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Iqbal Siddiqui

Works

Book Review

Useful Insights on Mainstream and Muslim Media

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rabi' al-Awwal 12, 14392017-12-01

Roshan Salih’s book about journalism, almost a memoir, makes fascinating reading as he provides insights into the workings of Western as well as Muslim media outlets. He has worked for both.

Islamic Movement

Remembering Kalim Siddiqui

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 04, 14382017-04-01

Like most visionaries and revolutionary thinkers, Dr Kalim Siddiqui, who passed away on April 18, 1996, was far ahead of his times.

Islamic Movement

On the edge of history: Dr. Kalim Siddiqui’s Stages of Islamic Revolution

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Akhirah 23, 14372016-04-01

Dr Kalim’s understanding of history went beyond the mere recording of events. He incorporated the understanding of broad trends and movements of social and political change, and the factors that influenced them to derive lessons for the future.

Opinion

The broader international context of the conflict in Syria (Re-print)

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rabi' al-Thani 29, 14352014-03-01

The West never had any problem with Bashar al-Asad as long as he did their bidding. Following the “Arab Spring”, the West thought Asad was a low hanging fruit ripe for picking. Three years later, they are waking up to reality.

Opinion

Unity of the Ummah requires practical realisation, as well as pious words (1)

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rabi' al-Thani 01, 14352014-02-01

Islam enjoins unity among Muslims while allowing for differences of opinion. Such differences, unless expressed with the requisite civility, can easily lead to serious problems, even violent conflict as witnessed in places like Iraq, Pakistan and Syria.

Opinion

Muslims in the West: victims of an inescapable historical confrontation II

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 17, 14342012-12-01

Muslims have been at the receiving end of western aggression long before the events of 911 that the west has used to justify its wars on Afghanistan, Iraq and other Muslim countries.

Opinion

The success of Muslim defence against cultural attacks on Islam

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Hijjah 16, 14332012-11-01

The fact that Muslims have not abandoned their values in the face of repeated assaults on their revered personalities is itself a great achievement. They should continue to protest and denounce such attempts at denigration.

Opinion

The lies of politics, the politics of lies and the myth of the American dream

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

American politics is a game of blatant lies and distortions. It makes little difference to the life of Americans whether a Democrat or Republican is in the White House.

Opinion

Thirty years after the Islamic Revolution, the US remains an implacable enemy (Republished)

Iqbal Siddiqui

Shawwal 14, 14332012-09-01

US enmity towards Iran has nothing to do with Iran’s peaceful nuclear program. It is merely a pretext used by Washington for Iran’s refusal to fall in line with US demands.

Opinion

Working toward the total transformation of the Ummah

Iqbal Siddiqui

Ramadan 12, 14332012-08-01

In this column last month, I discussed the context and implications of the Ikhwan’s success in Egypt’s presidential elections in June.

Opinion

The total transformation of the Ummah requires more than just political success

Iqbal Siddiqui

Sha'ban 11, 14332012-07-01

The confirmation on June 24 that Muhammad Mursi, the candidate representing the Ikhwan al-Muslimeen, had been elected President of Egypt, has a certain air of inevitability.

Opinion

Bosnia war crimes tribunal and growth of international legal institutions

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 11, 14332012-06-01

In last month’s column, I reflected on the 20th anniversary of the start of the Bosnia War, which began in March 1992.

Opinion

Reflecting on the 20th anniversary of the start of Bosnia’s war

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

Early last month, Bosnians marked the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the genocidal war waged against them by the Serbs and Croats of former Yugoslavia, a war whose objective was the extermination of the largest indigenous Muslim community remaining in Europe.

Opinion

Understanding the scope and depth of the work of the Islamic movement

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

The key objectives of the Islamic movement is the reassertion of Islamic values in Muslim societies, and the establishment of Islamic states in place of the corrupt, self-serving regimes that currently predominate in the Muslim world.

Perspectives

The broader international context of the conflict in Syria

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

The West never had any problem with Bashar al-Asad as long as he did their bidding. Following the “Arab Spring”, the West thought Asad was a low hanging fruit ripe for picking. Three years later, they are waking up to reality.

Perspectives

Free to be free? The reality of institutional constraints on freedom in the West

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

For a civilization and value system that places such great emphasis on “freedom”, there are still plenty of ways that dissidents can be targeted in the modern West. Freedom has been described as a “hurray word” — a word “with little substantive meaning… an empty signifier in a hegemonic language game, to which we all have to defer”, in the words of Mark Haugaard, political scientist and editor of the Journal of Power.

Opinion

Unity of the Ummah requires practical realisation, as well as pious words

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 07, 14332012-01-01

For many Muslims and Islamic activists around the world, in so many different places and fields of work, the unity of the Ummah is a basic premise of everything we do. At the same time, differences of understanding, approach and methodology are inevitable in a global Ummah of more than 1.5 billion people.

Perspectives

The failures of democracy in the West offer hope for Islamic movements everywhere

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 06, 14332011-12-01

Every four years the world watches the political soap opera of the US presidential elections with a combination of amusement, bemusement and incredulity as the world’s most powerful nation, and the supposed flag-bearer of democracy, lays open its true nature. Although the polls are not due for over a year, the formal process began months ago, with Barrack Obama having announced the start of his re-election campaign in April.

Opinion

US withdrawal from Iraq confirms the success of popular resistance

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Hijjah 05, 14322011-11-01

Barack Obama’s announcement on October 21 that US troops would be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of the year might have been regarded as a masterpiece of political spin, except that very few people were fooled.

Opinion

Somalia: the forgotten victim of the West’s worldwide war on Islamic movements

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Qa'dah 03, 14322011-10-01

Early month, as much of the western world was either wallowing in sentimental commemorations of the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in September 2001, or reflecting on the far greater atrocities perpetrated by the US in its aggressive exploitation of 9/11 in pursuit of their imperialist interests worldwide, warnings of an emerging tragedy of potentially even greater proportions were largely ignored.

Perspectives

Democracy: the challenge still facing Islamic movements after the Arab Spring

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 29, 14322011-07-01

Islamic movements, intellectuals and activists long tended to have a love-hate relationship with democracy. On the one hand, democracy has been associated with the aggressive, brutal, exploitative, hegemonic policies of the post-colonial Western powers, the cynicism, manipulation and dishonesty of Western politics and the increasing moral degeneracy of individualistic and hedonistic Western societies.

Main Stories

Imam Khomeini: more than just an ‘alim, an intellectual or revolutionary

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Akhirah 28, 14322011-06-01

This month, as in every June since 1989, Muslims around the world will hold prayer meetings, lectures and other events to mark the anniversary of the death of Imam Khomeini, who died in Tehran on June 4, 1989, a decade after the Islamic Revolution in Iran with which he will always be associated. The usual speakers will give the usual speeches, focusing on the usual aspects of his life and character.

Opinion

Fooling enough people enough of the time — and the role of the West’s unfooled

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Ula' 27, 14322011-05-01

There were a slew of new revelations about the politics of the run-up to the US invasion of Iraq last month, when the Independent newspaper in Britain published details of documents recently obtained under the Freedom of Information.

Opinion

Dr. Kalim Siddiqui’s vision for Muslims living in the West

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

In last month’s issue of Crescent International, in his column, “From the Editor’s Desk”, Zafar Bangash highlighted the fact that the paper recently completed 40 years of publication, masha’Allah. This month marks another significant anniversary: 15 years since the death of Dr. Kalim Siddiqui in South Africa on April 18, 1996.

Opinion

Arizona shooting and the fundamental realities of “freedom” and “democracy”

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 27, 14322011-02-01

The attempted assassination of US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson Arizona on January 8 (six people were killed in the attack and 14, including Giffords, injured) inevitably provoked a storm in the country. The main focus of the debate has of the debate has been the role of right-wing politicians and commentators, particularly the Republican former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

News & Analysis

Leaked papers confirm PA collaboration with Israel and threaten to shake up Palestinian politics

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 27, 14322011-02-01

The Palestinian issue has been virtually stalemated since before Israel’s war on Gaza in 2008–2009, with Hamas, the most popular and legitimate Palestinian leadership bottled up in the besieged and densely populated Gaza, and the West Bank under the increasingly repressive rule of Mahmood Abbas’s Palestinian Authority (PA).

Opinion

Ummah suffering from information overload and misinformation toxicity

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 26, 14322011-01-01

The New Year is traditionally a time when people reflect on their situations in life, as well as contemplating the possibilities of the year to come. This New Year in the Gregorian calendar coincides (more or less) with a new year, 1432, in the Hijri calendar; Muharram 1 fell on December 7, 2010.

Special Reports

Ikhwan locked out of Egyptian politics as regime plans for the future

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 26, 14322011-01-01

Considering the low expectations that Egyptians and other observers had of the country’s parliamentary elections (the two rounds took place on November 28 and December 5, 2010 respectively), it should perhaps be recognised as an achievement of sorts for the Mubarak regime.

Opinion

Ikhwan mock-fighting another pseudo-election in Egypt

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Qa'dah 24, 14312010-11-01

Egypt’s parliamentary elections will take place on November 28, by which time this issue of Crescent will have gone to press. Normally, this would be problematic from a news point of view; one of the most difficult issues for any periodical is when major developments are expected between its press deadline and its publication date.

