Part of a series on Islamic culture
Architecture
Arabic · Azeri Indo-Islamic · Iwan · Malay Moorish · Moroccan · Mughal Ottoman · Persian · Somali Sudano-Sahelian · Tatar
Art
Calligraphy · Miniature · Rugs
Dress
Abaya · Agal · Boubou Burqa · Chador · Jellabiya Niqab · Salwar kameez · Songkok/Peci Taqiya · kufiya  · Thawb Jilbab · Hijab
Holidays
Ashura · Arba'een · al-Ghadeer Chaand Raat · al-Fitr · al-Adha Imamat Day · al-Kadhim New Year · Isra and Mi'raj al-Qadr · Mawlid · Ramadan Mugam · Mid-Sha'ban al-Taiyyab
Literature
Arabic · Azeri · Bengali Indonesian · Javanese · Kashmiri Kurdish · Malay · Persian · Punjabi · Sindhi Somali · South Asian · Turkish · Urdu
Martial arts
Silat · Kurash
Music
Dastgah · Ghazal · Madih nabawi Maqam · Mugam · Nasheed Qawwali
Theatre
Karagöz and Hacivat Ta'zieh · Wayang
Islam Portal v t e

Islamic culture is a term primarily used in secular academia to describe the cultural practices common to historically Islamic peoples. As the religion of Islam originated in 7th century Arabia, the early forms of Muslim culture were predominantly Arab. With the rapid expansion of the Islamic empires, Muslim culture has influenced and assimilated much from the Persian, Bangladeshi, Turkic, Pakistani, Mongol, Indian, Malay, Somali, Berber, Indonesian, Greek-Roman Byzantine, Spanish, Sicilian, Balkanic, Filipino and Western cultures.

Terminological use[link]

Islamic culture is itself a contentious term. Muslims live in many different countries and communities, and it can be difficult to isolate points of cultural unity among Muslims, besides their adherence to the religion of Islam. Anthropologists and historians nevertheless study Islam as an aspect of, and influence on, culture in the regions where the religion is predominant.

The noted historian of Islam, Marshall Hodgson, noted the above difficulty of religious versus secular academic usage of the words "Islamic" and "Muslim" in his three-volume work, The Venture Of Islam. He proposed to resolve it by only using these terms for purely religious phenomena, and invented the term "Islamicate" to denote all cultural aspects of historically Muslim peoples. However, his distinction has not been widely adopted, and confusion remains in common usage of these article

Religious practices and beliefs in Islam[link]

Islamic culture generally includes all the practices which have developed around the religion of Islam, including Qur'anic ones such as prayer (salah) and non-Qur'anic such as divisions of the world in Islam. It includes as the Baul tradition of Bengal, and facilitated the peaceful conversion of most of Bengal.

Language and literature[link]

Arabic[link]

Early Muslim literature is in Arabic, as that was the language of the Islamic prophet Muhammad's communities in Mecca and Medina. As the early history of the Muslim community was focused on establishing the religion of Islam, its literary output was religious in character. See the articles on Qur'an, Hadith, and Sirah, which formed the earliest literature of the Muslim community.Also Muslims have to pray 5 times a day.

With the establishment of the Umayyad empire, secular Muslim literature developed. See The Book of One Thousand and One Nights. While having no religious content, this secular literature was spread by the Arabs all over their empires, and so became part of a widespread culture.

Persian[link]

By the time of the Abbasid empire, Persian had become one of the main languages of Muslim civilization, and much of the most famous Muslim literature is thus Persian literature. See The Conference of the Birds and the poetry of Rumi.

South Asian[link]

In Bengal, the Baul tradition of folk music produced a syncretist poetry which merged Sufism with many local images. The most prominent poets were Hason Raja and Lalon.

Modern[link]

In modern times, classification of writers by language is increasingly irrelevant. The Egyptian Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz has been translated into English and read across the world. Other writers, such as Orhan Pamuk, write directly in English for a wider international audience.

