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Nothing, says ANDY HEDGECOCK, can rescue this undistinguished amalgam of ponderous melodrama and shallow philosophical speculation
Informed dialogue on the subtleties of Islamic religion
Steve Andrew reviews The Mosaic of Islam: A Conversation with Perry Anderson by Suleiman Mourad (Verso, £9.99)
JAMIE BRITTON invites readers to visit 3,500 locals as part of a marathon artistic pub crawl
JOHN GREEN welcomes a valuable and incisive analysis of a world become hyperpolitical but without the mass movement institutions to represent it
JAMES WALSH is moved by a provocative and original take on the relationship between ecology and architecture, and a plea to work with, not against, the materials and minerals of our world
An immersive, participatory display by a queer Australian Aboriginal performer, and a rebellious unravelling of traditional Scottish dance
SULEIMAN MOURAD’S book, in the shape of a lengthy discourse with leftist academic Perry Anderson, is a seminal guide to Islam.
He appreciates that the religion is best analysed by recognising that the centrality of ideas and values in determining the origins, role and contribution of a belief system has to coexist with an understanding of its interaction with more materialistic phenomenon such as political economy, class struggle and anti-imperialism.
Basic Marxism, one might say, but nonetheless in need of reiteration when more idealist interpretations start to claim the ascendancy — something which is certainly the case at the present time.
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BRENT CUTLER searches a new history of contemporary Iran for an understanding of the Islamic Republic, finding both interesting detail and glaring omissions
The selection, analysis and interpretation of historical ‘facts’ always takes place within a paradigm, a model of how the world works. That’s why history is always a battleground, declares the Marx Memorial Library