Opinion

The problem of the diminishing position of Hajj in modern Muslim societies

Iqbal Siddiqui

Shawwal 22, 14312010-10-01

This writer has never had the privilege of performing Hajj. It may be many years before I am able to do so, although I hope and pray to have the opportunity before the end of my time on this earth, insha’allah.

Opinion

The Saudi record of violence against the historical heritage of Islam

Iqbal Siddiqui

Shawwal 22, 14312010-10-01

The city of Istanbul is among the world’s most popular destinations among Muslims, largely because of the legacy of the Ottoman period and the numerous mosques and other monuments that survive there, through which Muslims can relate to a golden period of Islamic culture.

Opinion

Muslims in the west: victims of an inescapable historical confrontation I

Iqbal Siddiqui

Ramadan 22, 14312010-09-01

Several articles in this issue of Crescent International discuss the problems faced by Muslims living in western countries, particularly since the launching of the “war on terror” after the attacks on the World Trade Centre

News & Analysis

US announcement of direct talks already a success for Israel and bodes ill for Palestinians

Iqbal Siddiqui

Ramadan 14, 14362010-09-01

The announcement by US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton on August 20 that the US is to host direct talks between Palestinian president Mahmood Abbas and Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu has singularly failed to raise hopes of progress toward any level of justice for the suffering people of Palestine.

Opinion

Ramadan: the month of zakat as well as of fasting

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 18, 14312010-07-01

The holy month of Ramadan, the month of fasting and the most special time of the year for most Muslims, is almost upon us. It is a time that Muslims everywhere look forward to with anticipation, and the passing of which for another year is widely mourned.

Special Reports

Reflections on the creation of Pakistan in the context of Muslim history

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 18, 14312010-07-01

Almost every statement in the above paragraph, except perhaps for the simple statement of fact with which it starts, could prove the subject of heated debate.

Opinion

Understanding the scope and depth of work of the Islamic movement

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Akhirah 18, 14312010-06-01

The key objectives of the Islamic movement are the reassertion of Islamic values in Muslim societies, and the establishment of Islamic states in place of the corrupt, self-serving regimes that currently predominate in the Muslim world...

Opinion

Islamic movement suffering from lack of intellectual institutional infrastructure

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

Like so many activists and institutions in the Islamic movement, we at Crescent International take the unity of the Ummah as a basic assumption and premise of everything that we do. As we have so often affirmed, the understanding that we all have in common as Muslims far outweighs our many differences.

News & Analysis

Two sets of talks, but few expectations for long-suffering Palestinians

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

The long-stalled Middle East peace process was finally resumed last month, when proximity talks mediated by US envoy George Mitchell between Israel and the Palestinian Authority finally began on May 9...

Opinion

Internal cohesion key to British Muslim engagement in mainstream politics

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

Britain goes to the polls on May 6, to elect the government that is expected to run the country for the next five years. Unlike most elections in recent years, the contest is genuinely too close for the results to be predicted...

Opinion

Islamic movement needs to challenge the universal myth of democracy

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

Democracy is undoubtedly the most commonplace and widely accepted political concept in the modern world. It is barely an exaggeration to say that it has achieved the status of a universal myth; very few people in the world dare challenge the principles associated with it, and most accept it...

Special Reports

Political turmoil likely after Iraqi elections

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

There is certainly no doubt that Allawi’s success is something of a surprise in terms of the pre-election expectations...

Perspectives

Lessons for the Islamic movement seven years after the invasion of Iraq

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

This month marks the seventh anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. The invasion was no surprise of course; it was preceded by months of international politicking as the neo-con Bush administration tried to build international consensus for the war...

A short introduction to the Muslim Institute, 1974-1998

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 15, 14312010-01-01

The Muslim Institute emerged from talks in 1972-73 among a group of young Muslims in London led by the late Dr Kalim Siddiqui. Its foundation proper can be dated to the publication of the Draft Prospectus of the Muslim Institute, its foundation document, in 1974.

A short introduction to the Crescent International, 1980-

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 15, 14312010-01-01

In an age before the Internet, therefore, the key instrument of this work was the Crescent International newsmagazine, published from Toronto.

A short introduction to the The Muslim Parliament

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 15, 14312010-01-01

The Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, inaugurated in 1992, emerged from a study into the Muslim situation in Britain by the Muslim Institute, London, under the leadership of Dr Kalim Siddiqui, during the Rushdie affair in 1989-90. Unfortunately it was to decline rapidly following his death in 1996, and was defunct to all intents and purposes within a few years.

Opinion

The Ikhwan’s difficult path between accommodation, repression and militancy

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 15, 14312010-01-01

The election last month of Mohammed Badei as the eighth Murshid al-‘Am (General Guide) of the Ikhwan al-Muslimun (Muslim Brotherhood) in Egypt, and the results of December’s elections for the Ikhwan’s Maktab al-Irshad...

Opinion

Centrality of Arabic as a unifying factor in the Islamic movement

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Hijjah 14, 14302009-12-01

That sense of unity was based on a common faith of course, but was supported also by a number of other factors that have been lost...

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Special Reports

The “gelgelt” in Ghazzah and the common features of salafi-jihadi groups elsewhere

Iqbal Siddiqui

Ramadan 11, 14302009-09-01

When news emerged of fighting in the southern Gaza town of Rafah after jumu‘ah prayers on August 14, many observers would have been surprised to learn that it was between Hamas authorities and militants belonging to a Salafi-Jihadi group known as Jund Ansar Allah — “Soldiers of the Followers of Allah”...

Book Review

Balanced and informed look at the facts of Algeria's bloody massacres

Iqbal Siddiqui

Ramadan 11, 14302009-09-01

AN ENQUIRY INTO THE ALGERIAN MASSACRES edited by Youcef Bedjaoui, Abbas Aroua and Meziane Ait-Larbi. Pub: Hoggar Books, Geneva, Switzerland, 1999. Hbk: UK24.00 (UK); pp: 1,473.

Book Review

Theoretical and philosophical discussion which fails to address the realities facing European Muslims

Iqbal Siddiqui

Ramadan 11, 14302009-09-01

To be a European Muslim by Tariq Ramadan. Pub: The Islamic Foundation, Leicester, UK, 1999. Pp: 272. Pbk: £5.95.

Opinion

Contemplating the possible end of Iran’s Islamic experiment

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 08, 14302009-07-01

There are many possible explanations for the unrest that has broken out in Iran since the presidential elections last month. One thing that has become quite clear is that there was a pre-existing plan by enemies of the Islamic State to exploit the political uncertainty of the election period for their own purposes, regardless of the results; now perhaps we can see where the resources that the Bush administration had committed to destabilising Iran have been used.

Islamic Movement

Imam Khomeini in contemporary Islamic history

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

Imam Ruhullah Musawi al-Khomeini (September 24, 1902 to June 3, 1989) is among those iconic figures of history about whom everybody thinks they know much more than they actually do.This month, to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of Imam Khomeini, Crescent International and the Islamic Books Trust, Kuala Lumpur, have published a book of essays on the Imam’s life and thought. Here we present an abridged version of the introduction to that volume, written by former Crescent editor Iqbal Siddiqui.

Perspectives

Egypt hopes allegations will counter the popularity of Hizbullah

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

Since the announcement on April 8 that Egyptian authorities had arrested 49 members of a “Hizbullah cell” in the country, we have been subjected to a variety of explanations for the arrests and several different accounts of exactly what happened, when it happened, and why it happened. Much of this information has been leaked by Egyptian authorities, and little of it has survived critical scrutiny.

Occupied Arab World

Failure of Fatah-Hamas talks hide deeper realities of Palestinian and regional politics

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

Question: What does a great power do when it suffers an unexpected defeat and a major setback in its plans for achieving an acceptable solution to a problem? Answer: It sits back, regroups, deflects public attention to other issues, and works quietly behind the scenes to prepare the ground for a new attempt to achieve its objectives by some other strategy in future.

Perspectives

New lessons for Muslims as the US’s ulama-e sultan change their tune

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

In the March 9 issue of Newsweek magazine, Fareed Zakaria, the magazine’s editor and formerly both an adviser to the Bush administration on US policy in the Middle East and a cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, published an article under the heading “Learning to Live with Radical Islam” and the tagline “It’s time to stop treating all Islamists as potential terrorists”.

Perspectives

Having defeated Ethiopians, Somalia’s Muslims face problems of peace

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

Iraq and Afghanistan were far from the only victims of the neo-cons’ aggression under George W. Bush. Several other Muslim countries suffered grievously too, without receiving nearly as much attention in the world media, and, by extension, among Muslims. Somalia is perhaps the single greatest example. Crescent has covered developments there as best we can, largely thanks to M. A. Shaikh, who writes on the new government of Sherif Sheikh Ahmed in this issue, but elsewhere in the Muslim media Somalia has been largely ignored.

Special Reports

After the Gaza war, new patterns emerge in Israel-Palestinian politics

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

As the Israeli military machine battered Gaza earlier this year, during weeks of the most ferocious assaults on Palestinians seen in decades, it seemed that a major and significant turning point had been reached in the struggle between Zionist expansionism and Palestinian resistance.

