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Fahad Ansari

Works

News & Analysis

How long with the Saudis escape the Spring?

Fahad Ansari

Jumada' al-Ula' 20, 14342013-04-01

Some ulama in the desert kingdom are beginning to speak out against the crimes of the House of Saud. While the ‘Arab Spring’ has not affected the kingdom as much as others, how long will it escape the storm?

Special Reports

The war on terror and criminalisation of charity

Fahad Ansari

Rabi' al-Awwal 20, 14342013-02-01

The US and its western allies, especially Britain, France and Germany have not only targeted Muslims accusing them of all kinds of wrongdoing without much evidence, even charities that are involved in helping the victims’ families are being targeted. The witch-hunt is on in earnest.

Special Reports

US, UK regimes imagine threats where none exist

Fahad Ansari

Safar 19, 14342013-01-01

Anti-Muslim sentiment has infected British society and state so deeply that even where no threat exists, Muslims are sentenced to long prison terms without any evidence but simply for being Muslims.

News & Analysis

Muslims not even second-class citizens in UK

Fahad Ansari

Muharram 17, 14342012-12-01

In order to deny providing citizenship rights to Muslims, the British government has started stripping British Muslims stranded on other countries of their citizenship altogether.

News & Analysis

Some British citizens more equal than others

Fahad Ansari

Dhu al-Hijjah 16, 14332012-11-01

The extradition of Babar Ahmad, Syed Talha Ahsan, Khalid al-Fawwaz, Adel Abdul Bary and Abu Hamza to the US to face terrorism charges while refusing to extradite white British citizen Gary McKinnon exposes British hypocrisy and injustice.

Main Stories

Feigning innocence: the politics of demonization

Fahad Ansari

Dhu al-Qa'dah 14, 14332012-10-01

The blasphemous US-produced movie, while denounced by US officials, is still defended on the basis of free speech. History, however, shows that publishing racist, anti-religious tracts has been punished. Julius Streicher, publisher of a racist, anti-Jewish tabloid, Sturmer, was hanged after a military trial at Nuremberg accused of aiding and abetting the slaughter of Jews. He was not a member of the Nazi party nor was he in Hitler’s military.

News & Analysis

US, British, Swedish witch-hunt for Assange

Fahad Ansari

Shawwal 14, 14332012-09-01

Julian Assange of WikiLeaks fame is being targeted not because he is guilty of the rape allegation. His real ‘crime’ is that he exposed America’s dirty tricks.

News & Analysis

UK plans extradition of five Muslims to US, and torture

Fahad Ansari

Sha'ban 11, 14332012-07-01

On July 10, 2012, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights will decide the fate of five Muslim men facing extradition to the US.

News & Analysis

Politicisation of the European Court of Human Rights

Fahad Ansari

Jumada' al-Akhirah 09, 14332012-05-01

The doctrine of the separation of powers, by which governance is divided among three branches — the executive, legislative and the judiciary — is an old concept which was first developed in ancient Greece that continues to form the foundation of governance in most liberal democracies today.

News & Analysis

Shaker Aamer: husband, father and hostage of the West

Fahad Ansari

Jumada' al-Akhirah 09, 14332012-05-01

In war, numerous tactics are used to weaken the enemy with a view to its ultimate defeat.

News & Analysis

US: dictatorship and extra-judicial executions

Fahad Ansari

Jumada' al-Ula' 09, 14332012-04-01

When it comes to the War on Terror, it appears there is always a possibility to find legal justification for just about anything. Despite there being an “absolute” prohibition on torture under international law, John Yoo, then a Deputy Assistant Attorney at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC).

News & Analysis

Khader Adnan, Mark Regev and the exposure of detention without trial in the West

Fahad Ansari

Rabi' al-Thani 08, 14332012-03-01

Khader Adnan, a 33-year-old Palestinian baker detained without charge by Israel since December 2011, ended his 66-day hunger strike on February 21, which had taken him to the verge of death. Adnan ended his strike only after Israel agreed to release him after serving another two months of “administrative detention”, under which a suspect can be held without charge for six-month periods, renewable indefinitely.

News & Analysis

A decade on, the War on Terror shows no signs of abating

Fahad Ansari

Rabi' al-Awwal 09, 14332012-02-01

As human rights campaigners around the world commemorated the 10th anniversary of the opening of the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, marking a decade of human rights abuses known as the “war on terror”, one would have expected that Western governments would be contemplating scaling back their aggressive rhetoric and draconian laws which have become a feature of the 21st century.

