Articles

The people of Egypt are gradually waking up to the reality that it is one thing to drive a dictator out, even one that has been around for as long as Hosni Mubarak — 30 years — and quite a different matter to change the political system and the culture of entitlement that has grown within it. There are many constituencies that have unfairly benefitted under the old system; they are not likely to give up their privileged positions so easily, Mubarak or not.

In the Republican Party’s latest homage to fascism, conservative politicians and media networks are spreading hysteria about the “invasion of Shari‘ah” in the United States. As Glenn Beck, the Tea Party’s weepy evangelist described it on his Fox News show, Shari‘ah is a form of “stealth jihad” that is “working to destroy America from within.”

On April fool’s day, Judge Richard Goldstone penned an op-ed in The Washington Post, sheepishly retracting the UN-sponsored Goldstone Report investigating Israel’s war crimes during the 2008–2009 Gaza Massacre.

Dr. Haytham Mannaa a prominent Syrian opposition activist confirmed that the foreign hand was involved in the events in Syria from the very early start of demonstrations.

This issue of Crescent International is late going to press because of global events over which we have no control. One problem is that people do not check with us before planning their important events such as weddings.

The witch-hunt of Qaddafi opponents began on 2 October 2005 with the arrest and detention of five Libyan dissidents, who had been granted asylum by the UK, on the grounds that they were a threat to national security.

The West’s attack on Libya is yet another crusade launched against a Muslim country on the pretext of protecting its people. Pope Urban II would be pleased to learn that his disciples are still marching on as good “Christian soldiers” against another group of “heathens” in the Muslim world nearly a thousand years after his sermon on Mount Clermont.

There is a frightening tendency in the US to target vulnerable minorities for cheap political gain and quick fame. American politicians of various stripes also use scare tactics to target vulnerable groups to achieve their nefarious designs.

Since the first stirrings of revolt erupted in Tunisia on December 17, 2010, the entire Islamic East has been engulfed in civil uprisings. Two tyrants — General Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and General Hosni Mubarak — have been swept from power.

In last month’s issue of Crescent International, in his column, “From the Editor’s Desk”, Zafar Bangash highlighted the fact that the paper recently completed 40 years of publication, masha’Allah. This month marks another significant anniversary: 15 years since the death of Dr. Kalim Siddiqui in South Africa on April 18, 1996.