Perspectives

Thirty years after the Islamic Revolution, the US remains an implacable enemy

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 05, 14302009-02-01

When Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as president of the United States of America in January 1981, Iran and its recent Islamic Revolution was an obsession for the US and all in it. Almost 30 years later, little has changed in that regard.

Special Reports

Towards peace on Israeli terms: the political context of the war in Gaza

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 05, 14302009-02-01

For three weeks, as the Israelis subjected Gaza to some of the most brutal total warfare seen since the US assault on Falluja in 2003, most of the Muslim world could do little more than watch in shock and horror. After the Israeli ceasefire, as Palestinians adjust to the new reality of life in the devastation left by the Israeli blitzkrieg, it is possible to place the events of the last month or so in some sort of political context.

Perspectives

Islamic movement needs to re-focus on key objectives post-Bush

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 04, 14302009-01-01

Such was the artificiality of the hype surrounding the election of Barack Obama at the beginning of November last year — only two months ago — that the elation has largely dissipated even before he has taken office. For many Americans, the realization that nothing much is likely to change has emerged from his appointment of establishment political figures to all major offices in his administration.

Perspectives

Post-war Iraq achieves the status of just another pro-Western Arab nation state

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Hijjah 03, 14292008-12-01

The problem with taking on the superpowers is that they never seem willing to admit that they are beaten, with the result that however successful the resistance to them, there is never an outright victory. Whenever the superpowers have projected their power and been met by determined local resistance, such as the Russians in Afghanistan and Chechnya, and the Americans in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and (indirectly) Palestine, the resistance faces the problem of actually sealing their victories in political terms.

Occupied Arab World

Palestinian unity talks fail again as Fatah and Israelis are caught up in local politics

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Hijjah 03, 14292008-12-01

November saw both an intensification of Israel’s low-level war on Ghazzah, and a further murderous tightening of its economic blockade. But hopes for healing the breach between Fatah and Hamas failed yet again, largely as a result of internal political pressures on Fatah and the Israelis. IQBAL SIDDIQUI reports.

Perspectives

The achievement of the Rushdie protests

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

The last few weeks have seen the stirrings of what may become the basis for another world-wide Muslim protest movement like those about the Rushdie fitna and the Danish cartoons insulting the Prophet (saw). Beaufort House, a minor publisher in the US, has published a sleazy work of fiction called The Jewel of Medina, by Sherry Jones, which has been described as a work of “soft porn” set in the time of the Prophet and taking a bowdlerised version of the life of Hadhrat A’isha (r.a.) as its theme.

Perspectives

Ten years of covering the global Islamic movement

Iqbal Siddiqui

Shawwal 01, 14292008-10-01

In a few months’ time, Crescent International will insha’Allah complete 37 years of publication. During that time, it has inevitably seen many changes. It began as a local community paper in Toronto in the 1970s, before being transformed into a newsmagazine of the global Islamic movement after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, under the influence of Dr Kalim Siddiqui.

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Perspectives

Looking ahead to Yaum al-Quds

Iqbal Siddiqui

Ramadan 01, 14292008-09-01

The last Friday of Ramadan each year is marked around the world as Yaum al-Quds: the Day of al-Quds. This tradition was begun by Imam Khomeini r.a. shortly after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, as an annual affirmation of the Ummah’s solidarity with the Muslims of Palestine in their struggle for the liberation of al-Quds .

Perspectives

Looking back at the war in Bosnia

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 29, 14292008-08-01

During the early 1990s, the war in Bosnia dominated Muslim attention much as a war in Iraq has in the last few years, considering which it is perhaps surprising how little of the events of those years is known to many young Muslims today.

Perspectives

Syria faces the problems of UN inspections

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Akhirah 27, 14292008-07-01

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency – the UN’s anti-nuclear watchdog – left Syria on June 25 after spending three days collecting samples and other materials from the al-Kibar site bombed by Israel in September last year.

Editorials

Debate over US-Iraq treaty confirms both the US’s ambitions and the limits of its power

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Akhirah 27, 14292008-07-01

The US is facing two deadlines in its dealings with the government in Iraq over the proposed “security treaty” by which it hopes to legitimise its continued occupation of the country. The first is the expiry of the UN mandate to remain in the country, which expires on December 31.

Perspectives

Remembering the stature and contribution of Imam Khomeini

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

This month, millions of Muslims all over the world will mark the nineteenth anniversary of the death of Imam Khomeini on June 4, 1989. The Imam was undoubtedly the most important figure in recent Muslim history, the man whose thought and leadership effectively gave birth to what we now know as the global Islamic movement.

Perspectives

The disgraceful failure of the mainstream world media

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

Five years after the US invasion of Iraq, it is now widely accepted that the war was based on a web of lies deliberately spun by the Bush administration to justify a war that they were determined to execute come what might. A number of other groups have also been criticised for their roles in the deception, including the US intelligence community and the British government.

Perspectives

The politics of elections and the universal ideals of democracy

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

The neo-cons’ commitment to promoting democracy in the Muslim world was quietly discarded after Hamas’s victory in the Palestinian elections in January 2006, when they finally realised what most observers had been saying all along: that free elections in Muslim countries would almost invariably result in governments that the West would not like because they would promote the concerns and interests of their own people above those of Washington.

Perspectives

Lessons of the shari‘ah controversy in the UK

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 23, 14292008-03-01

Every month or two, a new controversy concerning Islam and Muslims erupts in the UK. Sometimes they concern terrorism or extremism, sometimes education or women, sometimes anti-semitism. Often they are based on wildly sensationalised reports of the statements of some Muslim or another, stoked up by the right-wing media to demonise the Muslim community as whole.

Perspectives

Islamic Iran: the only genuinely independent Muslim state

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 23, 14292008-02-01

At a time when the entire world of Islam is under intense attack from external enemies, most of them directly or indirectly associated with the United States of America, the sole superpower of the modern world, it is sometimes easy to forget the key objectives facing Islamic movements. Defending our lands and societies from outside attack is undoubtedly essential, but our main objective must be the establishment of Islamic institutions and orders in our own societies, most importantly Islamic political orders.

Main Stories

Pakistan and US policy move on after assassination of Benazir Bhutto

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 23, 14292008-01-01

A week after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the political dust has settled sufficiently for us to hazard some analysis of the situation Pakistan faces and where it might go from here. The announcement that elections have been postponed until February 18, and the appointment of Benazir’s husband and son to lead the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) – confirming it to be a family fiefdom rather than a political party in any real sense – have established some of the parameters of Pakistani politics in the post-Benazir era. And yet, in perhaps the most important ways, her death really changes very little.

Perspectives

Remembering the Muslim Institute and the Muslim Parliament

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Hijjah 22, 14282008-01-01

The end of the year is often a time for looking back and reflecting on events past. This is particularly the case in Western countries, where the new year coincides with the annual Christmas break, the main holiday period in most Western countries, although it is no longer a particularly Christian or spiritual occasion. This year, the Islamic new year follows very soon after the new year on the Gregorian calendar; in fact, 2008 will be a rare Gregorian year because it has two Islamic new years, as the year 1430AH will begin at the end of next December.

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Perspectives

Re-assessing the performance of the US in Iraq

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Qa'dah 20, 14282007-12-01

Alan Greenspan’s recently published memoirs cut through a great deal of the official American bluster about the US involvement in Iraq, going straight to the heart of the matter. “I am saddened,” he wrote, “that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.”

Perspectives

The real reasons for the West’s interest in Darfur

Iqbal Siddiqui

Shawwal 20, 14282007-11-01

Many people reading the recent news from Darfur may be confused. On October 25, just days before peace talks on the conflict in Darfur were due to begin in Libya, anti-government rebels in Darfur were reported to have attacked oil installations in the neighbouring region of Kardofan, kidnapping two foreigners and warning other foreign oil workers that they had a week to leave the country or they would face similar attacks. The start of the talks in Sirte were then delayed because rebel groups refused to take part.

Perspectives

Ahmadinejad’s experience in New York shows the limitations of dialogue

Iqbal Siddiqui

Ramadan 19, 14282007-10-01

For a little while last month, as Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prepared to address the American people in a series of media opportunities and a high-profile speech at Columbia University during his visit to New York to address the General Assembly of the UN, it appeared that we were back in the days when former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami was championing “dialogue between civilizations”, to the delight of Western liberals who hoped that the “reformists” might bring Iran back into the West’s sphere of influence – their definition of civilization.

Main Stories

Maliki government and the US struggling with the implications of their own contradictions

Iqbal Siddiqui

Sha'ban 19, 14282007-09-01

Iraqis have become victims of violence in many different circumstances since the American invasion of the country in 2003. Many have been victims of sectarian violence between the Sunni and Shi‘i communities, in which Shi‘i religious institutions and occasions have been particularly targeted by Sunni militants. Few, however, could have anticipated that the Shabaniyah festival in Karbala on August 28, to mark the anniversary of the birth of the twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, would end with over 50 people killed in fighting between Shi‘i gunmen and Iraqi authorities, sparked by the heavy-handed security arrangements in the city.

Perspectives

Palestinians facing a new catastrophe in Ghazzah

Iqbal Siddiqui

Sha'ban 19, 14282007-09-01

Asked about the lesson of fasting, Imam Husain (r.a.) is reported to have replied that “the rich should feel the pangs of hunger and appreciate what the poor have to endure, and therefore share Allah’s bounty with them.”As Muslims begin the month of Ramadan later this month, they should think of the suffering of their brothers and sisters in Palestine, and Ghazzah in particular.

