Articles

A lethal brew of raw imperial ambition and personal greed, not the claims of US president George Bush that he intends to eliminate Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, is behind the drive for a renewed onslaught on Iraq...

The first shots in the war on Iraq were fired in Jordan when King Abdullah II sent tanks into the city of Ma’an, 215 kilometres (135 miles) south of Amman, the capital, to capture or kill besieged Islamic activists. The sweep, which set off fierce gun-battles in some of the city’s neighbourhoods, is widely regarded as a pre-emptive measure in case a US offensive against Iraq comes about...

Now that Washington’s massive diplomatic offensive against Baghdad has succeeded in getting the UN weapons-inspectors back into Iraq, the US government seems to have inched one step closer to its ostensible goal of deposing Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. Since its war against Afghanistan ended, the US has been looking for a pretext to wage war against Iraq...

Despite desperate attempts by the police to convince a sceptical public by broadcasting suspects’ confessions on television, most Indonesians still disbelieve allegations of local Muslim groups’ involvement in the Bali carnage of October 12...

Although Muslims worldwide started the month of Ramadhan on the correct day, there is growing concern that similar unity may elude them when it comes to celebrating Eid. The Saudis’ Um al-Qura calendar has already declared Eid on Thursday, December 5...

As Eid ul-Fitr looms, spare a thought for the 625 Muslim prisoners in Guantanamo Bay who, deprived of their dignity and freedom, do not even know when, or whether, they will ever celebrate the festival at home with their families.

Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), which was a convincing victor in the parliamentary elections on November 3, and has now formed a government, has been variously described in the Western media as ‘Islamist’, ‘rooted in ‘Islam,’ and even ‘Islamic-tinged’.

Among the many Muslim political prisoners in the world, the case of Imam Jamil Abdullah al-Amin stands out as quite extraordinary. Convicted of murder last February in a trial that can only be described as bizarre, Imam Jamil has now been moved from the Reedsville prison...

The ‘Ulama of Farangi Mahall and Islamic Culture in South Asia by Francis Robinson. Pub: C. Hurst & Co., London, UK, 2001. Pp: 267. Hbk: £40.00.

The victory of the ‘Islamist’ Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey’s general elections earlier this month was greeted with incredulity and consternation among both Turkey’s secular elite and its Western allies, who have been wont to hold Kemalist Turkey up as a model of the separation of Islam and politics for other Muslim countries.