Articles

Tens of thousands of French Muslims took to the streets of Paris, Marseilles, Lille and other French towns and cities on January 17 to express their anger at the government’s proposal to ban hijab from public schools...

We open the section with IQBAL SIDDIQUI, editor of Crescent International, discussing the centrality and relevance of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and the Islamic State that it created, to the struggle of the contemporary global Islamic movement.

For this special section, we particularly wanted an Iranian perspective on post-Revolutionary Iran. HUJJAT UL-ISLAM M. SAEED BAHMANPOUR, an academic currently based in London, discusses Iran’s progress in the last 25 years.

In December last year, AYATULLAH SAYYID ALI KHAMENEI, the Vali-e Faqih of the Islamic Republic of Iran, convened a meeting of Islamic movement leaders and representatives in Tehran. Here we reprint extracts from his talk to the gathering. It is impossible to imagine any other statesman in a position of authority in the Muslim world speaking so openly and frankly about the state of the world today, clearly identifying the Ummah’s errors and weaknesses, and the dangers and challenges facing us.

YUSUF AL-KHABBAZ argues that the impact of modern technological society on the lives of individual human beings has been such as to create a “crisis of humanity” in modern societies, and discusses ways it can be countered by Muslims.

British Muslims: Loyalty and Belonging edited by Mohammad Siddique Seddon, Dilwar Hussain and Nadeem Malik. Pub: The Islamic Foundation, Markfield, UK, and the Citizen Organization Foundation, London, UK, 2003. Pp: 116. Pbk: £4.95.

The US’s apparent capture of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on December 13 has enabled the Bush administration to end the year on a rather higher note than they can have expected, particularly after November had proved to be the worst month yet of the US occupation of Iraq...

A ban on French Muslimahs wearing hijab in public schools seems inevitable after president Jacques Chirac voiced support for the findings of a government commission recommending that "visible religious symbols" be banned as inconsistent with the French state’s secular ethos...

The tyrannical rulers in the Arab world who, be they monarchist or "Republican", stifle any and every activity in their countries that dare raise its head without their explicit bidding, even from their allies among the secular elites, have in recent years been giving free scope to one and only one activity: feminist propaganda and activism...

This month Muslims from all over the world will travel to the Hijaz for the Hajj, which will take place early in February. The worldview of Islam is a dynamic system of thought. It brings to life and modern relevance events that took place a long time ago...