Islamic Movement

The continuing relevance of the thought of Ali Shariati

Iqbal Siddiqui

Sha'ban 19, 14282007-09-01

Dr Ali Shariati, who died in London in June 1977, was among the most important figures of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, which unfortunately he did not live to see; and yet, 30 years after his death, his contribution and legacy are largely forgotten. During the 1970s, his lectures and writings played a crucial role in preparing young Iranians, brought up during the secularising and “Westoxicated” policies of the Shah’s regime, for the possibility of Islamic rule. In this paper, IQBAL SIDDIQUI analyses major elements of his thought, particularly his belief that Muslims need what Dr Kalim Siddiqui would later call “an intellectual revolution” in their under-standing of Islam.

Perspectives

Spectre of al-Qa’ida returns to Egypt despite former militants’ repentance

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 17, 14282007-08-01

One little-noticed story in the international media last month was the reported arrest and interrogation of 40 men in Egypt, allegedly for having links with al-Qa’ida. According to reports first carried in Al-Masry al-Yom, an independent Egyptian daily newspaper, the men were actually arrested in April but news of the arrests was deliberately not released. Subsequent media investigations have unearthed further details, many of them inconsistent.

Islamic Movement

Muslim history as a basis for the unity of the Ummah

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 17, 14282007-08-01

In June 2007, the Islamic Centre of England hosted a conference on “Proximity amongst Islamic schools of thought: a necessity for Muslims in the contemporary era” (see Crescent International, July 2007). This is the paper presented IQBAL SIDDIQUI, a researcher at the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought (ICIT) and editor of Crescent International.

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Perspectives

Iraq as a litmus-test of sectarianism in the Ummah

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

June turned out to be a month of speeches and conferences for this writer. It began with Imam Khomeini memorial programmes in the UK. These were followed by a visit to South Africa, which was as special as always, and where I spoke at a conference organized by the local office of Crescent International, along with Zafar Bangash and Imam Muhammad al-Asi, as well as speaking at a couple of smaller events. At end of the month there was a major conference on Islamic unity in London, attended by a number of senior figures from around the world, at which I also presented a paper. Inevitably, discussions were dominated by two or three topics: Iraq and the tragic blood-letting there; the problem of sectarianism; and, because they were in the news at the time, the recent developments in Palestine in particular.

Islamic Movement

Approaches to unity debated at London conference

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

As the tragedy of Iraq draws attention to the problem of sectarianism in the Muslim world, the Majma al-Taqrib in Tehran has led efforts against this problem. IQBAL SIDDIQUI discusses issues that arose during its latest conference, at the Islamic Centre of England, in London, on June 23 & 24.

Perspectives

Imam Khomeini: more than just an ‘alim, an intellectual or a revolutionary

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Ula' 15, 14282007-06-01

This month, as in every June since 1989, Muslims around the world will hold prayer meetings, lectures and other events to mark the anniversary of the death of Imam Khomeini, who died in Tehran on June 4, 1989, a decade after the Islamic Revolution in Iran with which he will always be associated. The usual speakers -- such as this writer -- will give the usual speeches, focusing on the usual aspects of his life and character.

Perspectives

Darfur: a by-word for tragedy and hypocrisy

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

At the end of April, western human rights and charitable bodies organized a series of events to mark the fourth anniversary of the outbreak of fighting in the Darfur region of western Sudan. During this period, Darfur has become a by-word for human tragedy, with the Sudanese government of Omar Bashir being blamed for perpetrating a “genocide” against “African” tribes-people in the region, with the help of the notorious Janjaweed, described as militants belonging to “Arab” tribes, supported and equipped by the Sudanese government.

Perspectives

The desperate need for an effective Islamic movement in Pakistan

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rabi' al-Awwal 13, 14282007-04-01

Iqbal Siddiqui on the desperate need of an Islamic movement in Pakistan..

Reflections

Learning to trust the political instincts of the Ummah

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 11, 14282007-03-01

Political commentators observing developments in the Muslim world have a tendency to project their own fears and prejudices onto the Ummah. This is particularly true of Westerners who like to speak about the “moderate” majority of Muslims -- ie. those who are not anti-American, and welcome the US’s civilizing and democratizing mission against “Islamic extremism”.

Perspectives

The rise and fall of the Islamic State of Somalia

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 13, 14282007-02-01

It is difficult to imagine the scenes on the ground in the small and remote Somali village of Hayo on January 9, when a heavily-armed American AC-130 gunship appeared in the sky and “rained gunfire” into the village.

Perspectives

Egypt’s repression of Ikhwan risks a return to militancy

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Hijjah 11, 14272007-01-01

There was uproar in Egypt last month when a small number of students at al-Azhar University, supporters of the Ikhwan al-Muslimeen, wore black uniforms and balaclavas, and performed martial arts exercises, during a protest against the university authorities. The government immediately condemned what they said was evidence that the Ikhwan has a secret military wing.

Perspectives

Exploring Malaysia’s unique Islamic heritage and society

Iqbal Siddiqui

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

Malaysia is the favourite Muslim country for many Western Muslims. The reasons were not difficult to see when this writer visited the country last month; Malaysia can perhaps be characterised as Muslim but not too Muslim. You can eat halal food wherever you go, there are suraus (prayer rooms) in malls, hotels and most other public buildings, and virtually all Muslimahs wear hijab. But in terms of their development, modernity, looks and general atmosphere, Kuala Lumpur and surrounding urban areas such as Petaling Jaya feel more like Islamised versions of cities in the West than Muslim cities like Cairo, Damascus, Tehran, Karachi or Jakarta.

Perspectives

Proud to be “extremist” – the West’s label for Muslim dissidents

Iqbal Siddiqui

Shawwal 09, 14272006-11-01

We at Crescent routinely criticise “extremists” of various kinds within the Islamic movement, whether they be sectarian extremists, or militant extremists, who regard military jihad as the be-all and end-all of the struggle of the Islamic movement; or religious extremists, who reduce Islam to nothing more than personal or spiritual religiosity.

The importance of unity and the dangers of disunity

Iqbal Siddiqui

Ramadan 08, 14272006-10-01

The unity of the Muslim ummah is a reality proclaimed in the Qur’an, in the ayaat above and numerous others like them; it is one of the key strengths of the Ummah at many levels, from the cultural to the political. It is the unity of the ummah, the common understanding that all Muslims are brothers and sisters in faith, that makes Muslims feel at home wherever they may go in the Muslim world.

Perspectives

Common sense defeated by the spectre of terrorism in the air

Iqbal Siddiqui

Sha'ban 08, 14272006-09-01

The “silly season” is an annual feature of British life: the period every summer when the country’s politicians depart the Westminster village for their holidays and the newspapers have to scrabble around for something else to write about in order to keep readers interested.

Perspectives

Iran, Hizbullah, Hamas: leading the real Islamic movement

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 07, 14272006-08-01

One feature of current events in the Middle East is that the three Islamic movements that perhaps deserve the greatest respect and recognition from the global Ummah are standing together against the onslaught from the West.

Perspectives

Shaikh Nasrallah the new symbol of resistance against the West

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 01, 14272006-08-01

The protests that have erupted around the Muslim world in support of the Muslims of Lebanon and in protest at the Israelis’ war on the country have been dominated by placards of Hizbullah’s leader, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah.

Perspectives

Envisaging the Islamic movement without reference to the West

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Akhirah 05, 14272006-07-01

In May, Lebanon marked the anniversary of the Hizbullah’s successful expulsion of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in 2000. For Muslims around the world, the Hizbullah success was a triumph for the courage and steadfastness of its members in the field of battle and in the far more complicated arena of Lebanese politics.

Perspectives

Dr Kalim’s unique insight into the task facing the Islamic movement

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Ula' 05, 14272006-06-01

Working on the preparations for the Dr Kalim Siddiqui Memorial Conference in April provided an opportunity to go back and read many of his writings after many years. What was truly remarkable about them was how much of what he wrote years ago, in what were apparently very different historical times, remains as fresh and relevant today as it was at the time.

Islamic Movement

The Islamic movement: between extremism and moderation

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Ula' 05, 14272006-06-01

On April 23, the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought (ICIT) and Crescent International hosted a Kalim Siddiqui Memorial Conference in London. The theme of the conference was The Islamic movement: between extremism and moderation. Here we publish an abridged version of the keynote paper, presented by IQBAL SIDDIQUI, the editor of Crescent International.

Perspectives

A tale of two conferences

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rabi' al-Thani 03, 14272006-05-01

For us at Crescent, the month of April was dominated by two conferences, a massive one in Tehran from April 14-16 in support of the Palestinian struggle, attended by about 1,000 people from all over the world, and a much smaller one in London on April 23, convened by Crescent International to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of the late Dr Kalim Siddiqui, Director of the Muslim Institute, London, founder and leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, and the man responsible for transforming Crescent from a local community newspaper in Toronto to an international newsmagazine of the global Islamic movement.

Perspectives

Global defence of the Prophet shows the unity of the Ummah

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 01, 14272006-03-01

As we at Crescent and the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought prepare for the Kalim Siddiqui Memorial Conference to be held in London on April 23, it is remarkable how many echoes of his work we find in events unfolding around us.

