The month of Ramadan is the world's most widespread fast and yet its teachings are minimised, neglected and even betrayed (through literal application of rules that overlooks their ultimate objective).

Ramadan is, in its essence, a month of humanist spirituality.

We've got to get away from the idea that scholars in the Islamic world can do our thinking for us. We need to start thinking for ourselves.

The philosophy of fasting calls upon us to know ourselves, to master ourselves, and to discipline ourselves the better to free ourselves. To fast is to identify our dependencies, and free ourselves from them.

Times have changed; so must the lenses through which we see the political future.

It is only through the opposition of ideas that we can learn to be self-critical, to work towards intellectual humility.