Articles

The West’s hypocrisy stands exposed yet again in the contrasting policies toward uprisings in Libya and Bahrain. The US and allies Britain and France pressed the UN Security Council on March 17 to impose a no-fly zone on Libya.

In Part 1 of his analysis of the Islamic political and decision-making apparatus, Dr. Perwez Shafi, a director of ICIT stationed in Pakistan, offers some thoughts on the question of legitimacy and its relationship to political and social change brought about by a revolutionary Islamic movement.

Pvt. Bradley Manning’s case is cutting through the calcified US domestic landscape with a sword of sympathy. After his incarceration, the public is associating the Guantanamo images associated of “those Muslim terrorists” — shackled bodies, sexualized humiliation, minds breaking under psychological torture — with the cheery and too relatable photograph of the young American soldier.

Has the American dream of permanent supremacy in the oil-rich region of the world been shattered? It’s a question that not only haunts influential institutions that function as pillars of power in America’s global hegemony, but also torments a wide array of rightwing think tanks masquerading as “impartial analysts”.

While the world and indeed much of the Muslim world’s attention is diverted to the uprisings sweeping the Islamic East, Zionist Israel is using the regional political turmoil as a cover to do what it has always done best: kill innocent Palestinians in Gaza with its weapons of mass destruction and disinformation.

In October 2010, the ruling regime in Azerbaijan banned hijab in public schools and revived an unprecedented socio-political activism of the Islamic movement. The mobilization is not only domestic, but also international. For the first time an international conference on an Islamic issue in Azerbaijan was organized.

In recent years rapid rapprochement has occurred between Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq. The US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) political triumph in Turkey, and Bashar Assad’s succession of his father, were a series of events that brought these countries together.

The release of Raymond Davis on March 16 has dismayed most Pakistanis who felt the American was guilty of murder and should have been dealt with according to the law of Pakistan. Instead, what this confirms yet again is the craven attitude of the government in its dealings with the US.

This past winter, American troops murdered even more Afghan civilians than in previous years. And true to form, they routinely claim the attacks were aimed at militants and that no civilians were killed.

In characteristic arrogance, the Saudi regime sent in its army backed by tanks and armored personnel carriers to the tiny island of Bahrain on March 13 to crush the people’s movement for freedom and dignity. Some 2,000 troops from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) including 1,000 Saudis were rushed to Bahrain to attack protesters that had peacefully rallied in Manama’s Pearl Square for a month.