American foreign policy hacks coined the term ‘rogue state’ to refer to those regimes that refuse to bow to American aspirations for world supremacy. At different times, this appellation has been applied to Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Cuba, North Korea, and others.
Reading this book, one is reminded of a particular kind of intelligent non-Muslim friend: open-minded, curious, sympathetic, good company, better conversation, ever-ready to engage with and learn about a culture and a world-view so totally different to his own.
The Individualized Society by Zygmunt Bauman. Pub: Polity Press, Cambridge, UK / Polity Press, Malden, MA, USA, 2001. Pp. 259. Pbk: £14.99 / $24.95
Ever since the days of the medieval Christian church, dreams of mechanical labor-saving devices have been pervasive in the West.
STEPS TO AN ECOLOGY OF THE MIND by Gregory Bateson, with a new foreword by Mary Catherine Bateson
Imperial Israel and the Palestinians: the Politics of Expansion by Nur Masalha. Pub: Pluto Press, London, UK, 2000. Pp: 320; Pbk: £14.99.
HADITH AND SUNNAH – IDEALS AND REALITIES edited by P.K. Koya, 2nd. edition, 2000; Islamic Book Trust, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Email ibtkl@pd.jaring.my). Pp: 360. Price: RM36.
Rogue States: the Rule of Force in World Affairs by Noam Chomsky. Pub: Pluto Press, London, 2000. Pp: 252. Pbk: UK£10.99.
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.
Despite the proclamations of a post-modern era, of an age driven by information, many of the trappings of modernity drive western civilization. Mechanization, reductionism, and rationality are pervasive in most of the supposedly newly-emerging realities in western science, technology, economies and politics.
Among the western civilization's more dubious claims is that western man possesses the ability to define and delimit all knowledge. While colonization used murder and bribery to great effect, a lasting impact of the western incursion is in the area of epistemology, the nature of knowledge.
America’s greatest success lies not in the fact that it is able to project itself abroad as a society of vast opportunities, instant riches and absolute freedom; its real success lies in convincing millions of Americans at home of this fiction.
The plight of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) under Zionist occupation is one of the most serious issues facing Muslims in the world today, and is also inseparable from the wider issue of western hegemony over Muslim lands, societies and minds.
A number of works on different aspects of the Balkan wars have highlighted the role of the Serbian nationalist media is misinforming the Serbian people of what was really going on, and of preparing the ground for the genocide of the Bosnian Muslims by demonizing them.
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.
The name ‘Gulf War’, used to define the conflict which began with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and the subsequent American destruction of Iraq, is deeply unsatisfactory.
The Crusades are traditionally defined as the series of western expeditions against the Muslim lands of Palestine and the Levant which begun with Pope Urban’s call to arms at Clermont in 1095AD, and all but ended with the Muslim liberation of Acre in 1291.
Liberalism and human rights are two of the major ideological sticks the west uses to beat Islam. They represent, we are constantly told, universal values based on humanity’s collective experiences and mature rationality.
The Uthmaniyyah sultanate, which claimed the legitimacy of khilafah, was as corrupt and rotten as any monarchy in Muslim history. This was a massive contributory factor in its decline and ultimate collapse.
Over fifty years after the United Nations proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the human rights of the vast majority of people in the world are completely unprotected.
