Articles

As the US war on Afghanistan intensifies, a motley collection of warlords and bureaucrats is being assembled to take over from the Taliban.

he beginning of US assaults on Afghanistan on October 7, killing scores of people, may have little to do directly with the attacks on September 11 in New York and Washington, despite claims to the contrary.

For anyone who wants to know how Balkan powder-kegs form, the latest developments in the Macedonian peace process are enlightening. After collecting and destroying almost 4,000 weapons from the fighters of the National Liberation Army (NLA), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has wrapped up its mission to Macedonia.

The Sudanese government’s determination to mend relations with Washington and its decision to jump on the “war on terrorism” bandwagon have brought noisy demonstrators onto the streets of Khartoum, the capital of the Sudan.

The Turkish parliament on October 3 passed 34 amendments to the constitution. Designed to ease Turkey’s entry into the EU, they are impressive only on paper.

Imam Muhammad al-Baqir [AS] laid emphasis on the following factors – firstly his choice inherited from his father of political quietism, that is to say his refusal openly to contest rule by the Umayyads. And secondly as a corollary to that a growing emphasis upon the transmission of a unique body of knowledge as constituted the essence of the Imamate. Thirdly a clarification of specific details on which the emergent law of the Shi’ah community differentiated itself from the legal precepts of the surrounding Sunni Community, for example in the call to prayer the inclusion of ‘haya ‘ala khair al-‘aml’ ‘Hasten to the best of deeds’ included by Shi’ah Muslims but omitted by Sunni Muslims – it was Shi’ah belief that it was blocked by the second caliph ‘Umar.

The period in question is the period three caliphs and his abstention from public or political involvement, and his tenure as the fourth of the rightly guided caliphs (from the Sunni point of view). The obstacles that confronted him - you could talk about the existence of a rival centre of power in Damascus under the auspice of Mu’awiyah, who using the assassination of Uthman the third caliph as a pretext now wished to deny legitimacy to Imam Ali [AS] and refused him his loyalty and his obedience.

In the year 61 AH, 680 AD the martyrdom of Imam Husain [AS], grandson of the Prophet [sAW] and the third among the Imams [AS], took place. It was plain from the narrative elements that this was an extremely tragic event. In part it is the extremity of the atrocious death to which Imam Husain [AS], his companions and relatives were subjected that has anchored Karbala and the memory of Imam Husain [AS] in the Shi’i consciousness. Of course from one point of view it might be said that all of the Imams insofar as they had the quality of Imam are equal and no distinction is to be made among them, in the same way that the Quran tells us that an article of Islamic belief is not to make distinction among any of the messengers – to accept all of them with respect to their quality of Prophethood – not to affirm for one and deny for the other.

THE TRIAL OF HENRY KISSINGER by Christopher Hitchens. Pub: Verso, New York, USA, 2001. Pp. 159. Hbk. US$22.00.​​​​​​​

More than two weeks after the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre, the initial shock has worn off and the prevalent mood has changed to nervous anticipation as the world waits to see what the US will do next.