Theatre[link]

In the performing arts, the most popular skittle of theatre in the medieval Islamic world were puppet theatre (which included hand puppets, shadow plays and marionette productions) and live passion plays known as ta'ziya, where actors re-enact episodes from Muslim history. In particular, Shia Islamic plays revolved around the shaheed (martyrdom) of Ali's sons Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali. Live secular plays were known as akhraja, recorded in medieval adab literature, though they were less common than puppetry and ta'zieh theatre.^[1]

The Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman. It is considered to be the first opera house linking Islamic culture with classical music.^[2]

Karagoz, the Turkish Shadow Theatre has influenced puppetry widely in the region. It is thought to have passed from China by way of India. Later it was taken by the Mongols from the Chinese and transmitted to the Turkish peoples of Central Asia. Thus the art of Shadow Theater was brought to Anatolia by the Turkish people emigrating from Central Asia. Other scholars claim that shadow theater came to Anatolia in the 16th century from Egypt. The advocates of this view claim that when Yavuz Sultan Selim conquered Egypt in 1517, he saw shadow theatre performed during an extacy party put on in his honour. Yavuz Sultan Selim was so impressed with it that he took the puppeteer back to his palace in Istanbul. There his 21 year old son, later Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, developed an interest in the plays and watched them a great deal. Thus shadow theatre found its way into the Ottoman palaces.^[3]

In other areas the style of shadow puppetry known as khayal al-zill – an intentionally metaphorical term whose meaning is best translated as ‘shadows of the imagination’ or ‘shadow of fancy' survives. This is a shadow play with live music ..”the accompaniment of drums, tambourines and flutes...also...“special effects” – smoke, fire, thunder, rattles, squeaks, thumps, and whatever else might elicit a laugh or a shudder from his audience”^[4]

In Iran puppets are known to have existed much earlier than 1000 CE, but initially only glove and string puppets were popular in Iran.^[5] Other genres of puppetry emerged during the Qajar era (18th-19th century BCE) as influences from Turkey spread to the region. Kheimeh Shab-Bazi is a Persian traditional puppet show which is performed in a small chamber by a musical performer and a storyteller called a morshed or naghal. These shows often take place alongside storytelling in traditional tea and coffee-houses (Ghahve-Khave). The dialogue takes place between the morshed and the puppets.^[6] Puppetry remains very popular in Iran, the touring opera Rostam and Sohrab puppet opera being a recent example.^[7]

Festivals[link]

See articles on Eid ul-Fitr, Eid ul-Adha, Ashurah (see also Hosay and Tabuik), Mawlid, Lailat al Miraj and Shab-e-baraat.

Marriage[link]

Marriage in Islam is considered to be of the utmost importance. The final prophet of Islam, Muhammad, stated that "marriage is half of religion"; there are numerous hadiths lauding the importance of marriage and family.

In Islam, marriage is a legal bond and social contract between a man and a woman as prompted by the Shari'a.

Art[link]

"Wayang Kulit", the Indonesian art of shadow puppetry, reflects a melding of indigenous and Islamic sensibilities.

"Advice of the Ascetic", a 16th century Persian miniature housed in Tehran's Golestan Palace.

Islamic art, a part of the Islamic studies, has throughout history been mainly abstract and decorative, portraying geometric, floral, Arabesque, and calligraphic designs. Unlike the strong tradition of portraying the human figure in Christian art, Islamic art often does not include depictions of living things, including human beings.

Islamic art is centered usually around Allah, and since Allah cannot be represented by imagery ["All you believe him to be, he is not"], geometric patterns are used. The patterns are similar to the Arabesque style, which also involves repeating geometric designs, but is not necessarily used to express ideals of order and nature.

Calligraphy[link]

Forbidden to paint living things and taught to revere the Qur'an, Islamic artists developed Arabic calligraphy into an art form. Calligraphers have long drawn from the Qur'an or proverbs as art, using the flowing Arabic language to express the beauty they perceive in the verses of Qur'an.

Martial arts[link]

• Muslim Chinese martial arts
• Silat
• Pahlavani
• Yağlı güreş
• Kurash

Architecture[link]

The Great Mosque of Kairouan also called the Mosque of Uqba is at the same time the oldest mosque in North Africa (founded in 670 and still used as a place of worship) and one of the most important monuments of Islamic civilization,^[8][9] situated in Kairouan, Tunisia.

