Articles

The Russian government claimed on February 20 that the London School of Economics was being used as a recruitment ground for “Chechen terrorists”.

The US media’s anti-Islam bias is well known; it is reflective of the establishment’s views. Academia in the US, however, used to pride itself on being free of such biases, yet of late the anti-Muslim virus seems to have infected these so-called bastions of intellectual freedom as well.

STEPS TO AN ECOLOGY OF THE MIND by Gregory Bateson, with a new foreword by Mary Catherine Bateson

Imperial Israel and the Palestinians: the Politics of Expansion by Nur Masalha. Pub: Pluto Press, London, UK, 2000. Pp: 320; Pbk: £14.99.​​​​​​​

The destruction of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie (Scotland) on December 21, 1988, was an appalling tragedy. All 259 people on board were killed, as were 11 people on the ground when aircraft-fragments fell on houses.

After the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Imam Khomeini (r.a.) started a tradition of issuing an annual message to hujjaj as they gathered in the Hijaz for the Hajj. Here we reprint an abridged version of his message to the hujjaj given in Dhu al-Qadah 1403AH (August 1983CE).

Throughout his long rule, Egypt’s president, Husni Mubarak, has paid lip-service to ‘traditional Islam’ and to ‘freedom of expression’, while in practice repressing Islamic activists. Even the Ikhwan al-Muslimeen, who cannot possibly be accused of being Islamic revolutionaries, are banned as a political party.

On February 8, Jordan’s state security court ordered the release of Dr Ahmad al-’Armouti on bail of 10,000 Jordanian dinars (about US$ 14,000). His release came just one day after a similar court directive ordered the release of another unionist, engineer ‘Issam Abu Farha, on the same bail.

Like autocratic rulers everywhere, nothing is more loathsome to Kuwait’s ‘royal’ family than accountability. Another mainstay of autocratic rule is a determination to avoid relinquishing key positions of power.

The recent parliamentary report on corruption under the late King Hassan II, the appointment of a judicial commission to examine it, and the limited political reforms introduced since his death in 1999 have given rise to widespread speculation that the new king, Muhammad V, is determined to distance himself from his father’s murky legacy.