Articles

Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamed was returned to office in the general elections late last month, as widely predicted, but was severely bruised in the process and faces a difficult and uncertain future...

Abdelkader Hachani, a senior leader of the banned Algerian Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), was assassinated in Algerian capital, Algiers, on November 22. Hachani was shot in the chest several times as he was leaving a dentist’s clinic. His assassin was not captured.

The Russians are not doing as well militarily in Ichkeria (formerly the Caucasus republic of Chechenya) as they claim, nor are the Chechen fighters doing as badly as the Russian media reports. What Moscow is clearly winning is the propaganda war, having learnt the important lessons from its former enemies in the west.

A new Nile-water deal between Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia and a tripartite alliance between Jibouti, Ethiopia and Sudan directed against Eritrea ï a common adversary and neighbour ï have somewhat eased Khartoum’s embattled position, by complicating Washington’s declared effort to finance opposition-groups fighting to form a breakaway republic in the south of the country.

The plight of the beleaguered Afghanis placed under UN sanctions on November 14 was relieved a week later, when Iran opened its border for trade with Afghanistan.

Muslims in the Central African state of Malawi, west of Lake Tanganyika, are living in constant fear of violence from armed Christian fanatics who have already destroyed scores of mosques and killed dozens of people throughout the country.

Pakistan’s new military regime launched its promised crackdown on corruption on November 17, when it arrested a number of politicians, businessmen, bureaucrats and former military officers accused of corruption or willful default of bank loans.

America’s greatest success lies not in the fact that it is able to project itself abroad as a society of vast opportunities, instant riches and absolute freedom; its real success lies in convincing millions of Americans at home of this fiction.

The formulation of Islamic disciplines equivalent to the western social sciences was one of the Muslim Institute’s key objectives when it was established in the 1970s. Dr Kalim regarded this an essential pre-requisite to the re-emergence of Islamic civilization.

It has become fashionable, even dutiful, for techno-utopianists and their disciples to extol the virtues of the ‘information superhighway.’ Proclamations abound, praising the brave new world of cyberspace and its potential for easy access to information.