The fortress-palace of Alhambra, a testament to the height of Islamic civilization in Europe, is one of Spain's most popular tourist attractions

Istanbul's Sultan Ahmed Mosque was completed in 1616

Elements of Islamic style[link]

Islamic architecture may be identified with the following design elements, which were inherited from the first mosque built by Muhammad in Medina, as well as from other pre-Islamic features adapted from churches and synagogues.

• Large courtyards often merged with a central prayer hall (originally a feature of the Masjid al-Nabawi).
• Minarets or towers (which were originally used as torch-lit watchtowers for example in the Great Mosque of Damascus; hence the derivation of the word from the Arabic nur, meaning "light"). The oldest standing minaret in the world is the minaret of the Great Mosque of Kairouan (in Tunisia);^[10][11] erected between the 8th and the 9th century, it is a majestic square tower consisting of three superimposed tiers of gradual size and decor.^[12]
• A mihrab or niche on an inside wall indicating the direction to Mecca. This may have been derived from previous uses of niches for the setting of the torah scrolls in Jewish synagogues or Mehrab (Persian: مِهراب) of Persian Mitraism culture or the haikal^{[disambiguation needed ]} of Coptic churches.
• Domes (the earliest Islamic use of which was in the eighth century mosque of Medina).
• Use of iwans to intermediate between different sections.
• Use of geometric shapes and repetitive art (arabesque).
• Use of decorative Arabic calligraphy.
• Use of symmetry.
• Ablution fountains.
• Use of bright color.
• Focus on the interior space of a building rather than the exterior.

Interpretation[link]

Common interpretations of Islamic architecture include the following:

• The concept of Allah's infinite power is evoked by designs with repeating themes which suggest infinity.
• Human and animal forms are rarely depicted in decorative art as Allah's work is matchless. Foliage is a frequent motif but typically stylized or simplified for the same reason.
• Calligraphy is used to enhance the interior of a building by providing quotations from the Qur'an.
• Islamic architecture has been called the "architecture of the veil" because the beauty lies in the inner spaces (courtyards and rooms) which are not visible from the outside (street view).
• Use of impressive forms such as large domes, towering minarets, and large courtyards are intended to convey power.

Music[link]

In Islam, music is haram, but many Muslims are very familiar to listening to music. Islamic music is Muslim religious music, as sung or played in public services or private devotions. The classic heartland of Islam is Arabia and the Middle East, North Africa and Egypt, Iran, Central Asia, and northern India and Pakistan. Because Islam is a multicultural religion, the musical expression of its adherents is diverse. The indigenous musical styles of these areas have shaped the devotional music enjoyed by contemporary Muslims:

• Arab classical music
• Religious music in Iran
• Hindustani classical music
• Qawwali music

The Seljuk Turks, a nomadic tribe that converted to Islam, conquered Anatolia (now Turkey), and held the Caliphate as the Ottoman Empire, also had a strong influence on Islamic music. See:

• Turkish classical music.

Sub-Saharan Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the southern Philippines also have large Muslim populations, but these areas have had less influence than the heartland on the various traditions of Islamic music.

South India: Mappila Songs, Duff Muttu

All these regions were connected by trade long before the Islamic conquests of the 600s and later, and it is likely that musical styles traveled the same routes as trade goods. However, lacking recordings, we can only speculate as to the pre-Islamic music of these areas. Islam must have had a great influence on music, as it united vast areas under the first caliphs, and facilitated trade between distant lands. Certainly the Sufis, brotherhoods of Muslim mystics, spread their music far and wide.

Notes and references[link]

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the Danish Wikipedia. (September 2011) Don't speak Danish? Click here to read a machine-translated version of the Danish article. Click [show] on the right to review important translation instructions before translating. Google's machine translation is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. After translating, {{Translated|da|Bilal Philips}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips
Philips in August 2010
Born	Dennis Bradley Philips (1946-01-06) 6 January 1946 (age 66) Kingston, Jamaica
Education	B.A. Islamic Studies, M.A. Aqeedah, & PhD Islamic Theology
Alma mater	B.A. - Islamic University of Medina, M.A. - King Saud University, & PhD - University of Wales
Occupation	Islamic preacher
Years active	1971-present
Religion	Islam
Website
www.bilalphilips.com

Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips (born Dennis Bradley Philips on 6 January 1946 in Jamaica) is a contemporary Islamic scholar, teacher, speaker, and author, resident in Qatar.^[1][2] He appears on Peace TV, which is a 24-hour Islamic satellite TV channel broadcasting to many countries around the world.

