When Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia issued a declaration to denounce all forms of violence as terrorism at their summit on May 16 at Sharm al-Sheikh, many Muslims were astonished that Damascus could so suddenly and without any warning ditch the Palestinian cause and Hizbullah by agreeing to a definition of terrorism identical to that of the US and Israel.
US needs some one now, as it has needed in the past, to position as an "evil other" in opposition to its good self. The "evil other" in history has taken on many names and shapes, from despots, to pirates, to bandits, to terrorists. In Western civilization, which is ferociously dichotomous, there is a necessity to define through opposition, and therefore a "terrorist" or some other nefarious character -- real or imagined -- is actually necessary for the maintenance of a western self image.
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.
Mubarak has ordered the arrest of 94 Islamic activists and their appearance before a military tribunal, accusing them of plotting terrorism against American, Israeli, Russian and Balkan targets. According to Muntassir al-Ziyat, an Egyptian lawyer representing 87 of those appearing before the military tribunal...
Russia and the US have established reasonably friendly ties in order to avoid conflict between their interests, and occasionally to cooperate for those interests.
Ayatullah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, called on Wednesday for a serious campaign against terrorism, and said that US officials’ definitions of terrorism are unacceptable.
Political terror, as the calculated utilization of violence to elicit psychological intimidation in an effort to accomplish strategic and political goals, was a major feature of the zionist movement's modus operandi prior to the establishment of Israel.
The new Shaikh of Al-Azhar in Egypt, Dr Muhammad Sid Tantawi, who is better known for his trendy opinions on social issues than for firing off pointed fatwas on the hot political issues of the day, has reacted spiritedly to the challenge of Israeli rabbis, who invited him to condemn ‘suicide’ attacks on Israeli targets...
Nothing in Afghanistan is as certain as uncertainty. This was again demonstrated over the last two months when the Taliban’s fortunes rose and fell dramatically in short order. The situation today stands almost as it was before the eruption of fighting in northern Afghanistan in mid-May.
Shaikh Omar Abdul Rahman, the 60-year-old blind teacher, sits in his stinking cell, in Springfield, Missouri, isolated but not broken. Suffering from diabetes and heart disease, he has been denied numerous fundamental rights.
IT would be a great pity if the American public does not know what US policy-makers know: That there is growing opposition to US presence in Saudi Arabia. The bomb blast in Dhahran was the boldest and bloodiest expression of that opposition.
More than three weeks after a bombmaker with a British passport apparently blew himself up in an East Jerusalem hotel on April 12, mystery continues to thicken as to his true identity and the real purpose of his mission, largely as a result of the news blackout imposed two days later by the Israeli authorities.
