“Ever since the monumental day of 11 September 2001, the world has been inundated by stale clichés and dim-witted myths, poorly disguised as honest academic research and free objective journalism.

“In this great hyperbole, the world appears broken into two opposite trenches: a sphere of freedom, morality and civility, confronted by its antithesis: an enslaved barbaric realm that encapsulates all that “we” are not.

“The far-stretching lands of Islam loom largely in this bleak uncivilised sphere. If the modern West is dynamic, the world of Islam is stagnant. If it is governed democratically and honours self-ownership, Islam is plagued by a despotism that crushes the individual altogether out of existence. If it is rigorously rational, the world of Islam is the embodiment of raving instincts and wild emotionalism.”

Soumayya Ghannoushi on the Muslim Association of Britain website