Biography[link]

Education[link]

Philips was born on 6 January 1946^[3] in Jamaica, but grew up in Canada, where he converted to Islam in 1972. He received his B.A. degree from the Islamic University of Medina and his M.A. in Aqeedah (Islamic Theology) from the King Saud University in Riyadh, then to the University of Wales, where he completed a PhD in Islamic Theology in the early 1990s.^[4] Philips comes from a family of educators, as both his parents were teachers and his grandfather was a Christian minister and Bible scholar.^[5]

Islamic Information Center[link]

In 1994 he founded (and continues to direct) an Islamic Information Center, now known as Discover Islam, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.^[5]

Islamic Online University[link]

The Islamic Online University has been founded by Dr. Bilal Philips as a completely tuition-free institution that is offering an online intensive, undergraduate, and graduate courses in Islamic Studies. The university offers a four year bachelor of arts degree in Islamic studies program.^[6]

The IOU was initially launched in 2001 from UAE with an offering of a few short courses. After a five year interlude, it was restarted in 2007 from Qatar with a greater offering of completely free short courses.^[7]

Controversies[link]

According to Steven Emerson, Executive Director of Investigative Project on Terrorism, he follows a strong anti-Western agenda and is connected to radical and terrorist Islamists.^[8] Bilal has made statements against suicide bombing and other terrorist tactics as un-Islamic. He has also suggested that once violent conflicts between Muslims and non-Muslims can be better solved with education.^[9]

Bilal Philips (left) and Pierre Vogel speaking on a rally in Frankfurt in 2003.

In an interview given, Philips accused the Australian authorities of "blindly following American allegations and unsubstantiated false accusations" claiming that investigations in the UK, Canada and Australia had found no evidence that he was in any way connected with terrorism.^[2] In this interview, he also pointed out that he had not entered the USA since 1995, characterizing media claims that he had been deported in 2004 as an "outright lie". Philips also called the statement that he was an "unindicted co-conspirator” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing "really a joke", claiming that it was based on a "supposedly leaked report" of over 100 prominent Muslims who were never charged. In April 2011 he has been banned from re-entering Germany as persona non grata.^[10]

At a conference in Toronto during the city's Pride Parade on July 3, 2011, Philips briefly reiterated his view that homosexuals caught in the act should be executed in countries governed by Islamic law.^[11]

Publications[link]

Books[link]

• Fundamentals of TAWHEED (Islamic Monotheism) International Islamic Publishing House; ISBN 9960-9648-0-9^[12]
• The Evolution of Fiqh (Islamic Law & The Madh-habs) International Islamic Publishing House (Edited by Bradley Philips); ISBN 9960-672-86-7^[13]
• True Message of Jesus Christ Islamic Book Services 2006; ISBN 81-7231-360-8^[14]
• Purpose of Creation 84pp, Islamic Book Services 2002; ISBN 81-7231-358-6^[15]
• Funeral Rites International Islamic Publishing House; ASIN 9960850846^[16]
• Polygamy in Islam Islamic Book Services; ISBN 81-7231-715-8^[17]
• Islamic Studies Al-Basheer 2002; ISBN 1-898649-19-7^[18]

Videos[link]

• Sundry videos at LightUponLight.com

See also[link]

• List of Da'ees
• Dawah
• Islam in Canada
• Zakir Naik
• Jamaal al-Din M. Zarabozo
• Muhammad bin Jamil Zeno

References[link]

External links[link]

• Bilal Philips' official website
• Bilal Philips' Blog
• Bilal Philips audio and video lectures
• Interview with Bilal Philips on Famous Muslims
• Lecture: Hardening of the Heart
• Bilal Philips' Islamic Online University

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2008)

The Walls are an Irish rock band. They were formed in 1998 by two ex-members of The Stunning.

