—the “Expected One”—who raised the Arabs in pan-tribal revolt against infidels and apostates in Sudan. Born on the Nile in 1844, Muhammed Ahmed grew into a devout, charismatic young man, whose visage was said to have always featured the placid hint of a smile. He developed a ferocious resentment, however, against the corrupt Ottoman Turks, their Egyptian lackeys, and finally, the Europeans who he felt held the Arab people in subjugation. In 1880, he raised the banner of holy war, and thousands of warriors flocked to his side. The Egyptians dispatched a punitive expedition to the Sudan, but the Mahdist forces destroyed it. In 1883, Col. William Hicks gathered a larger army of nearly ten thousand men. Trapped by the tribesmen in a gorge at El Obeid, it was massacred to a man. Three months later, another British-led force met disaster at El Teb. This was followed by the infamous conflict at Khartoum, during which a treacherous native—or patriot, depending upon one’s point of view—let the Madhist forces into the city, resulting in the horrifying death of Gen. Charles “Chinese” Gordon at the hands of jihadists. In today’s world, the Mahdi’s words have been repeated almost verbatim by the jihadists who have attacked New York, Washington, Madrid, and London, and continue to wage war from the Hindu Kush to the Mediterranean. Along with Saladin, the Mahdi stands as an Islamic icon who launched his own successful crusade against the West. This deeply researched work reminds us that the “clash of civilizations” that supposedly came upon us in September 2001 in fact began much earlier, and “lays important tracks into the study of terror, fundamentalism and the early clash between Islam and Christianity” (Publishers Weekly).

From the 1980s Britain's large Muslim community, a long established but little noticed group, suddenly became visible as controversies involving the education and dress of Muslim schoolgirls, the Rushdie affair and the Gulf War excited huge media interest. Caricatures and misconceptions began to spread and, with political Islam on the march in many Middle Eastern countries, fears of British Muslims becoming a bridgehead in the West for the establishment of an Islamic theocracy began to loom in the popular imagination. How do British Muslims really think about themselves, about their religion and their politics? What dilemmas do they face as they give up the "myth of return" that sustained first-generation immigrants and struggle to define a British Islam? In this important book, the first major study of British Muslims, Philip Lewis deals with the reality behind distorted media images through a rich, first-hand account of the Muslim community in Bradford - the city which became the epicentre of British Muslim anger and resistance to "The Satanic Verses".