f the purpose of the new sanctions rules, passed by the UN on May 14, is – as the media imply – to relieve the Iraqis’ suffering, and shift the blame for their ordeal from the US and its allies back to Saddam Hussain, then Washington must think again...
The whole world is anxious to find out about the ‘post pogrom’ situation in Gujrat. They will have to be patient; the pogrom is not yet over.
General Pervez Musharraf won widespread praise for his speech of January 12, attacking Pakistan’s Islamic institutions, not only from the West but from other established enemies of Islam such as Indian home affairs minister L. K. Advani and Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres.
The deaths last month of 65 Afghan tribal leaders when their convoy was attacked by US aircraft has drawn attention to the US’s bombing of virtually random targets in Afghanistan.
President Husni Mubarak of Egypt has been fighting Islamic movements since coming to power in 1981. Exploiting Egypt’s influence in the Muslim world, he has been instrumental in the adoption of anti-terrorism conventions and resolutions by the Arab League, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), and the General Assembly of the UN.
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.
With the transnational corporate news media increasingly legitimizing ideas and informing people, it becomes increasingly important to scrutinise what is left out of the stories being told. The global news media uniformly trumpet the virtues of ‘globalization’...
Throughout his long rule, Egypt’s president, Husni Mubarak, has paid lip-service to ‘traditional Islam’ and to ‘freedom of expression’, while in practice repressing Islamic activists. Even the Ikhwan al-Muslimeen, who cannot possibly be accused of being Islamic revolutionaries, are banned as a political party.
Rogue States: the Rule of Force in World Affairs by Noam Chomsky. Pub: Pluto Press, London, 2000. Pp: 252. Pbk: UK£10.99.
US president Bill Clinton earned plaudits around the world on new year’s eve when he announced that he had signed the International Treaty agreed in Rome in 1998 which set out the parameters for the establishment of a standing International War Crimes Tribunal.
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.
Iran held a major International Congress on “The Elucidation of the Islamic Revolution” in Tehran from October 2-4, to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Imam Khomeini.
Pablo Picasso’s famous picture Guernica, featured on the cover of this book, is an icon of the human rights and international law movements, a symbol of the cruelty of war.
King Hasan of Morocco, one of the longest-reigning rulers in the Muslim world, was buried in Rabat on July 25, two days after his death in a Rabat hospital. In keeping with recent tradition, his funeral was attended by a large entourage of his foreign masters...
The Kalim Siddiqui Memorial Seminar which took place in London on April 11 focused on his understanding of the global Islamic movement, and on issues facing the movement at this time.
He came, he saw, he conquered. Mohammed Khatami, Iran’s philosopher president, brought no legions to Rome during his three-day state visit from March 9-11. Instead he came armed only with intellectual vigor and the authority of the Islamic State, and took the ancient capital of the west by storm.
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.
King Husain was a small man, and we are not just talking about his physique, who ruled an artificial kingdom. So, what explains the outpouring of grief in western capitals at his death with four American presidents--one serving and three former--attending his funeral in Amman on February 8 together with presidents and prime ministers from most western countries?
‘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...
On December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ (UDHR), whose fiftieth anniversary was celebrated with much fanfare last month.