Members[link]

• Steve Wall
• Joe Wall
• Carl Harms (Guitar/Keyboards) (left February 2004)
• Rory Doyle (Drums)
• Jon O'Connell (Bass) (joined February 2004)

Biography[link]

1998–2000[link]

Brothers Steve and Joe Wall (previously of The Stunning) returned to Ireland after a two-year failed label stint in London. Their Camden housemate Carl Harms joined the band on guitar and keyboard duties. Drummer Rory Doyle joined soon afterwards. They set up their own label, Earshot Records (later changing it to Dirtbird Records) and recorded and released a string of singles. A remix of one of the album tracks, "Bone Deep", clicked with radio and became a nationwide hit. Many of the songs have featured on a number of TV series and feature films such as Bachelors Walk, Dead Bodies, Goldfish Memory and On the Edge (starring Cillian Murphy).

2001–2004[link]

The Walls heard rumour of a second Slane Castle date for U2 (as the first concert had sold out in hours). They sent four copies of their album to the band. Bono loved it and offered The Walls a support slot. That day the band played to their biggest crowd to date – around 80,000 people. "To the Bright and Shining Sun" was their next single. That June they supported Red Hot Chili Peppers. They spent the next year gigging while building their own studio in Dublin.

In February 2004, original member Carl Harms decided to leave the band to make his own record. They recruited bassist Jon O’Connell, who had just 2 weeks to learn all the songs before a two week tour of the new EU accession states: Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. "To the Bright and Shining Sun" also featured on the EA Sports soundtrack for the UEFA Euro 2004 official licenced game.

2004 - 2006[link]

For the next album, the band went to Studio Black Box in France to record with producer and ex-The Frames guitarist David Odlum. Originally scheduled for a release date in September 2004, The Walls decided to hold their album until the new year. U2 were releasing How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb that autumn and according to Steve "we thought that it would be a fair and gentlemanly gesture to stand back and give them a fair crack of the whip, so to speak".^{[citation needed]}

In October 2004, they released a taster - "Drowning Pool" - a blistering, spleen-venting, blues explosion, 2min 52sec long. It took people by surprise and divided opinion - exactly what the band wanted. They supported Bob Dylan to a capacity crowd in Galway that summer and played a storming set that showed there were changes afoot in The Walls sound. They christened the album New Dawn Breaking after the final track on the record. It went straight into the Irish charts at No. 5 in its first week of release in June 2005 and has produced four hit singles: "To the Bright and Shining Sun", "Passing Through", "Drowning Pool" and "Black and Blue".

2007[link]

The band kicked off 2007 with a gig in Dubai and are presently negotiating gig offers in France, Italy, the Czech Republic and China. They also supported Crowded House on their Australian comeback tour before retreating into their studio to work on album number three.

2010 - 2012[link]

In 2010, the double A-side "Carrying The Fire"/"Phantom Power" was released. Following this, in March 2011, the "Bird In A Cage" EP was released, of which the title track was revealed to also be on the bands forthcoming album "Stop The Lights", which is to be released in 2012. Following this announcement, the band's new single "Stop The Lights" was released in January 2012. The band are currently using the innovative "Fund It" in order to finish their third album. The welcome newcomer Kevin Crowley from Newcastle West playing the spoons.

Discography[link]

	"To the Bright and Shining Sun" (2002) noicon From the 2005 album " New Dawn Breaking".
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Studio albums[link]

• Hi-Lo (released May 2000).
• New Dawn Breaking (released June 2005) (reached No. 5 in Irish charts)
• Stop The Lights (released 2012)

Singles and albums[link]

• "The Night I Called It A Day" (Single, released Feb 1999)
• "Broken Boy" (Single, released Sept 1999)
• "Something's Wrong" (Single, released Apr 2000)
• Hi-Lo (Album, released May 2000). A remix of one of the album tracks, Bone Deep, was popular in Ireland. Some songs featured on TV series and feature films: Bachelors Walk, Dead Bodies, Goldfish Memory and On the Edge (starring Cillian Murphy).

• "To the Bright and Shining Sun" (Single, released 2002) reached No. 11 in the Irish charts.
• "Drowning Pool" (single, released 2004)
• New Dawn Breaking (Album, released June 2005) reached No. 5 in Irish charts and has produced four hit singles: "To the Bright and Shining Sun", "Passing Through", "Drowning Pool" and "Black and Blue".

