Articles

Elections in Iran, whether local, parliamentary or presidential, are never dull but this year’s presidential elections are beginning to take on a decidedly more exciting tone. In addition to the incumbent, President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, being in the race, two other leading figures have indicated they will contest the polls: Ayatullah Mehdi Karoubi, and Mir Husain Mousavi.

The democratic bug has spread so far and wide that even dictators are infected by it and find it useful to strengthen their grip on power. They use the democracy card to convince opponents that they respect the wishes of the people while they subvert the process so much that it makes mockery of the whole exercise. The subversion process starts with denying opposition candidates the opportunity to run for office. Electoral boundaries are manipulated to disadvantage opponents.

“You’re going to remember this day for the rest of your life” — these words were uttered by anti-terror police officers to intimidate and terrify British Muslim Babar Ahmad during the brutal assault inflicted upon him in a pre-dawn raid on his home on December 2, 2003. They were right; Ahmad never forgot that day and spent the last five years struggling to ensure that it would live in the memories of the British public forever.

Hundreds of delegates from around the world participated in the Fourth International Conference in Tehran (March 4–6, 2009) in Support of Palestine: the Model of Resistance, and Ghazzah: the Victim of War Crimes. The following is the address by the Rahbar, IMAM SEYYED ALI KHAMENEI on 6th of Rabi‘ al-Awwal, 1430 AH.

What or who constitutes the Muslim Ummah and what problems does it face? In Part I, ZAFAR BANGASH, director of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought, offers some reflections on the issue.

There are some elements and definitions in this presentation that have to be clarified. For a long time now, words have been used in an absent minded way; and clichés have taken on a life of their own. I would like to be conscious and thoughtful about what I am saying when we are speaking about an “Islamic Ummah”, “strategies” and “unity.”

Will the deal announced on February 16 in Swat bring peace to the troubled region that has been engulfed in violence for nearly two years now? More importantly, will it hold considering that it was criticized even before all the details were known? Both the US and its agents in Pakistan have launched a vicious campaign, raising the specter of a Taliban takeover of the rest of the country as well.

March 23 is an important landmark in Pakistan’s history. It was on this date in 1940 that the All-India Muslim League passed a resolution in Lahore demanding a separate homeland for the Muslims of India. Within seven years Pakistan emerged on the world map as an independent state.

Iraq and Afghanistan were far from the only victims of the neo-cons’ aggression under George W. Bush. Several other Muslim countries suffered grievously too, without receiving nearly as much attention in the world media, and, by extension, among Muslims. Somalia is perhaps the single greatest example. Crescent has covered developments there as best we can, largely thanks to M. A. Shaikh, who writes on the new government of Sherif Sheikh Ahmed in this issue, but elsewhere in the Muslim media Somalia has been largely ignored.