July’s failed coup attempt in Turkey has exposed more than the coup plotters. Turkish President Recept Tayip Erdogan has realized that Western rulers and Nato members are not his real friends. Russia and Iran are.

Despites its being one of the most important pillars of Islam, most Muslims know little understanding about it beyond rituals. Hajj’s most important function—declaring dissociation from the mushrikeen—is seldom mentioned. It must be understood and revived.

Muslims have enormous wealth at their disposal: $11.5 trillion almost equal to the US GDP of $17 trillion. How Muslim wealth is utilized will have enormous implications for their future well-being.

Led by the French, most Western officials seems to have taken leave of their senses. How else can one explain the ludicrous ban on burkini—the full body swimwear used by some Muslim women—under the guise of protecting women’s freedoms?

Why the Bani Saud fail to understand that their Zionist-imperialist masters are setting them for a fall? When people have protruding bellies, their brains often become non-functional.

The Zionists are not shy about declaring that hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been visiting ‘Saudi’ Arabia even though the two regimes have no formal diplomatic relations. We need to bear in mind that Zionist maps show Makkah and Madinah as part of ‘Greater Israel’.

India’s occupation forces—most of them adherents of a racist Hindu ideology akin to Nazism—are continuing the killing and maiming of Kashmiri youth. The people of Kashmir have had enough; they want India to get out of Kashmir!

The US-crafted Afghan regime with two rulers—a president and a chief executive—had little chance of success. It is coming unhinged amid political squabbling as the Taliban make military gains across the country.

The Western corporate media are masters of disinformation. Their ideology is well known: everything Western is superior and others’ culture, philosophy, ideology especially those of Muslims, are inferior. Their particular target is Islamic Iran because it stands for clear Islamic principles.

The months of August and September highlight two anniversaries: the first, Hizbullah’s valiant resistance to Zionist aggression against Lebanon in 2006 and the second Islamic Iran’s eight year long epic defence of the Islamic State against the combined might of kufr emanating through Ba‘thist Iraq.

The Zionists not only want to occupy the whole of Palestine but their special target is al Masjid al Aqsa, the holy sanctuary. They have intensified their attacks in recent weeks as Muslim attention is diverted elsewhere.

Canadian writer and scholar Eric Walberg reviews two books that consider Barack Obama’s legacy as president. Eric Walberg considers the Obama legacy through the eyes of James Petras who wrote The End of the Republic and the Delusion of Empire (Clarity Press, 2016; 254pp., $24.95 pbk), and Jeremy Hammond, author of Obstacle to Peace: The US Role in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Worldview Publications, 2016; 538pp., $22.99 pbk).

Russian-Iranian relations form the backdrop of this review in which Western writers are found to lack understanding of other societies because they have little knowledge of local languages, culture or access to primary sources. Dmitry Shlapentokh, associate professor at Indiana State University, South Bend, Indiana, reviews Russia-Iran Relations Since the End of the Cold War by Eric D. Moore (Routledge, 2014; 242 pp., $8.84 hbk).

July’s failed coup attempt in Turkey has exposed more than the coup plotters. Turkish President Recept Tayip Erdogan has realized that Western rulers and Nato members are not his real friends. Russia and Iran are.

Letter writer Kamran Shaikh takes heart from the fact that more than 850 academics have signed an open letter to condemn Indian State crimes in Kashmir.

The Saudis were involved in the 911 attacks, says Julie Beckett from Los Angeles.

Haider Ali Khan comments on the recent attack on Quetta Civil Hospital which carries the fingerprints of Indian Intelligence Agency RAW.

ndia’s Caste system is an affront to human dignity, says Mehrunnisa Shamsi.

Tawfik Ahmed welcomes an end to the unipolar world and unilateralism in global affairs.