Main Stories

9/11: looking beyond the propaganda

Fahad Ansari

Shawwal 03, 14322011-09-01

As the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks draws near, prepare to be bombarded with propaganda in the form of repeated television footage of the hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 crashing into the South Tower of the World Trade Centre with the North Tower already in flames.

Main Stories

British hypocrisy over Libyan refugees

Fahad Ansari

Rabi' al-Thani 27, 14322011-04-01

The witch-hunt of Qaddafi opponents began on 2 October 2005 with the arrest and detention of five Libyan dissidents, who had been granted asylum by the UK, on the grounds that they were a threat to national security.

News & Analysis

Fascists applaud British PM’s attack on Muslims

Fahad Ansari

Rabi' al-Awwal 26, 14322011-03-01

The centre of Luton, a large town 30 miles north of London, lay empty on February 5. This was unusual for a Saturday afternoon, as one would have expected the usual hustle and bustle of shoppers and families frequenting parks and markets in the town centre. Instead, it was like a ghost town. Shops were closed and people remained indoors. The only presence on the streets was that of 1,000 police officers who were waiting to steward a scheduled demonstration by the far right anti-Muslim fascist organization, the English Defence League (EDL).

Main Stories

Murder of Afghan civilians by coalition forces

Fahad Ansari

Shawwal 22, 14312010-10-01

“The baskets of severed hands, set down at the feet of the European post commanders, became the symbol of the Congo Free State… The collection of hands became an end in itself. Force Publique soldiers brought them to the stations in place of rubber.

News & Analysis

The unreported massacre and rape of Muslims in Guinea

Fahad Ansari

Shawwal 22, 14312010-10-01

There is no clearer example of this than the deafening silence and paralysis inflicting the Muslims of the world when it comes to defending oppressed Muslims of Africa, and in particular Sub-Saharan Africa, or “Black Africa”.

News & Analysis

Honour strippings of Muslim women in the west

Fahad Ansari

Ramadan 22, 14312010-09-01

In their latest effort to “liberate” Muslim women from the “oppression” of Islam, and to restore their dignity and honour, secular governments have started passing legislation forcing them to remove their clothes.

News & Analysis

They’ve come for the lawyers…

Fahad Ansari

Ramadan 22, 14312010-09-01

The presumption of innocence is the cornerstone of every legal system in the modern world and one which goes to the heart of the principles of due process.

News & Analysis

Pakistan: in the “interest of the nation”

Fahad Ansari

Rajab 18, 14312010-07-01

“Pakistan First”, was the slogan coined by former Pakistani military dictator, General Pervez Musharraf in his very first address to the people after grabbing power in October 1999. It was to be the underlying theme by which he would govern for nearly a decade.

Background

The Taliban Movement

Fahad Ansari

Dhu al-Qa'dah 24, 14312010-06-01

One of the common misconceptions about the Taliban is that they were only formed as a movement in 1994...

News & Analysis

Will Britain’s Kafkaesque laws be changed?

Fahad Ansari

Jumada' al-Ula' 16, 14312010-05-01

The recent British elections resulted in the defeat of the Labour Party government after 13 years in power and the emergence of a new Conservative-Liberal Democrats coalition, the first of its kind in over 30 years...

Main Stories

Dilemma of democracy facing Muslims in Britain

Fahad Ansari

Rabi' al-Thani 16, 14312010-04-01

For years British Muslims have been pressured by the government, media, think tanks, and even some Muslim community leaders to renounce violence as a means of bringing about change for their communities, both in the UK and abroad...

Main Stories

Selling the daughter of the Ummah to predators

Fahad Ansari

Rabi' al-Awwal 15, 14312010-03-01

“We have captured 689 and handed over 369 to the United States. We have earned bounties totalling millions of dollars. Those who habitually accuse us of ‘not doing enough’ in the war on terror should simply ask the CIA how much prize money it has paid to the government of Pakistan.”

News & Analysis

Will the West ever accept the concept of Islamic human rights activist?

Fahad Ansari

Rabi' al-Awwal 15, 14312010-03-01

Will the concept of an Islamic human rights activist ever be fully acceptable in Western society? During my many years working at the Islamic Human Rights Commission, several valuable minutes were wasted every morning deleting hate mail which often described the organisation as an oxymoron or a contradiction in terms before descending into a volley of Islamophobic and racist abuse...

News & Analysis

The straw that broke the Uyghurs’ back

Fahad Ansari

Sha'ban 10, 14302009-08-01

It was a moment of bravery, an act of defiance following decades of oppression that finally brought the plight of the Uyghurs in China to the attention of the world. A lone Muslim woman was dressed in hijab and jilbaab, hobbling on a crutch, and standing up to the Chinese state paramilitary forces in Urumchi, shaking her fist and demanding that her husband and four brothers be released by the authorities...