Perspectives

Dr Kalim Siddiqui, theorist of the Islamic movement

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 02, 14272006-02-01

April 18 this year will be the tenth anniversary of the death of Dr Kalim Siddiqui, the founder of the Muslim Institute, London, and the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain. For the last decade and a half of his life, between the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 and his death in South Africa in 1996, Dr Kalim dominated Islamic movement activism in Britain and was a major figure in the global Islamic movement.

Islamic Movement

Reclaiming the Islamic movement from the limited vision of dogmatic jihadists

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 27, 14262005-09-01

In the 1980s, the Islamic movement was associated with progress and liberation in Muslim countries. Today, it is all too often associated with terrorism and violence. IQBAL SIDDIQUI discusses the reasons for this change and the need for voices of intelligent, moderate Islamic moderate leaders to reclaim the leadership of the Islamic movement...

Book Review

A highly-readable analysis of the corporate domination of US politics and society

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rabi' al-Thani 24, 14262005-06-01

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: An Investigative Reporter Exposes the Truth about Globalization, Corporate Cons, and High-Finance Fraudsters by Greg Palast. Published by Constable Ltd., London, 2003. Pp: 400. Pbk: £7.99. By Iqbal Siddiqui This is an expanded edition of a book that was first published, to considerable acclaim, in 2002. Greg Palast, an American journalist who writes for British newspapers because he is seldom able to get his material into American publications, has produced an impassioned expose of many of the lies and myths that the West’s financial and political elites (which are closely linked) peddle in the name of democracy. In doing so, he is following the established tradition of Western dissident intellectuals and journalists such as Naom Chomsky, Howard Zinn, John Pilger and Michael Moore.

Occupied Arab World

Cairo Declaration confirms Hamas’s centrality in the Palestinian political movement

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 22, 14262005-04-01

One feature of Palestinian politics for the last 15 years or so, since the first intifada, has been the increasing political importance of Hamas, the main Islamic movement in Palestine, despite the entrenched political positions of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as the main representative of the Palestinian people on the international stage, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) as the main civil authority in Palestine since 1992.

Occupied Arab World

Israel presses Abbas to prove his worth as it maintains its pursuit of key objectives

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Hijjah 21, 14252005-02-01

Officials of the new Palestinian administration under Mahmood Abbas, elected president in flawed elections on January 9, claimed success on January 24, when Hamas, Palestine’s main Islamic movement and leading militant resistance group, reiterated its willingness to suspend military operations provided Israel do the same.

Occupied Arab World

Mounting Iraqi deaths as US tries to reassert control over Iraq

Iqbal Siddiqui

Sha'ban 16, 14252004-10-01

September 2004 was described as “a month of death in Iraq” by one Arab commentator after a series of major clashes in which at least a thousand Iraqis, many of them civilians, were killed...

World

US debates different ways of applying political pressure on Islamic Iran

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Akhirah 14, 14252004-08-01

In the run-up to the US invasion of Iraq last year, the Bush administration spun a careful web of propaganda and deceipt designed to prepare US public opinion for the war that neo-conservative leaders had decided to wage even before coming to power...

Occupied Arab World

For fear of a bang, US formalises Iraq ‘transfer of power’ with a whimper

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Ula' 13, 14252004-07-01

The US formally transferred responsibility for the government of Iraq to a sovereign interim government on June 28, two days before the scheduled handover date of June 30...

Occupied Arab World

US determined to protect key interests despite turning to UN to solve its problems in Iraq

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rabi' al-Thani 13, 14252004-06-01

With the US presidential elections due to be held in November, and painfully aware of the fact that the terrorist attack on Madrid in March was timed for maximum political impact in Spain's elections, the Bush regime is desperate for something they can present as progress in Iraq as soon as possible...

Occupied Arab World

US’s bloody assault on Fallujah merely digs them deeper into trouble in Iraq

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rabi' al-Awwal 11, 14252004-05-01

The US attack on Fallujah last month, in which at least 1,000 people have been killed, thousands more injured and an estimated 60,000 – out of a population of some 300,000 – forced to flee their homes, appears to have been carried out in a similar spirit...

Occupied Arab World

Palestinians promise a new phase of intifada after assassination of Shaikh Ahmed Yassin

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 11, 14252004-04-01

The assassination of Shaikh Ahmed Yassin as he returned to his home after fajr prayers on March 22, 2004 (Safar 1, 1425) was a shock but not a surprise. Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon had declared him to be at the top of the list for assassination, and he had survived an attempt on his life in September last year, when Israeli fighter aircraft fired several missiles at the building in which he was staying...

Islamic Movement

The problem of ‘democracy’ in Muslim political discourse

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 10, 14252004-03-01

The "essentially disputed" concept of democracy now dominates much of Muslim political discourse. IQBAL SIDDIQUI questions its utility, suggesting that it is virtually meaningless and creates more problems than it solves.

Special Reports

The continued centrality of Islamic Iran, 25 years after the Revolution

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Hijjah 10, 14242004-02-01

We open the section with IQBAL SIDDIQUI, editor of Crescent International, discussing the centrality and relevance of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and the Islamic State that it created, to the struggle of the contemporary global Islamic movement.

Occupied Arab World

US facing possible intifada in Iraq as Muqtada al-Sadr declares "shadow government"

Iqbal Siddiqui

Ramadan 06, 14242003-11-01

Speaking on the campaign trail in Kentucky on October 10, George W. Bush brushed aside the embarrassing failure of US officials to find the weapons of mass destruction that he had made the centrepiece of his case for war in Iraq, saying that the US invasion "thwarted future plots against the US by the madman Saddam."

Occupied Arab World

Israel targets Islamic movements while blaming Arafat for failure of ‘peace process’

Iqbal Siddiqui

Sha'ban 05, 14242003-10-01

Hamas leader Shaikh Ahmad Yassin said on September 24 that Hamas, Palestine’s leading Islamic movement and the most popular political group among Palestinians, would not accept any suggestion that it should disarm or declare a truce.

Islamic Movement

Dangers of ‘democratising’ Islam and Muslim political discourse

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Ula' 16, 14242003-07-16

The relationship between Islam and ‘democracy’ dominates much of contemporary Islamic political thought, particularly among western-educated and ‘modernist’ Muslim intellectuals.

Book Review

Stunning of the realities behind Western democracy – but is anybody listening?

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Ula' 01, 14242003-07-01

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: An Investigative Reporter Exposes the Truth about Globalization, Corporate Cons, and High Finance Fraudsters by Greg Palast. Published by Constable Ltd., London, 2003. Pp: 400. Pbk: £7.99.​

Book Review

Useful but limited analytical account of the Iraq war

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rabi' al-Thani 01, 14242003-06-01

​The War We Could Not Stop: The Real Story of the Battle for Iraq edited by Randeep Ramesh. Pub: Guardian Newspapers Ltd., with Faber and Faber Ltd., London, 2003. Pp: 303. Pbk: £7.99.

Occupied Arab World

Iraqis welcome Ayatullah Hakim as US bids for UN legitimacy

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rabi' al-Awwal 14, 14242003-05-16

Tens of thousands of celebrating Iraqis welcomed Ayatullah Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim, the leader of Iraq’s main Islamic movement, as he journeyed through the south of the country to Najaf after his return from exile in Islamic Iran on May 10.

Occupied Arab World

Iraqis seek Islam, independence; US offers Turkey-style ‘democracy’

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 29, 14242003-05-01

General Jay Garner, the American-appointed ruler of Iraq, faced massive demonstrations in the centre of Baghdad on April 28, as he convened a conference of Iraqi leaders intended to discuss the formation of an interim administration — under his supervision — for the country.

World

Turkey’s defiant vote unlikely to prevent Ankara from helping US

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 13, 14242003-03-16

At a time when the world is debating the legality and morality of America’s determination to invade and occupy Iraq, the Turkish parliament’s rejection on March 1 of a motion allowing US troops to deploy in Turkey on their way to northern Iraq was widely seen both as a major act of anti-American defiance from a state which has recently seen a (vaguely) Islamist government win power...

World

Hindu fascists plan nationwide power drive after Gujarat triumph

Iqbal Siddiqui

Shawwal 27, 14232003-01-01

Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, who is widely regarded as having instigated the anti-Muslim pogroms in April 2001 in which thousands of Muslims were killed and at least 150,000 driven from their homes and land, was rewarded last month with a massive victory in the state’s elections.

Occupied Arab World

UN fudge gives green light to American plans for war on Iraq

Iqbal Siddiqui

Ramadan 11, 14232002-11-16

The US’s long-planned war on Iraq moved a significant step closer on November 8, when the US succeeded in extracting from its reluctant allies in the UN a legitimising resolution providing it with a fig-leaf of legality for its plans to topple Saddam Hussain and occupy Iraq...

Occupied Arab World

US and Britain set on Iraq war despite neither cause nor support

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Hijjah 29, 14372002-10-01

espite major developments in the politicking over Iraq during the past two weeks, there can be no doubt that the US remains as determined as ever to go to war against Saddam Hussein at the earliest possible opportunity, with the avowed intention of replacing his regime with one that will be more amenable to Western interests in the region.

