Journalist

I have always regretted the dumb and offensive comments I made in my 20s on atheism and homosexuality.

You cannot appease fascism by meeting it in the middle; you cannot beat racism by indulging or excusing it.

From a moral point of view, it is wrong... to smear or stereotype minority communities, to pretend or give credence to the idea that the actions of a minority within a community are somehow representative or the fault of the majority of members of that community. That is the very definition of bigotry.

Proportional representation is as British as first-past-the-post.

Are we willing and able to stand up to Islamophobia on days when there are not brutal terrorist attacks on Muslims in mosques?

The common stereotype of the Middle Eastern, Muslim-born terrorist is not just lazy and inaccurate but easy fodder for the anti-immigrant, anti-Islam far right.

Bigotry and demonisation of difference are usually the hallmark of immature and childish minds.

Islam, for example, like so many other faiths, stresses the importance of mutual solidarity with our fellow man.

Like Obama before him, Trump will escalate in Afghanistan. Like Obama before him, Trump will lose in Afghanistan. And the rest of us, shamefully, will continue to look the other way.

You underestimate John Bolton at your peril.

Lampooning racism by reproducing brazenly racist imagery is a pretty dubious satirical tactic.

Republicans don't give a damn about anti-Semitism. They just don't care.

I've lost count of the number of websites that try to 'out' every Muslim in public life as an extremist or Islamist of some shape or form.

In theory, the filibuster helps whichever party is in the minority in the Senate. In practice, it is the Republicans who have disproportionately used it to engage in cynical and anti-democratic obstructionism whenever they find themselves in the minority.

Let's start with the euro. What on earth were we thinking? How could anyone with the faintest grasp of economics have believed it was anything other than sheer insanity to yoke together diverse national economies such as Greece, Ireland, Germany and Finland under a single exchange rate and a single interest rate?

Reagan was no neocon.

As a supporter of secularism, I am willing to accept same-sex weddings in a state-sanctioned register office, on grounds of equity. As a believer in Islam, however, I insist that no mosque be forced to hold one against its wishes.

There is very little chance of the modern Republican Party putting the national interest above their own partisan interests.

The moment has come, as we enter the teenies, to forget the idea of a Palestinian state existing side by side with a Jewish state, and to argue and agitate instead for the only remaining, viable and democratic option: a single, secular and binational state for Israelis and Palestinians.

I have a long history of defending, and promoting, free speech and open debate - especially (especially!) within Muslim communities.