Mysterious Irrationality: English Literature and Islam

The ‘Azan’, the call to prayer, invites worshippers in London to the mosque at Brick Lane and Regent’s Park, at Finsbury Park and Willesden, at Walthamstow Central and Cricklewood, and the faithful troop in for the evening prayers, cowering from the fog, rain and mist.  Once inside, they settle into a calming and benign ritual that soothes their anxious spirits, and as they read the holy book in the English translation do they hesitate to recall how their religion may have been portrayed through the pages of British and specifically, English, literature?  The books and newspapers, television, the internet, and blogosphere all routinely portray the glorious religion of Islam and Muslims as a kind of third column, 3.4 million in number yet a suspected minority in the maelstrom of black, ethnic and third world immigrant population of London.