Islamic Movement

The "war against terrorism" and the broader task of the Islamic movement

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Akhirah 23, 14232002-09-01

Later this month, the US and its allies will mark the first anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on September 11 of last year. IQBAL SIDDIQUI discusses some of the implications of the events of the last year for Muslims and the global Islamic movement

Book Review

Blaming Muslims for the effects and the failure of the West’s plans for the Middle East

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Akhirah 07, 14232002-08-16

What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response by Bernard Lewis. Pub: Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2002. Pp: 180. US$23.00.

Occupied Arab World

Bush’s Iraq war plans unlikely to be changed by UN involvement

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Akhirah 07, 14232002-08-16

While public attention has recently been on the commemoration of the first anniversary of the attacks of September 11 last year, the major subject of political debate has been neither the war against terrorism nor events in Afghanistan, but George W. Bush’s fierce lobbying for his planned escalation of war on Iraq.

Book Review

Using September 11 as a pretext for yet another, more subtle attack on Islam and Muslims

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rabi' al-Thani 20, 14232002-07-01

Two Hours that Shook the World — September 11, 2001: Causes and Consequences by Fred Halliday. Pub: Saqi Books, London, UK, 2002. Pp: 256. £12.95.

World

Afghan anger at US manipulation of Loya Jirga to pursue its agenda

Iqbal Siddiqui

Ramadan 11, 14232002-06-16

fghanistan’s long-awaited Loya Jirga (council of leaders) finally opened 24 hours late, on June 11. The circumstances make it clear that the traditional Afghan institution is in fact now little more than a front for decisions being made behind the scenes by the country’s established faction leaders...

Book Review

A useful journalistic introduction to contemporary Islamic movements in Central Asia

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 03, 14232002-04-16

Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid. Pub: Yale University Press, New Haven, USA, and London, UK, 2002. Pp: 281. Hbk: $24.00 / £16.95.

Book Review

A western polemic against the Islamic movement disguised as academic study of Indonesia

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 18, 14232002-04-01

Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia by Robert W. Hefner. Pub: Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA, 2000. Pp: 286. Pbk: $17.95 / £12.95.

Islamic Movement

Terrorism and political violence in contemporary history

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Hijjah 03, 14222002-02-16

Here we present an abridged version of a speech given by IQBAL SIDDIQUI at a conference on Terrorism: Definitions, Causes, Roots and Solutions convened by the Institute of Islamic Studies, London, at the Islamic Centre of England on November 13, 2001.

Book Review

Discussing the nature and impact of secular fundamentalism in the Middle East

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Qa'dah 18, 14222002-02-01

Islam and Secularism in the Middle East edited by John L. Esposito and Azzam Tamimi. Pub: New York University Press, New York, NY 10003, USA, 2000. Pp: 214. Pbk: $18.95.

Islamic Movement

Restrictions imposed by Iran’s need to survive in a West-dominated world

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Qa'dah 02, 14222002-01-16

One prominent feature of the West’s current war in Afghanistan, and its wider ‘war against terrorism,’ is the deliberate distortion of key facts in order to create a totally false impression of the situation for casual observers.

World

US failing to achieve political goals as Taliban remain defiant

Iqbal Siddiqui

Ramadan 01, 14222001-11-16

Northern Alliance troops were reported to be moving south through the Afghan countryside towards Kabul on November 11, two days after their capture of Mazaar-e Shareef from Taliban forces.

Islamic Movement

The potential and pitfalls of working with non-Muslim critics of America and the West

Iqbal Siddiqui

Sha'ban 15, 14222001-11-01

One feature of the crisis that began on September 11 has been the extent to which the US’s subsequent policy has been questioned and opposed by so many people even in the West. Even in America, where war-fever has been most intense, opposition to the attacks on Afghanistan has been evident, in demonstrations on university campuses, in New York and other cities...

Islamic Movement

The West, Usama bin Ladin and the global Islamic movement

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 29, 14222001-10-16

Muslims are justifiably angry about the lynch-mob mentality that has been generated and encouraged by the American authorities since the attacks. It has caused hundreds of Muslims in America, Britain and other countries to be attacked in the streets, harrassed by the authorities, prevented from flying by airlines, and otherwise treated as though all Muslims are guilty of the crimes of September 11.

Islamic Movement

Understanding the Seerah as embodying first principles for the Islamic movement

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Akhirah 28, 14222001-09-16

The ICIT’s next Seerah conference takes place in Erasmia, South Africa, later this month (September 21-23, 2001). It follows similar conferences previously organized by the ICIT at the same venue and also in Pakistan, Canada and Sri Lanka.

Book Review

Essays on Islam and the Muslim experience in India and the subcontinent

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Akhirah 13, 14222001-09-01

History is a broad church (to put it mildly) and the term ‘historian’ covers a bewildering range of sinners, from those deliberately hiding from unpleasant realities in the study of the deadest-possible past (agrarian life in the Aztec empire, say) to contemporary historians whose agendas are blatantly political, with no end of variation between.

Book Review

A rare, balanced and detached analysis of the Islamic Resistance Movement in Palestine

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Ula' 26, 14222001-08-16

Hamas: Political Thought and Practice by Khalid Hroub. Pub: Institute for Palestine Studies, Washington DC, USA, 2000, pp. 329, $16.95.

Book Review

Exposing the ugly underside of British society

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rabi' al-Awwal 24, 14222001-06-16

A key part of Western propaganda is the creation of the myth of the good life in modern Western societies. At the same time, the Western media machine regularly reports on the conditions of poor parts of the world, particularly in Asia, Africa and other places.

World

Iranian elections demonstrate the maturity of the Islamic state

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rabi' al-Awwal 24, 14222001-06-16

Iranian president Sayyid Mohammad Khatami was re-elected to office on June 8, in the country’s eighth presidential elections since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Occupied Arab World

Increasing force shows zionists’ desperation in face of intifada

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rabi' al-Awwal 09, 14222001-06-01

The Israeli war against the Palestinian people reached new heights on May 18, when Israel used F-16 fighter aircraft supplied by the US to attack targets in Nablus and Ramallah. A total of 10 people were killed in the two attacks.

Occupied Arab World

Arafat turns on Islamic movement as Iran conference supports jihad

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 22, 14222001-05-16

Palestinian ‘president’ Yasser Arafat launched his expected crackdown on popular movements sustaining the Al-Aqsa Intifada last month. Dr Abdul Aziz al-Rantisi, the Hamas spokesman in Ghazzah, was arrested on April 28, reportedly for making ‘inflammatory’ statements.

Book Review

Eqbal Ahmed: a secular Westernized intellectual with a difference

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 07, 14222001-05-01

Eqbal Ahmed: Confronting Empire edited by David Barsamian. Pub: Pluto Press, London, UK, 2000. Pp: 326. Pbk: £11.99.

Islamic Movement

London conference’s short-sighted celebration of partial shari’ah in northern Nigeria

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 07, 14222001-05-01

Over the past eighteen months, several Muslim states in northern Nigeria have introduced shari’ah, to Muslim jubilation and non-Muslim consternation. Last month, IQBAL SIDDIQUI attended a conference in London to discuss the ‘Restoration of Shari’ah in Nigeria: Challenges and Benefits’.

World

Sharon’s strategy against intifada: targeted force and ‘suffocation’

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 07, 14222001-04-01

Ariel Sharon’s ascension to the zionist premiership late in February has had marked effects on the zionist strategy for countering the on-going Palestinian intifada against Israeli occupation. Other things, however, have remained very much the same.

World

British Muslim activists targeted by new ‘anti-terrorist’ legislation

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Hijjah 05, 14212001-03-01

The Russian government claimed on February 20 that the London School of Economics was being used as a recruitment ground for “Chechen terrorists”.

Occupied Arab World

Palestinians not cowed by election of Ariel Sharon, the ‘zionist nazi’

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Qa'dah 22, 14212001-02-16

The election of Ariel Sharon as prime minister of the zionist state was supposed to be a statement of intent that Israel was tired of talking to the Palestinians and had turned away from the peace process in favour of a hard response to the Palestinians’ continued uprising.

Occupied Arab World

Politicians keep talking to escape the reality of the al-Aqsa intifada

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Qa'dah 07, 14212001-02-01

Two more Palestinians were killed by Israel on January 25. One was a 22-year-old youth shot dead by troops; the other was a 16-year-old boy who died in hospital, one day after being shot by Jewish settlers.

Book Review

Readable and stimulating survey of western theories and images in International Relations

Iqbal Siddiqui

Shawwal 06, 14212001-01-01

Contending Images of World Politics edited by Greg Fry and Jacinta O’Hagan. Pub: Macmillan Press, Basingstoke, UK, and St Martin’s Press, New York, USA, 2000. Pp: 314. Pbk: UK£19.95.

Occupied Arab World

Algerian killings highlight regime’s continuing war on its own people

Iqbal Siddiqui

Shawwal 06, 14212001-01-01

All over the Muslim world, Ramadan is a time of peace, reflection and piety. In Algeria, however, it has become known as an annual peak in the brutal and apparently mindless killings of innocent people that the government blames on Islamic activists, but most ordinary people attribute to forces linked to Algeria’s security agencies.

