Articles

Why is US President George Bush threatening to go to war against Iran over its civilian nuclear program at a time when American forces are bogged down in Iraq and US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld is facing a virtual insurrection against his disastrous handling of the war by retired American military generals?

For us at Crescent, the month of April was dominated by two conferences, a massive one in Tehran from April 14-16 in support of the Palestinian struggle, attended by about 1,000 people from all over the world, and a much smaller one in London on April 23, convened by Crescent International to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of the late Dr Kalim Siddiqui, Director of the Muslim Institute, London, founder and leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, and the man responsible for transforming Crescent from a local community newspaper in Toronto to an international newsmagazine of the global Islamic movement.

The two suicide bombings in Egypt on April 26 were the latest of a series of armed attacks in the country over the last two years. The coincide with demonstrations by thousands of Egyptians in central Cairo to protest against the prosecution of two senior judges who are known for their public criticism of the government's control of the judiciary.

It took four months of gruelling and protracted negotiations, bargaining and threatening, manoeuvring and arm-twisting before Iraqi leaders finally broke the prolonged deadlock that had been hindering the formation of a new cabinet, and agreed on a new prime minister.

There is an old saying about Afghanistan that goes something like this: when God wishes to punish someone, He sends them to attack the Afghans. The US and its ally, Britain, have blundered into Afghanistan on the pretext of fighting terrorism, but in reality to advance Western interests.

Kyrgyzstan has become subject to both ethnic unrest and armed conflict between the ruling elites and Islamic groups. It is not, therefore, surprising that the corrupt and autocratic rulers of the Central Asian Muslim country have allowed both Russia and the US to maintain troops there as part of the international ‘war against terrorism'.

According to official pronouncements from Islamabad, Pakistan has never had it so good economically under the present dispensation. Officials point to the booming real estate and stock markets as well as rising sale of commodities such as cars, particularly the number of Mercedes Benzes on the road, to support their case.

The attacks carried out by four Muslim suicide-bombers in London on July 7 last year were inexcusable and properly treated by the government as ‘terrorist acts' that posed a serious threat to public safety and security. But its hasty attribution of the bombings to al-Qa'ida, and its decision to enact seriously flawed anti-terrorist laws and orders, have now been brought into question.

The second paper at the ICIT’s Kalim Siddiqui Memorial Conference on April 23 was given by ICIT Director ZAFAR BANGASH, on a theme central to Dr Kalim’s understanding of the task facing the Islamic movement: the revolutionary method of change for Islamic societies.

Palestinian people. The conference was attended by Islamic movement leaders from all over the world, as well as leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Palestine. It was chaired by the speaker of the Majlis, Ghulamali Haddad Adel, and opened with speeches by the Rahbar and President of the Islamic State, Ayatullah al-Uzma Sayyid Ali Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. Here we publish the text of the address given by the Rahbar.