In the last couple of weeks, there have been three stories about companies selling halal products and apparently distressing some of their non-Muslim consumers. Firstly, we have a McDonalds store in Melbourne that, shortly before Ramadan, decided to use halal meat for their products. There is a sign on the wall next to the counter...
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OK, imagine for one moment that you are a grandmother and you wish to register your anger over recent comments made by Sydney’s Sheikh Taj al-Hilaly. You want to send a powerful message that you are not a piece of uncovered meat. What do you do? That’s right. First, you wait a few weeks until...
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Turkey is often held up by some unimaginative politicians and commentators as a successful reconciliation of Islam and secularism that the rest of the Muslim world should imitate. Perhaps the treatment of Turkish libertarian academic Dr. Atilla Yalya — no “Islamist” by any means — for simply referring to Ataturk as “this man” will give...
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Although it is quite expensive by the time it reaches the shelves of my local Borders store, City Journal is nonetheless a very worthwhile investment as a magazine filled with incisive and useful social commentary. In the latest issue is a nice essay by Theodore Dalrymple on the subject of language; responding, in part, to...
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