18 July 2005

From the Editor…

Welcome to the New Statesman website. Whether you are a new reader or an existing one - online or via the magazine - I hope you'll enjoy the great writing, fresh ideas and provocative debate that make the New Statesman Britain's award-winning current affairs weekly

Jason Cowley, Editor, New Statesman

Cover story

The struggle for Islam's soul

Terror in the UK - Most Muslims abhor violence, yet the terrorists are a product of a specific mindset that has deep roots in Islamic history. If Muslims refuse to confront this, we will all be prey to more terror

By Ziauddin Sardar

Features

The conveyor belt of extremism

By Shiv Malik

Terror in the UK - Hizb ut-Tahrir sells itself as a community group. Its members become part of a viral network spreading word of a holy struggle. Shiv Malik talks to one of its recruiters

A violent episode in the virtual world

By John Gray

Terror and the UK - The media's globalisation of terror makes us feel part of a worldwide community facing a common problem, but this is a dangerous illusion, argues John Gray

I survived: stop asking questions

By Alice O'Keeffe

By Alice O'Keeffe

A memory for London

By Ariel Dorfman

Terror and the UK - Ariel Dorfman recalls the moment when a stubborn city gave inspiration to a future writer

They came, they talked, they left. For what?

By Mark Thomas

G8 - Geldof asked for perspective and then gave the G8 full marks on aid. Come off it

They came, they talked, they left. For what?

By Michela Wrong

G8 - No one gave the NGOs a right to the last word. They have agendas like all the rest

Italy's name without shame

By John Follain

Swing with the Mussolini All Star band. Buy T-shirts at the Mussolini shrine. Vote for the Mussolini party. He shouldn't be, but Il Duce is almost hip

Invasion of the Sienna clones

By Viv Groskop

Wherever you look this summer, every woman is dressed exactly the same, complains Viv Groskop

''We don't mind what colour the baby is,'' said my father-to-be. The adoption officer beamed. Perhaps, after all, there was a baby available - me

By Katharine Quarmby

Half Persian and half white, Katharine Quarmby grew up in a loving home in Norfolk. Adoption across the race divide is controversial, she says, but it beats a childhood in care

Essay

NS Essay - 'Religious radicals want to limit our freedoms, so to curb free speech is to give them exactly what they want'

By A C Grayling

After the events of 7 July, the proposed law to criminalise incitement to racial hatred is even more dangerous, argues A C Grayling. Such laws simply provide weapons for all sides to attack each other

Regulars

New Statesman Leader

Bombs with lessons for us all

Darcus Howe revisits 1990

By Darcus Howe

On my way to the airport and home, a bomb exploded in the centre of Port of Spain

Competition

Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store

Culture

More ale, vicar!

By Genevieve Fox

Home-made jam on trestle tables? Urban performance artists turning up and alienating everyone? The typical summer arts festival can veer dangerously around. Genevieve Fox goes to deepest Suffolk to find an example that avoids either extreme

Northern exposure

By Michael Coveney

Orkney - This magical island is the perfect setting for an annual feast of music and poetry, reports Michael Coveney

Carbuncles

By Richard Cork

Architecture - As the Serpentine opens its annual pavilion, Richard Cork wonders where our spirit of adventure has gone

Earthly delights

By David Benedict

Opera - David Benedict is seduced by the thrilling exoticism of a scantily clad queen of the Nile

Theatre

Michael Portillo - The art of love

By Michael Portillo

Theatre - A poignant tale of thwarted obsession in the East End. By Michael Portillo Shoreditch Madonna Soho Theatre, London W1

Television

Andrew Billen - Lost for words

By Andrew Billen

Television - Clueless celebs tie themselves up in verbal knots, writes Andrew Billen Spelling Bee (ITV1)

Books

NS Profile - Ian McEwan

By Jason Cowley

Terror and the UK - He is the closest thing we have to a "national novelist": one who can speak to and for the nation at times of crisis. Ian McEwan profiled

Rules of engagement. A new history of the Falklands war defends nearly every aspect of the Tory government’s handling of the crisis, including the decision to sink the Belgrano. By Andrew Roberts

By Andrew Roberts

The Official History of the Falklands Campaign Sir Lawrence Freedman Routledge; volume 1 - 253pp, £39.95 (hbk); volume 2 - 849pp, £49.95 (hbk) ISBN 0714652075