A History of Iraq by Charles Tripp. Pub: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2000. Pp: 311. Pbk: £13.95.

The routine use of the labels ‘terrorist’ and ‘terrorism’ to criminalise Muslims and legitimise any action against them has reached new levels in India, with cabinet minister Shanta Kumar claiming on April 28 that the Godhra train incident was an act of "international terrorism" whose objective was to "weaken" Indian defence positions on the border and make it more porous for infiltration by jihadis.

​In a speech on May 1, the Rahbar of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatullah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, addressed the centralty for the Islamic movement. We present an extract from his speech

ZAFAR BANGASH, director of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought, suggests another way to mark the birthday in this Islamic month of Rabi al-Awwal of the Last and Seal of all Allah’s Messengers (as).

The boycott of American and Israeli goods and products is gaining momentum, especially in the Middle East, although most Arab regimes have not officially endorsed it. The movement is spreading rapidly, with individuals and groups taking the campaign to new areas, largely through the internet...

Yasser Arafat’s diminishing standing and credibility among Palestinians was highlighted on May 13, when he was forced to cancel a visit to the devastated Jenin refugee camp because of fears for his life.

Recent reports that US forces were preparing to leave their bases in Saudi Arabia created the initial impression that the US’s military presence in the Gulf Cooperation Council states was about to be reduced...

Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Burma’s National League for Democracy, which won the elections annulled by the military junta in 1990, was released unconditionally after years of periods of shortlived and uncertain freedom...

The whole world is anxious to find out about the ‘post pogrom’ situation in Gujrat. They will have to be patient; the pogrom is not yet over.

The war in Afghanistan had spilled over into Pakistan long before the car/bus bomb explosion in Karachi on May 8 that killed 16 people, 11 of them French technicians working on Pakistan’s submarine project.

A month after an attempted coup by pro-American right-wingers in Venezuela failed to overthrow the popularly-elected government of Hugo Chavez in the world’s fourth largest oil-producing country, more and more details are becoming known of the US’s role it.