The Swedish EU presidency is ready to talk to or confront Iran over its nuclear programme, characterising as a “provocation” the appointment of a “terror suspect” as the country’s defence minister. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country holds the EU presidency, said they are willing to response positively to Iran if it wanted to engage Europe. Iran insists its nuclear work is peaceful but Western countries allege that it wants atomic weapons. The UN S...

Creative writing courses and groups have mushroomed in Britain in recent years. But as far as the novelist, poet and creative writing teacher Zahid Hussain knows, Manchester Muslim Writers (MMW) is the first society for Muslims who write fiction, poetry or non-fiction. The group covers not only novels, short stories and poetry, but screenwriting, travel writing, feature writing, memoirs, textbooks and technical writing. Hussain initiated the setting up of MMW in the northern English city of M...

An ongoing controversy over a German culture prize has been resolved. A Muslim writer is set to get his part of an important award for intercultural understanding, despite initial opposition. The dispute over the 45,000-euro ($61,000) Hesse Culture Prize first broke out in May. Initially, the award was slated to go to four men from four different world religions – a Catholic, a Lutheran, a Muslim and a Jew – in honour of the value of religious dialogue. But Muslim author Navid Ker...

Indonesian officials have warned radical Muslim groups not to attack nightclubs and other businesses deemed sinful in Islam during the Ramadan fasting month. A red-light district in Sumatra was attacked by radical Muslims. Many houses believed to be used for vice activities were set on fire. Arie Budhiman, who heads the Jakarta tourism and culture office, said: “The Jakarta police chief has made it quite clear that unauthorised mass organisations are not permitted to perform supervisory...