• "Carrying the Fire" / "Phantom Power" (double-A sided single, released Jun 2010)
• "Bird In A Cage EP" (4 Track EP, released Mar 2011)

Cover versions[link]

• Cover version of Chaka Khan's "Ain't Nobody" on Even Better than the Real Thing Vol. 1
• Cover version of Natasha Bedingfield's "These Words" on Even Better than the Real Thing Vol. 2
• Cover version of U2's "With or without you" on Even Better than the Real Thing Vol. 3

Career highlights[link]

• Supported U2 at Slane Castle, 2001
• Supported Red Hot Chili Peppers, 2002
• Supported Bob Dylan, Galway, 2005
• Supported Crowded House, Australia, 2007

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official band website, contains free MP3s; gig info, photos, Walls shop, press releases etc.
• The Walls at MySpace, contains some sample MP3s.

Pat Condell
Condell in January 2006
Pseudonym	Eddie Zibin (used in the 1980s)[1]
Birth name	Patrick Condell
Born	1949 or 1950[2] Ireland[3]
Medium	Writer, comedian
Years active	1982–present[1][4]
Genres	Topical comedy, religious/political satire, anti-theism
Subject(s)	Atheism, free speech, UKIP
Website	www.patcondell.net youtube.com/patcondell
Time Out Comedy Awards
1991 Winner

Patrick "Pat" Condell (born 1949 or 1950^[2]), is an Irish-born^[2] English writer, political commentator, comedian and atheist internet personality. He performed alternative comedy shows during the 1980s and 1990s in the United Kingdom, and won a Time Out Comedy Award in 1991. He was also a regular panellist on BBC Radio 1's "Loose Talk".

From early 2007, he began posting short monologues denouncing religion to a number of video sharing websites, consequently receiving numerous death threats. His videos have been featured on many websites, including YouTube and LiveLeak. They have also been published to DVD, and also as a book of video transcripts. As of February 2012^[update], Pat Condell's YouTube channel has over 169,000 subscribers and 38 million views.

In a video titled "Vote small, think big", uploaded a fortnight before the 2010 UK general elections, and on his website, Pat Condell expressed support for the UK Independence Party.^[5][6][7] He is an atheist activist, a strong proponent of free speech and critic of religion.^[8]

Early life[link]

Condell was born in Ireland^[9] and raised in England as a Roman Catholic.^[10] He was educated in several different Church of England schools across South London; he said of this time "I found myself segregated in assembly and shunted into another room while everyone said their morning prayers. The whole pantomime seemed hollow to me even then. Once you become aware of the gulf between what people profess to believe and how they actually behave, it’s hard to take any of it seriously."^[10] His father was a compulsive gambler working in a betting shop until he was sent to prison for stealing money. He then died of leukaemia.^[10] The family was impoverished, moving repeatedly from home to home. Condell left school at 16, and his first job was washing dishes in the revolving restaurant on top of the Post Office tower, now known as the BT Tower in London, for five shillings an hour.^[11]

Condell became a vegetarian in 1976 after watching a deer being butchered.^[12] Condell did a number of jobs including six years' logging in Canada.^[10]

Comedy[link]

Condell performed alternative comedy shows during the 1980s and 1990s in the United Kingdom. His first performance on stage was at the age of 32 in a comedy sketch called Mountbatten’s Plimsoll.^[1][10] He also wrote poetry and appeared in the Poetry Olympics at the Young Vic Theatre in 1982,^[13] which led to a job writing weekly poems for the Time Out magazine. Pat was described at the time as "a manic gimlet-eyed, crop-haired poet" in Drama: The Quarterly Theatre Review book.^[14]

He then performed on the London Alternative Comedy circuit for several years (originally under the name Eddie Zibin).^[1] He also performed at the Tunnel Club, next to the Blackwall Tunnel, where he describes the audience as a "nightmare"; bottles and glasses were thrown at him, and one person attempted to cut the microphone lead with a pair of garden shears. Condell was a performer at The Comedy Store in the Cutting Edge team,^[10] with whom he performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1991.^[15] That year Condell was the winner of a Time Out Comedy Award.^[16] From 1991 to 1994 he was a regular panellist on BBC Radio 1's "Loose Talk".^[17] During the mid 1990s, Condell was performing over 200 times a year. Due to the late nights and regular travelling he decided to start writing for other comedians, while still doing the occasional performance.^[10] In 1991 he performed comedy sketches at Duke of York's Theatre, which were released onto DVD as Barf Bites Back! (1991).^[18]