South-East Asia

Malaysian opposition faces uphill battle to defeat UMNO establishment in elections

Iqbal Siddiqui, Correspondents in Kuala Lumpur

Sha'ban 08, 14201999-11-16

Malaysian politics went into overdrive last month, after prime minister Mahathir Mohammed finally called the country’s long-awaited elections on November 10. The polls were scheduled for November 29 (after Crescent press time).

World

Ichkerian capital under siege as Russians step up war on Chechens

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 22, 14201999-11-01

The Ichkerian capital Jauhar-Ghala (called Grozny by the Russians) was effectively under siege again as Crescent went to press. It had been subjected to repeated air and missile attacks in the previous few days, in which hundreds of people had been killed and thousands left homeless

World

Thousands killed or homeless as Russia invades Ichkeria yet again

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 06, 14201999-10-16

Thousand of Chechen civilians have been killed or driven from their homes in several weeks of Russian military operations in the north of the country that began in the middle of September.

Occupied Arab World

Jordanian attack on Hamas shows pressures facing other movements

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Akhirah 06, 14201999-09-16

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic movement which is the most popular political group among Palestinians, and is also the leading critic and opponent of the ‘peace process’, suffered a major blow on August 30, when the Jordanian government closed down its offices in Amman.

Occupied Arab World

Revision of Wye agreement takes Arafat closer to ‘statehood’ - on Israeli terms, of course

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 06, 14201999-09-16

The new agreement between Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian ‘president’ Yassir Arafat, signed at Sharm al-Shaikh, near Alexandria, on September 5, was widely greeted as a new start to the ‘peace process’ that had appeared on the verge of stalling during the premiership of Benyamin Netanyahu.

Occupied Arab World

Thirty years after Zionists’ arson attack, Al-Haram Al-Sharif still under threat

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Ula' 20, 14201999-09-01

Palestinians in Zionist-occupied Jerusalem last month marked the 30th anniversary of the arson attack on the Masjid Al-Aqsa on August 21, 1969. Palestinian Islamic leaders used the occasion to highlight continuing threats to the mosque, as well as other Islamic sites under Israeli rule

World

Having refused to fight the Serbs itself, NATO now insists that Kosovars disarm

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rabi' al-Awwal 17, 14201999-07-01

NATO and the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) signed an agreement regarding the KLA’s future role in Kosova on June 21. The agreement was signed following what was described as “a frenetic weekend of military and political wrangling from mountainous rebel bases in central Kosova to the capitals of Europe”.

World

Kosovars’ rights abandoned as west does a deal with Milosevic

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rabi' al-Awwal 02, 14201999-06-16

NATO’s 11-week war with Yugoslavia over Kosova appeared finally to have ended on June 10, when its Secretary General Javier Solana suspended military operations saying that alliance intelligence sources had verified that Yugoslavia troops had begun to withdraw from Kosova.

Occupied Arab World

No change for Muslims as Barak the nice guy takes over from Netanyahu the nasty

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 16, 14201999-06-01

There was undoubtedly a certain satisfaction in watching the Israelis tearing into each other for a change, instead of tearing into Palestinians, Muslims and just about anybody else they don’t like. The election campaign which ended in Benyamin Netanyahu being conclusive defeated by Ehud Barak was vicious to say the least...

World

Kosovar anger ignored as west negotiates sell-out

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 30, 14201999-05-16

After a meeting in Bonn on May 6, the foreign ministers of the G8 group of countries (the US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia) announced a set of ‘general principles’ which they had agreed as the basis for a political solution to the Kosova crisis.

World

NATO looking for a compromise instead of arming the KLA to fight

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 15, 14201999-05-01

The NATO summit which took place in Washington from April 23-26 ended with a typically western fudge. After weeks of strong words against Slobodan Milosevic’s government regarding the genocide of Kosova’s Muslims, the Alliance concluded their 50th Anniversary session by authorising Russia to seek a mediated settlement to its war with Yugoslavia.

World

Kosovars betrayed by the west

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Hijjah 14, 14191999-04-01

The west left the Muslims of Kosova to the Serbs’ mercy on February 23 when the threat of NATO air strikes was withdrawn at the end of 17 days of peace talks in Paris without any political agreement or sending NATO troops but with the Kosovars forced to agree to disarming.

Book Review

How Islam influenced British culture and civilisation 400 years ago

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Qa'dah 13, 14191999-03-01

The golden age of Islamic civilization, the thousand years from about 700 to 1700 CE during which Muslims ruled from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and were the driving and leading force in human history, laying the foundations of much of what is now considered ‘modern’, have been carefully airbrushed out of modern western history books.

World

Chechens debate future of Ichkeria

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 22, 14201999-03-01

Former Chechen mujahideen leader, Shamyl Basayev was elected leader of Ichkeria’s unofficial new Mekh Khhel (Shura Council) on February 20. The 35-member Council was established by opposition leaders on February 9, apparently in an attempt to create a de facto alternative to president Aslan Maskhadov’s increasingly isolated and beleaguered government.

World

Kosovars under pressure to surrender to demands of Serbian aggressors

Iqbal Siddiqui

Shawwal 14, 14191999-02-01

The bodies of six murdered Kosovars were found in different locations in the country on February 8, the day after ‘proximity’ peace talks between the Serbs and Kosovars began in France. They included a 20-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl found together in Djakovica, 45 miles south-west of Pristina...

World

One million join Al-Quds rally in Zaria!

Iqbal Siddiqui

Shawwal 14, 14191999-02-01

One Muslimah was martyred and several Muslims injured in Zaria, the capital of Kaduna province in northern Nigeria, on January 22, when police opened fire at the conclusion of an Al-Quds Day march which was attended by an estimated one million people.

World

Nato says Serbian killers, Kosovar victims both equally to blame

Iqbal Siddiqui

Ramadan 28, 14191999-01-16

The NATO Council, which is co-ordinating American and European policy towards Kosova, agreed in Brussels on January 6 that Serbia and the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) were equally to blame for the month of increased troubles in the country from mid-December onwards.

Book Review

Presenting non-political version of Islam suits the west

Iqbal Siddiqui

Ramadan 13, 14191999-01-01

‘The twentieth century,’ Derek Hopwood tells us in the introduction to this volume, ‘has brought change to the world at a rapid and unprecedented rate. No area has remained unaffected... the problem, for many of us largely unresolved...

World

Serbs’ campaign of genocide rages unimpeded against Kosovar civilians

Iqbal Siddiqui

Ramadan 13, 14191999-01-01

Five members of one Kosovar family--two adults and three children – were massacred by Serbian troops near Rakovina in southwestern Kosova on January 25. The killings came just 10 days after the murders of 45 Kosovar civilians, including women, children and elderly men, in the village of Račak...

Book Review

US congress: have money, will sell soul, to the highest bidder

Iqbal Siddiqui

Sha'ban 27, 14191998-12-16

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.

Occupied Arab World

Arafat’s surrender at Wye presented as great victory for the Palestinians

Iqbal Siddiqui

Sha'ban 27, 14191998-12-16

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.

World

US admits its forces help the Serbs’ genocidal campaign in Kosova

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 21, 14191998-12-16

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.

World

Strange alliances reflect the political bankruptcy of Kemalists in Turkey

Iqbal Siddiqui

Sha'ban 27, 14191998-12-16

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...

Occupied Arab World

Israel’s diabolical genetic weapons target Arabs

Iqbal Siddiqui

Shawwal 04, 14181998-12-01

Israeli scientists are working on a genetically-targeted biological weapon which would kill Arabs without affecting other peoples, the Sunday Times of London revealed on November 15.

Occupied Arab World

Zionists steal more land while claiming to implement Wye agreement

Iqbal Siddiqui

Sha'ban 12, 14191998-12-01

Palestinian protests against the Wye agreement broke out in Ghazzah and the West Bank towns on November 20, as the true nature of the agreement and Israeli attempts to further distort it became apparent.

Book Review

Holbrooke claims he saved Bosnia from the Serbs, and from Islam

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 26, 14191998-11-16

In March 1991, as Yugoslavia was being pulled apart by the insatiable demands of its Serbian and Croat nationalists, Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic and Croatian president Franjo Tudjman - supposedly implaccable foes - met secretly at a hunting-lodge at Karadjordjevo, formerly one of Tito’s favourite retreats.

World

US acts on behalf of Serbs while feigning neutrality in Kosova

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 26, 14191998-11-16

Fighting in Kosova continued apparently unabated despite last month’s supposed ‘withdrawal’ of Serbian forces after the Holbrooke-Milosevic pact of October 13 and the lifting of the threat of NATO airstrikes against the Serbs.

Book Review

Understanding the Taliban: detailed look at their rise and impact on Afghanistan

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 11, 14191998-11-01

One of the tragedies of the Muslim situation today is the extent to which we have to rely on non-Muslim sources of information to understand our own world and movements...

World

Kosova sell-out disguised as ‘victory’

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 11, 14191998-11-01

The true worth of the October 13 Belgrade agreement on Kosova, by which the west supposedly extracted concessions from Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic...

Book Review

Need for studying the Seerah from a power perspective

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Ula' 25, 14191998-09-16

The death of Dr Kalim Siddiqui in April 1996 deprived the Islamic movement of an intellectual and a leader whose loss has been sorely felt. His last book, Stages of Islamic Revolution, was published just days before his death. Now, over two years later, his final paper, Political Dimensions of the Seerah, has been published for the first time.

