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A Battle of Insults

When David Blunkett was home secretary, he came up with the extraordinary idea that the problems of social cohesion and integration could all be solved by calling upon parents, and he singled out Asian parents, to speak to their own children at home in English rather...

An Insufficient Apology

When Pope Benedict recently delivered a lecture and managed to find the time and space to take a swipe at Islam, the Prophet Mohammed and effectively every Muslim, he must have expected the kind of reaction that followed across the Muslim world. If he hadn't, then he...

A Bridge for the World

One year on from the July 7 bombings, we have some perspective on how our society is facing up to the challenges of a common future. From that tragic morning on which dozens were killed in a cruel act of murder to the recent arrests of two young Muslims, one of whom...

A Difficult Diagnosis

One of the problems of today's analysis of the terrorist threat is the tendency to over-simplify the diagnosis. George Bush did it when hewarned the world after 9/11: "You are either with us or with the terrorists." Writers, analysts and academics continue to do it...