Condell's 1996 play, Barry Sorts It Out, was given a negative review in the Financial Times, which described it as "a sordid East End comedy" which "repeats ad nauseam the same gag." The reviewer concluded that it is "a play with all the bite of a set of joke-shop fangs."^[19]

His 2006 stand-up show Faith Hope and Sanity, subtitled "A Few Jokes About Religion Before It Kills Us All", was a platform for his comedy and atheist beliefs. "This is the first time I’ve set out to write a show in order to say something, rather than just as a vehicle for stand-up" he said of the show.^[10] He performed the show at London’s Etcetera Theatre.^[20][21] Chortle gave Condell's 2006 show a negative review, noting that Condell is covering familiar territory but "is not quite up to the job," and observing that Condell's material was delivered "with very little variation in pace or tone, ... with the feel of a lecture" and "no structure, no building up to a passionate, climactic conclusion, no ebb and flow of storytelling." Chortle concluded that "Condell is still going through the motions."^[22]

Online videos and politics[link]

Condell had posted more than 100 video monologues on various video sites as of August 2011, which together had notched up over 35 million hits,^[4][23] and his videos have been translated and subtitled into 14 languages on the dotSUB collaborative platform.^[24] In September 2009, he was one of the top ten most subscribed users on YouTube in the United Kingdom and the most subscribed to comedian of all time in the UK.^[25][26] Eight of his videos are in the top hundred most commented on videos in the UK.^[27] Most of his YouTube videos chastise Islam and Western appeasement of Islam. His videos have caused Condell to receive hundreds of death threats and also a significant amount of support.^[28][29][30]

His videos have been featured on websites and blogs, including Little Green Footballs,^[31] YouTube,^[32] LiveLeak,^[23] Jihad Watch,^[33] MilkandCookies,^[34] Kathy Shaidle's blog,^[35] Geert Wilders, the leader of the political party Party for Freedom website,^[36] PZ Myers' blog Pharyngula,^[37] and Richard Dawkins' website.^[38] In 2007 one of Condell's YouTube videos was used in a presentation by Sir Harold Kroto, recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, at the Beyond Belief symposium.^[39][40]

Condell's first video, uploaded to YouTube on 8 February 2007^[41] was his participation in The Blasphemy Challenge,^[42] an Internet-based project which aims to get atheists declare themselves.^[43] The challenge asks atheists to submit videos to the website YouTube, in which they record themselves blaspheming or denying the existence of the Holy Spirit.^[44][45]

Condell has spoken favourably of Geert Wilders^[46] and has described the Quran as hate speech.^[47]

UKIP[link]

In April 2010, Condell urged his viewers to vote "for freedom" and said that a "vote for any of the three main parties" would be a wasted vote in the 2010 general election.^[48] The same day the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) said that Condell "urges voters to shun the three old parties and vote UKIP".^[49][50] In a video titled "Vote small, think big", uploaded a fortnight before the 2010 UK general elections, and on his website, Pat Condell expressed support for the policies of the UK Independence Party.^[5][51][7] He is a strong proponent of free speech and critic of religion.^[52]

Atheism[link]

Why does faith deserve respect?

Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, said of Condell that "Pat Condell is unique. Nobody can match his extraordinary blend of suavity and savagery. With his articulate intelligence he runs rings around the religious wingnuts that are the targets of his merciless humour. Thank goodness he is on our side".^[53] In 2008, Dawkins's website released a collection of Condell's monologues on DVD, titled Pat Condell: Anthology.^[53] The DVD was also sold on Amazon.com.^[54]

In an interview with the Bosnian magazine Start,^[55][56] Condell says his intent "is to get other people's unprovable beliefs out of my life, and out of government, the law and education. I don't care what people believe as long as I don't have to keep hearing about it."^[57]

