Judging by the subtitle of John Ralston Saul's book, Voltaire's Bastards, one can tell right away that it is the sort of book that can only be written by a disillusioned European, this I mean without casting any aspersion.

Since the late Dr Kalim Siddiqui wrote his book Towards a New Destiny, which was actually a report on the Tripoli conference in July 1973 on Col. Qaddafi’s Third International Theory, much water has flown under the bridge.

Every Muslim yearns to perform the Hajj at least once in a lifetime. It is one of the fundamentals of Islam but like all other aspects of Religion, Hajj, too, has been ritualised and, therefore, trivialised.

Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov is to meet rulers of Arab countries in Arabia while there to perform Hajj. He is expected to discuss economic assistance for the rebuilding of Ichkeria’s war-shattered infrastructure and economy...

Had Benazir Bhutto been the prime minister of Pakistan, she would surely have said, why don’t they eat cakes in response to people rioting in Peshawar for flour. Nawaz Sharif of course is no Marie Antoinette.