The west, we are so often told, owes its pre-eminence to the universality of its liberal values and democracy of its political institutions. It is these, we are further told, which entitles it to lead the world, claiming the moral high ground on every issue, and imposing its will (for the greater public good, of course) on all others.

In a desperate bid to save his own skin and displaying total contempt for Muslim lives, US president Bill Clinton, a self-confessed liar and philanderer, unleashed cruise missiles against Iraq on December 16.

A fresh debate on whether Israel should unilaterally extricate itself from its costly occupation of parts of southern Lebanon has bubbled up again in the Zionist State over the past few weeks.

The 19th annual meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), held in Abu Dhabi from December 7-9, was a far cry from the heady days of high oil prices when Arab monarchies were awash with petro-dollars.

Hamas leader Shaikh Ahmad Yassin, whom Yasser Arafat was obliged by public pressure to greet as a hero when he returned to Ghazzah last year after eight years in an Israeli jail, was placed under house arrest by Palestinian police on October 29.

Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamed must be getting a sinking feeling that events are fast slipping out of his control. This is not to suggest that the Malaysian judiciary, press or the police have turned against him.

Istanbul, once a magnificent city of Islamic civilization, known to Muslims of another age as Jannatu dunya (paradise on earth), is today laid open for inspection by the prying eyes of western tourists.

Rubbing salt into the raw wounds of Muslims, police arrested thousands of Muslims across India on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the demolition of the historic Babri Mosque in Ayodhya.

Far from closing the book on acrimonious debate to move forward, the ruling Awami League party in Bangladesh insists on opening old wounds.

The US admitted on December 3 that its troops in Kosova are helping the Serbs to maintain control of the region and to prevent local people from returning to their homes. That is the upshot of the US confirmation that they are providing armoured escorts to Serb police patrols in the Malisheva region, and a telling reflection of their true role in Kosova.

The assassin of Maulana Muhammad Abdullah, a leading alim of Islamabad, remains at large two months after the heinous crime was perpetrated on October 7.

A 14-year-old Muslim girl has been suspended from an exclusive school for responding to an anti-Palestinian article at the behest of her history teacher. Layla Cassim, a grade 10 student at Crawford College, in Johannesburg...

Even before Turkish president Suleyman Demirel invited former prime minister Bulent Ecevit to form a government early this month, following the collapse of Mesud Yilmaz’s coalition on November 25, the Turkish military had made its position on the matter perfectly clear...