World

UK bill targets Muslims’ rights, freedom

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Ula' 25, 14191998-09-16

Muslims in Britain are facing increasing difficulties in their support of the global Islamic movement, and threats to their human rights and civil liberties, after new ‘Anti-Terrorist’ legislation was rushed through Parliament in less that 48 hours early this month.

World

Kosovar fighters far from subdued by the Serbs

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Ula' 10, 14191998-09-01

A major Serb offensive which began in late July has made major gains against the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) during August.

World

Threat to survival of Muslim minorities highlighted at Muslim Unity conference

Zafar Bangash, Iqbal Siddiqui

Rabi' al-Thani 08, 14191998-08-01

The importance of Muslim unity, preservation of the Ummah against international plots, support for the intifadah in Palestine and the Islamic resistance in Lebanon as well as condemnation of Zionist attempts to usurp the holy city of al-Quds were major themes discussed at the eleventh International Conference on Islamic Unity in Tehran

Book Review

Fine photographic record of the Arabian peninsula before the Saudis

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rabi' al-Awwal 07, 14191998-07-01

Let us first get a simple point out of the way: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was declared in 1932. The Al-e Saud’s rise to power did not begin until their alliance with the British in the first world war.

World

NATO flights no help to Kosova

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rabi' al-Awwal 07, 14191998-07-01

Last month’s much-vaunted demonstration of NATO air power had no effect whatsoever on Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic’s campaign of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Kosova. Eighty-five aircraft, representing 13 of NATO’s 16 members...

World

Serbs now launch ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Muslims in Kosova

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 21, 14191998-06-16

Serbia’s ethnic cleansing of parts of Kosova was stepped up again early this month, in the west of the country. The epicentre of the latest drive appears to be Decan, a town of some 60,000 Kosovars and an estimated 500 Serbs.

World

Paranoid Karimov turns against Islam

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 06, 14191998-06-01

Twelve Uzbek Muslims were sentenced to jail terms ranging from five to eight years last month, after being found ‘guilty’ of belonging to illegal Islamic organizations and other charges

World

Kosovars forced to negotiate under the gun

Iqbal Siddiqui

Ramadan 06, 14381998-06-01

Talks between Belgrade and Prishtina on the future of Kosova finally began last month, following pressure on Kosova president Ibrahim Rugova by Richard Holbrooke, the US diplomatic ‘troubleshooter’ who mediated the Dayton Peace Agreement which ended the Bosnian war in December 1995.

Book Review

Coherent framework for understanding Kosova beyond Serbian myths

Iqbal Siddiqui

Muharram 19, 14191998-05-16

The first point any informed reader will note about this book is that Malcolm uses the Serbian form ‘Kosovo’ throughout in preference to the Albanian form ‘Kosova’, used by Kosovars themselves. As in the Bosnian case, the use of terminology in discussing Kosova is politically sensitive.

Occupied Arab World

Zionist complicity in Sharif’s martyrdom confirmed by tongue-in-cheek denial

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Hijjah 19, 14181998-04-16

Muhi al-Din Sharif, a senior and well-known Hamas mujahid, was buried in the Palestinian town of Ramallah on April 2. He was martyred by Israeli agents in Ramallah on March 29, in an assassination disguised to look like a bomb explosion.

Special Reports

The UN: branch office of the US State department

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Hijjah 04, 14181998-04-01

One feature of the recent Iraq crisis was the role played by Kofi Annan, secretary general of the United Nations. A couple of weeks after returning in triumph from Baghdad, Annan was honoured with a meeting with Bill Clinton at the White House and presidential praise for his efforts, which he reciprocated by appreciating Washington’s role.

World

Kosovars abandoned by the international community

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Hijjah 04, 14181998-04-01

Kosova went to the polls on March 22, to re-elect Dr Ibrahim Rugova as president and to elect 130 members to the country’s second Parliament, even though the first Parliament, elected in 1992, was never able to meet.

World

Muslim Kosovars fear action replay of Serbian assault on Bosnia-Herzegovina

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Qa'dah 17, 14181998-03-16

The long awaited and feared Serb assault on the Muslims of Kosova was feared to have begun earlier this month. In scenes eerily reminiscent to the beginning of the Serb assault on Bosnia-Herzegovina...

World

Turkish youth win hijab battle

Iqbal Siddiqui

Safar 21, 14191998-03-16

The banning of Refah, Turkey’s ‘Islamic’ political party, was formalized on February 22, when the Constitutional Court’s full verdict was published.

World

Turkey’s secular fanatics fight the tide of history by banning Refah

Iqbal Siddiqui

Shawwal 04, 14181998-02-01

Turkey’s secular fundamentalist establishment struck the country’s Islamic movement another blow on January 16, when the Supreme Court voted by 9-2 to ban the Refah Party for being Islamic and to banish the Party’s leader...

World

Serb police kill, torture Kosovar activists

Iqbal Siddiqui

Sha'ban 16, 14181997-12-16

Two Kosovar activists died at the hands of Serb police last month, shortly before they were due to go on trial charged with terrorism and other offences against state security. Adrian Krasniqi was gunned down in the street on October 16, and Jonuz Zeneli died two days later in a prison hospital in Belgrade...

World

Harsh jail terms for Islamic activists

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Akhirah 30, 14181997-11-01

Two senior Islamic activists in Turkey were given long jail sentences by an Ankara state security court on October 15, on trumped up charges. Nuruddin Sirin, editor of the Islamic daily Selam, was jailed for 17-and-a-half years, and Bekir Yildiz, a former mayor of Ankara’s Sincan district...

World

Chechens’ victory in danger of being subverted by Arab ‘friends’?

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Hijjah 08, 14171997-04-16

Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov is to meet rulers of Arab countries in Arabia while there to perform Hajj. He is expected to discuss economic assistance for the rebuilding of Ichkeria’s war-shattered infrastructure and economy...

World

Chinese impose news blackout as fighting rages in Eastern Turkestan

Iqbal Siddiqui

Shawwal 21, 14171997-03-01

Hundreds of people are believed to have died in clashes between Uighur mujahideen and Chinese troops in Chinese-occupied East Turkestan during January and February. The fighting reached a peak during the last days of Ramadan, with particularly intense trouble reported in the town of Kuldzha (Yining).

World

Intrepid Chechens seal victory in war with free and fair elections in Ichkeria

Iqbal Siddiqui

Shawwal 08, 14171997-02-16

Chechen determination to achieve full independence from Russia was emphasized on February 1 when Aslan Maskhadov, president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, laughed off suggestions that he would take a seat in the Upper House of the Russian parliament.

Occasional Paper

A life in the Islamic movement: Dr Kalim Siddiqui 1931-1996

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Akhirah 19, 14171996-11-01

This biography of Dr Kalim Siddiqui is divided into five sections. It is based on the commemorative booklet published by the Muslim Institute and the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain on the occasion of their ‘Kalim Siddiqui Memorial Conference’ in London in November 1996. It has been edited and updated by Iqbal Siddiqui, who also wrote the original booklet.

Special Reports

Fundamental principles behind Kalim Siddiqui's establishment of the Muslim Parliament

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Akhirah 19, 14171996-11-01

The work of the Muslim Institute after its formal establishment in 1973, and particularly following the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1978-79, made Dr Kalim Siddiqui a senior and respected figure in the global Islamic movement. However, in Britain he remained relatively little known outside the circles of Islamic activists.

Special Reports

Kalim Siddiqui's understanding of the Muslim Parliament as 'a minority political system'

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Akhirah 19, 14171996-11-01

The inauguration of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain on January 4, 1992, was greeted by a frenzied attack from the British media and establishment. For some days, Dr Kalim Siddiqui was the most hated man in Britain, attacked by Conservative government ministers and opposition leaders alike, and vilified in the press.

Special Reports

Kalim Siddiqui's vision of a 'minority political system' and a 'non-territorial Islamic State'

Iqbal Siddiqui

Jumada' al-Akhirah 19, 14171996-11-01

Dr Kalim Siddiqui referred to the Muslim Parliament as both 'a minority political system for Muslims in Britain' and a 'non-territorial Islamic State.' Many people regarded these terms as meaning the same thing, and being virtually interchangeable. Dr Siddiqui, however, understood and meant them quite differently, and the distinction is vital to appreciating his vision of the Muslim Parliament.

Special Reports

Erbakan rules at the pleasure of the Turkish military establishment

Iqbal Siddiqui

Rajab 04, 14381996-04-01

Necmettin Erbakan, the leader of Turkey’s ‘Islamic party’, was finally confirmed in the prime minister’s office when he won a vote of confidence on July 8.

Special Reports

Serbian war criminals free, thanks to the US

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Qa'dah 12, 14161996-04-01

The Serbs will ‘celebrate’ the first anniversary of their occupation of Srebrenica, a UN designated safe area in eastern Bosnia.

World

Victory for Serbian demons despite Karadzic’s ‘resignation’

Iqbal Siddiqui

Dhu al-Qa'dah 12, 14161996-04-01

The US claimed a major victory on July 19 when Radovan Karadzic finally stepped down as leader of the Bosnian Serbs. The resignation from public life of all those indicted for war crimes by the Hague Tribunal was a key part of the Dayton accords signed last December.

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