Special Reports

British Police infected by “War on Terror” virus

Fahad Ansari

Rajab 08, 14302009-07-01

The officers involved here stand accused of holding the heads of victims inside a toilet and repeatedly flushing it, as part of their interrogation.

News & Analysis

Innocent Pakistani students face deportation from UK

Fahad Ansari

Jumada' al-Akhirah 08, 14302009-06-01

In April, the “Easter Attack” plot became the latest in a series of international terrorist plots, “foiled” by British police days before they were supposedly to be carried out. In line with other terrorist plots allegedly be

World

Muslims suffer amid Tiger-army fighting in Sri Lanka

Fahad Ansari

Jumada' al-Ula' 06, 14302009-05-01

This month, the world may witness the final chapter in the 25-year-old conflict between the Sri Lankan army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), commonly known as the Tamil Tigers. The civil war, which has killed more than 70,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands others, was triggered by Tamil demands for an independent homeland in the North and East of the country following decades of complaints about discrimination against them by the majority Buddhist Sinhalese government.

World

Racism and police brutality against British Muslims

Fahad Ansari

Rabi' al-Thani 05, 14302009-04-01

“You’re going to remember this day for the rest of your life” — these words were uttered by anti-terror police officers to intimidate and terrify British Muslim Babar Ahmad during the brutal assault inflicted upon him in a pre-dawn raid on his home on December 2, 2003. They were right; Ahmad never forgot that day and spent the last five years struggling to ensure that it would live in the memories of the British public forever.

Special Reports

Police Islamophobia on trial

Fahad Ansari

Rabi' al-Awwal 04, 14302009-03-01

The British police service can no longer be described as “institutionally racist”, according to Trevor Phillips, the chair of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR). Phillips made his comments in a speech marking 10 years since the Stephen Lawrence murder report, which originally coined the phrase.

Special Reports

Comparison of resistance in Somalia and Ghazzah

Fahad Ansari

Safar 05, 14302009-02-01

On Friday 16 January, while Israel continued its brutal slaughter in Ghazzah, less than a thousand miles away, another foreign army was being forced to withdraw its troops from Muslim land it had also illegally occupied. On that day, to the joy of millions Somalia, Ethiopia was forced to pull its troops from Mogadishu, having invaded and occupied it just over two years earlier. Through a close examination of the conflict, one can draw valuable lessons for Hamas and the Muslim world.

World

Targeting Muslim charities in Britain

Fahad Ansari

Dhu al-Hijjah 03, 14292008-12-01

On November 12, the Palestinian Relief and Development Fund, Interpal received notification from their bank, the Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB), that Lloyds TSB (their clearing bank) had served notice on IBB to cease all dealings with Interpal. Clearing banks are responsible for processing all financial transactions.

Features

Dehumanisation as weapon in the “war on terror”

Fahad Ansari

Dhu al-Qa'dah 02, 14292008-11-01

In war, various tactics—from bribery to insults, ridicule and mockery, hostile propaganda, threats of force to physical violence and expulsion—are used to weaken and ultimately defeat the enemy. A traditional weapon used even today is that of isolation and dehumanisation through a process of complete social boycott.

Special Reports

Aafia Siddiqui: a victim of US political persecution and Muslim impotence

Fahad Ansari

Shawwal 01, 14292008-10-01

There are many unknown victims of the US’s global war on Islamic dissidence. The plight of one of them hit the headlines earlier this summer, after years in which nothing was known of her. FAHAD ANSARI reports on the case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a Muslimah now in US custody after disappearing in Pakistan in 2003.

Islamic Movement

Ramadan - the month of socio-political activism and jihad

Fahad Ansari

Ramadan 01, 14292008-09-01

This year, the month of September coincides with the holy month of Ramadan. In the Seerah of the Prophet and throughout Muslim history, this has been a month of jihad and activism. Yet in the modernworld., it has become one of passivity and personal piety. FAHAD ANSARI explores this paradox.

Special Reports

The plight of the Uighurs: China’s Muslims suffering as much as the Tibetans

Fahad Ansari

Rajab 29, 14292008-08-01

As the Olympic Games open in Beijing this month, Western activists will do their best to disrupt them in support of Tibetan independence. Less known is the history and struggle of the Uighur Muslims in Chinese-occupied Central Asia. FAHAD ANSARI discusses their plight.

