While Islam shares the prophetic tradition of Judaism and Christianity, the monotheistic religion has its own tenets and rituals, such as the belief in Allah as the one god and Muhammad as his prophet, daily prayer, charity, fasting during Ramadan, and, if possible, a pilgrimage to Mecca. Substantial parts of Asia are Muslim, while significant minorities are to be found in the Central Asian republics, India, China, North and South America, Eastern and Western Europe.Over a billion people from all races, nationalities and cultures across the globe are Muslim-from the rice farms of Indonesia to the deserts in the heart of Africa; from the skyscrapers of New York to the Bedouin tents in Arabia.What do Muslims believe in? One other interesting thing about the character is that the gold parts of him are part of his armor. Many parts of this package were dropped because of disagreements in Whitehall over what constituted extremism. The Birmingham Trojan Horse row has reignited a long and difficult debate over defining Islamist extremism. Over time, Islamic art developed a unique artistic language whose hallmarks included all-over decoration and the use of vegetal and geometric patterns, such as the Arabesque, among other forms.

While maintaining common elements, Islamic art across the globe is highly diverse, linking the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain, to the Taj Mahal in India. Additionally, while figuration is found in secular examples of Islamic Art, it is absent from religious works, in which the depiction of the human form is considered idolatry. Islamic art includes architecture, calligraphy, decorative arts (carpets, ceramics, and metalware, among other examples), and painting and stems from territories as diverse as the Arab world: Iranian lands, Turkey, India, China, and Spain. Early instances of Islamic art combined elements from existing traditions within Greco-Roman, Byzantine, and Sasanian art, as exemplified by The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Islamic Art generally refers to work made beginning in the 7th century, a period when the Islamic faith was first developing under the prophet Muhammad, in regions in which Islam was the dominant religion. However, Islamic art is difficult to define: not all Islamic art is religious, and not all artists who created it were Muslim. Puritanism, however, had a more significant persistence in American life than as the religion of black-frocked caricatures.

Inside Whitehall, officials tried to work out which community groups were best placed to receive more than £50m earmarked for projects designed to prevent extremism. Doing it right can cause even more problems. Can you and your sibling get along? Once they get to the bed sheet stage, there’s no stopping them. Update 12 May: Since I wrote this blog, my colleagues Tim Johns and Emma Hallett have written an excellent piece on life in Christian fundamentalist schools – and why some former students say they leave children ill-prepared for life in the real world. The definition it uses, outlined at the top of this blog, is much clearer than it once was – and the detailed guidance makes clear that schools should support “British values”. These former fighters were seeking safe havens because their support for Islamic states meant they posed a security threat to the despotic regimes in their own countries. Street’s founder told the BBC last year that the organisation had identified one of the killers of Fusilier Lee Rigby as a possible threat – and he believed he could have been turned away from violence had his group still been operating. They persuaded the UK that they would not pose an extremist threat here and were allowed to settle.

There were proposals to close extremist mosques, bookshops and other organisations. Bilal was exceptionally close to Muhammad, too. It is well worth reading in the context of the current debate. In 1994, he founded Wynne Chambers: one of the first chambers to specialise in Islamic law as well as English law. The first – and arguably best – of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright’s hilarious “Cornetto Trilogy”, Shaun of the Dead is modern British humor at its best. Today, the government defines extremism as “vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs”. He said that groups wishing to work with government had to pass tests such as whether they believed in human rights, including for women, the rule of law and democracy. Since the Munich speech, the government has massively cut funding to Muslim community groups that it felt did not meet these tests. While many groups took the cash and used it to do some local good, a great deal of them didn’t seem to have any means to combat extremism – not least because nobody seemed to agree what it was.