Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world today, and the number of its adherents is increasing everywhere, including North America. Much attention has been paid to the issues facing immigrant and African-American Muslims in North America, both by Muslims and by others.

As the Christian millennium looms, Muslims - rather than joining the celebrations - might fruitfully use the occasion to consider the Christian and western influence and impact on Islamic civilization.

Hizbullah mujahideen killed the Israeli general commanding Israeli and South Lebanese Army (SLA) forces in Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon on February 28, in a carefully planned and impeccably executed ambush. Three other Israelis were killed with him.

King Husain was a small man, and we are not just talking about his physique, who ruled an artificial kingdom. So, what explains the outpouring of grief in western capitals at his death with four American presidents--one serving and three former--attending his funeral in Amman on February 8 together with presidents and prime ministers from most western countries?

Morocco signed an agreement with the United Nations on February 12 defining the legal status of UN troops in disputed western Sahara after months of delay. The UN Security Council then voted unanimously to extend the UN mission’s mandate until March 31.

Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, president of Tunisia, is applauded in western capitals for maintaining peace and stability in his country. This he has achieved by bludgeoning the Islamic party, An-Nahdha, into submission with mass arrests, imprisonments, torture and exile. At the same time, he maintains a reputation for respecting human rights.

Crescent International interviewed Ustadz Salamat Hashim, Chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Amirul Mujahideen and Imam of the Bangsamoro People, at his main base at Camp Abu Bakre As-Siddiq, Central Mindanao, last month.

Sixty three years ago, in the orchards of Ya’bud, north of the Palestinian town of Jenin, Sheikh Izz al-Din al-Qassam received the bullet that was intended to take him away from his people forever.

Nobody in the world needs peace more than the Muslims. From Srinagar to Sarajevo, and from Pristina and Palestine to the Philippines, they are being killed like flies. Thus, if someone really offers them peace, Muslims eagerly accept it. Peace, however, like everything else in the world, has lost its real meaning, at least when it applies to Muslims.

Beware Islam in Bangladesh! In the latest Islamophobic scare story, the western media reported that Shaikh Osama Bin Laden has been financing Muslims in Bangladesh.

The status of Bosnia-Hercegovina’s northern town of Brcko, the only territorial issue in Bosnia left unresolved by the Dayton Accords in December 1995, was finally settled this month, by a typically indecisive western fudge.

America’s senior envoy to the Balkans, Richard Holbrooke, who brokered the Dayton Accords which ended the Bosnian war in December 1995, flew to Belgrade on March 9 to negotiate a final Kosova peace deal directly with Slobodan Milosevic, confident of having finally obtained the Kosovars’ agreement.

He is not a new face; he is not a civilian: he is General Olusegun Obasanjo who ruled Nigeria from 1976-79. Obasanjo was declared winner of Nigeria’s February 27 elections with 63 percent of the vote, well ahead of Olu Falae, the only other candidate.