He has been criticised by Christian author Dinesh D'Souza on AOL News, who said "If the televangelists are guilty of producing some simple-minded, self-righteous Christians, then the atheist authors are guilty of producing self-congratulatory buffoons like Condell."^[58] Atheist biology professor and blogger PZ Myers, on the other hand, endorsed Condell with a terse "Speak it, brother!".^[59] The book Raising Freethinkers: A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief, describes Condell as "breathtakingly intelligent, articulate, uncompromising, and funny".^[60]

He is a member of the National Secular Society^[61] and has a large following of users on the Internet, including a Facebook group dedicated to him.^[62]

[edit] No Mosque at Ground Zero

Condell has been resolute and outspoken in his opposition to the development of Park51, near the site of the 11 September 2001 World Trade Center attack, in lower Manhattan. On 4 June 2010, he released a video titled "No Mosque at Ground Zero", in which he said that it was representative of Islamic triumphalism and that the United States would soon be on the verge of Islamization and have its freedoms trimmed, as Europe has.^[63] The video has attracted 6 million views since it was uploaded. Speaking on why he believes the Mosque is offensive, Pat Condell claimed:

"To describe it as they have as a tribute to the victims is beyond bad taste, and shows a profound contempt for those who died. It would be hard to find a more provocative gesture short of standing on their graves and burning the American flag. Yet how typical of Islam, with its own hair trigger sensitivity to the slightest imagined insult, to do something so arrogant and insensitive."^[64]

Additionally, Condell cast some doubt over the funding of the community centre, and claimed that Islam would have been banned in the civilised world if it wasn't for the fact it was a religion. He compared the system of Sharia and the Muslims who endorse it to Nazi Germany.

[edit] The Trouble with Islam reaction

The Trouble with Islam

Condell also received criticism after links to his monologue, titled The Trouble with Islam, were circulated to commissioners in the California city of Berkeley's Peace and Justice Commission. Condell said in the video that Islam is "a religion of war", that "Muslim women in Britain who cover their faces are mentally ill", though in some parts of the world women have no choice but to cover their face, as they are "governed... by primitive pigs whose only achievement in life is to be born with a penis in one hand and a Qur'an in the other." Commissioner Elliot Cohen described Condell's comments as "insulting, degenerating and racist".^[65]

Condell then accused Cohen of being "motivated by his own narrow personal and political agenda which has nothing to do with me or the video clip."^[66] The video was initially sent to them by fellow Peace and Justice Commissioner Jonathan Wornick, who said it "tries to expose intolerance in the Muslim world," such as "the intolerance of radical Islamists who say if you insult Allah, you should have your head cut off."^[67] Condell said that its popularity proves "there is an enthusiastic audience for comedy ideas and opinions which are routinely censored out of existence in the UK’s mainstream media, thanks to misguided political correctness".^[68]

YouTube censorship[link]

Godless and free

Condell's video Welcome to Saudi Britain was removed by YouTube early in October 2008, but reinstated shortly after. In it Condell criticises Britain's sanctioning of a Sharia court, and refers to the entire country of Saudi Arabia as "mentally ill" for its abuse of women.^[17][69]

A YouTube spokesman said "YouTube has clear policies that prohibit inappropriate content on the site, such as pornography, gratuitous violence or hate speech.... If users repeatedly break these rules we disable their accounts." The National Secular Society were amongst the complainants to YouTube, saying "as usual, he (Condell) does not mince his words, but he is not saying anything that is untrue. His main thrust is one of outrage on behalf of those Muslim women who will suffer because they are forced to have their marital problems solved in a male-dominated Sharia court."^[17]

Shortly after, YouTube reversed their earlier decision saying "Upon further review of the context of Pat Condell's comments, we've reinstated it." Richard Dawkins applauded the reversal, saying "I congratulate YouTube on an excellent decision. Pat Condell is hard-hitting, but always quietly reasonable in tone."^[69] Condell believed that it was removed due to a flagging campaign by Islamic activists.^[28][29][30]

YouTube also briefly removed Condell's video Godless and Free restored it, emailing Condell explaining that it had been removed erroneously.^[28][29][30]

Works[link]

See also[link]

• Criticism of Islamism
• Criticism of religion
• List of comedians
• New Atheism
• Social impact of YouTube
• Religion of Peace

References[link]