Selected articles
“Lifting the Seven Veils - Writing about Islam” - talk given at the British Library during “Sacred” exhibition, 2007
Those who cannot understand the recited verses of Arabic will always be in an outer circle, unable to approach anywhere near to the true understanding and power of the Koran.
Writer's Talk: Writing about Islam
I have got used to spotting that eyebrow flicker of incredulity when I meet Muslim writers and they hear that I have written a biography of the Prophet Muhammad
For the journey is to him - We Have Our Words and You Have Yours
The most that can be expected of any dialogue between Islam and Christianity is an awareness of the different role models for holiness and the different pathways upon which God can be approached.
Looking for a hero for all mankind
I have striven to talk and write about the Prophet as a heroic figure for all mankind to cherish - not just for those who define themselves as Muslims.
Wraps up our world in ribbons of faith
The public call to prayer that echoes out from the minarets of all the great mosques of Islam is like a circular beacon that wraps up our world in ribbons of faith.
Osama’s T-shirt and the Prophet’s Mantle
In 1998 Osama spun completely out of control. He went ‘global’, calling for a pan-Islamic International Front and arranged for forty Taliban ‘scholars’ to back a fatwa sanctioning the killing of Americans and Jews.
Exhibition review: “Hajj journey to the heart of Islam” at the British Museum, 2012
They have assembled a wonderful medley of relics from the past: be it a souvenir flask with which a pilgrim would carry the holy water of the Zemzem spring back home or a gloriously ornate medieval Haj certificate (all counter-signed, witnessed and sealed to prove that the pilgrim had indeed performed the correct rituals).
Portraits of the Prophet Muhammad
When we try to look at early Muslim two-dimensional art on paper, papyrus and parchment we face a historic blank.
To hang or not to hang - On portraits of the Prophet Muhammad in museum collections
His crime was to have shown a beautiful book illustration of the Prophet, veiled in a halo of light, ascending to the heavens.
Dreaming of the Caliphate
I switched back to reality - to watch Japanese televisions, Korean freezers and Chinese dishwashers being loaded onto American trucks by units of the Iraq army driving through the streets of Kuwait in European-made armoured cars.
Nineteen Islamic Numbers
It is an act of piety to collect together the forty most personally relevant hadith from the thousands that have been assembled.
Cultural Connections: The Middle East in London
One should not insult the memory of Thersites and Cleon by allowing Trump and Farage to be rated as fellow Demagogues.
My Demagogue Hero
One should not insult the memory of Thersites and Cleon by allowing Trump and Farage to be rated as fellow Demagogues.
Muslim Dogs
This is glory for animal-lovers to exalt in, a basic understanding that all creatures are spiritual partners on this earth.
Multi-faith Muslim Morocco
Death is greeted with frenzied ululations from female relatives and friends though men are traditionally supposed to hold back from passionate expressions of grief.