Islamic Movement

“He who pays the piper calls the tune”: official Islam in Britain

Fahad Ansari

Jumada' al-Ula' 27, 14292008-06-01

Deciding who and who not to talk to has always been a strategy used by those in power against those they seek to control. FAHAD ANSARI discusses the attempts of the British government to find or establish an acceptable leadership for the British Muslim community.

Special Reports

Israel’s changing status in the West: a success of the resistance in Palestine

Fahad Ansari

Rabi' al-Thani 25, 14292008-05-01

In recent years, there has been increasing awareness of the true nature of zionism and the Israeli state in the West. FAHAD ANSARI discusses the reasons for this change, and finds them in the determination of Palestinians to resist their oppression and dispossession.

Islamic Movement

Remembering the great tradition of Sufi jihadis in Muslim history

Fahad Ansari

Rabi' al-Awwal 24, 14292008-04-01

In the contemporary Ummah, Sufism is often associated with apolitical, pacifist Islam of the type that the West would like to promote as “true Islam” all over the Muslim world. FAHAD ANSARI looks back at the great tradition of jihadi Sufis in recent Muslim history.

Special Reports

Legal case highlights the growing criminalisation of Islam in Britain

Fahad Ansari

Safar 23, 14292008-03-01

Last month, five young Muslims in Britain were cleared of terrorism charges on appeal, in the latest of a series of trials of Muslims in Britain. FAHAD ANSARI discusses the implications of the case and the growing criminilizations of Islam in Britain.

Islamic Movement

Malcolm X’s understanding and example of hikma in political activism

Fahad Ansari

Muharram 23, 14292008-02-01

Malcolm X, who was assassinated in New York on February 21, 1965, was a unique figure in the history of Islam in America, and a leader who has inspired generations of Muslim everywhere, particularly those living in non-Muslim countries. FAHAD ANSARI considers his legacy.

Special Reports

The Ogaden Muslims’ long history of resistance and suffering under Ethiopian rule

Fahad Ansari

Dhu al-Hijjah 22, 14282008-01-01

Ethiopia’s war in Muslim Somalia has been one of the major news stories of the last year. However, less well-known is the fact that Somali Muslims living under Ethiopian rule in the Ogaden have a 700-year history of resistance against Ethiopian rule. FAHAD ANSARI reports.

Special Reports

2,000 days after the opening of Guantanamo Bay: remembering the US’s abuses of human rights

Fahad Ansari

Jumada' al-Akhirah 16, 14282007-07-01

While Americans celebrate the US Declaration of Independence on July 4, campaigners around the world will mark the 2,000th day since the opening of the Guantanamo Bay detention center on January 11, 2002. In this issue, FAHAD ANSARI discusses the differences between the ideals that the US claims to represent and its own behavior in the world today.

World

Campaigning for the life of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri sentenced to death in India

Fahad Ansari

Rabi' al-Thani 14, 14282007-05-01

Serious questions have been raised about the attempt to bomb India’s parliament in New Delhi in December 2001. Human rights activists in India are campaigning against the death sentence passed against one of those accused. Fahad Ansari reports.

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Islamic Movement

The importance of maintaining Islamic values in political activism

Fahad Ansari

Safar 11, 14282007-03-01

As Muslims around the world rallied in defence of the Haram in al-Quds, FAHAD ANSARI was concerned by some of the attitudes he found during a protest in London.

Special Reports

British government promoting projects for the “de-radicalization” of Islam

Fahad Ansari

Dhu al-Qa'dah 10, 14272006-12-01

Despite its traditional reputation for tolerance and multiculturalism, the British government, like all colonial powers, has a long history of trying to impose meanings and leaders on Islam and Muslims. FAHAD ANSARI discusses the latest strategy being promoted in Britain, as a time when Muslims are under increasing pressure.

World

Ramadan in Britain marked by government attempts to solve the “Muslim problem”

Fahad Ansari

Shawwal 09, 14272006-11-01

Ramadan 1427 provided enough evidence of the truth in Allah’s words for any Muslim to solidify his or her faith. Almost daily for about three weeks, minister after minister, newspaper after newspaper, commentator after commentator voiced opinions about the “Muslim problem” and how to solve it.

Features

The Islamophobic heart of the UK government’s proposed anti-terrorism legislation

Fahad Ansari

Ramadan 28, 14262005-11-01

This month, the Islamic Human Rights Commission will publish a detailed critique of the British government’s proposed anti-terrorism legislation, written by FAHAD ANSARI. Here we publish an extract focussing on the targeting of “extemism”.

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