“Come, I will make the continent indissoluble… O Democracy” once sang Walt Whitman, the 19th-century US poet laureate. With the unrest in Oakland, Portland, Berkeley, New York City, spanning the indissoluble continent as it were, democracy has once more become an unknown quantity, subject to definition.
On October 29, Muslim researchers, journalists and editors gathered in Tehran to inaugurate the establishment of the Press Union of the Islamic World. The first general assembly session of the press union attracted Muslim media professionals from 38 countries representing different media outlets including Crescent International.
1South African civil society formations can be justifiably proud of pulling off one of the most serious challenges confronting Israel: the question of apartheid. By successfully hosting on November 5–7, a venerable “people’s court” within the precincts of a looming symbol of resistance against apartheid — the District 6 Museum — they made a powerful statement whose effects are still creating waves of discontent.
Muslim states and many Islamic movements fail to distinguish between the erstwhile USSR and today’s Russia due to the deep-seated association of Russia with the Soviet Union. Similarly, many Muslims have not taken into account that today’s Russia does not seek to be a global power because it has accepted the dominant Western global order.
How tight are US-Saudi relations? Here is a clue. While former US President George Bush would publicly hold hands with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and even touch noses like birds before mating, his successor Barack Obama also made his first overseas trip to Saudi Arabia before he landed in Cairo for his now-forgotten speech delivered on June 4, 2009.
The Islamic party, al-Nahda, was the clear winner out of a crowded field of some 100 parties but it did not gain an absolute majority because of the way the electoral process was structured. Even so, party leaders were at pains to assure the secularists — and indeed the West — that al-Nahda had no plans to establish an Islamic state.
Unease and concerns have escalated among political activists in Egypt following announcement by two top generals that the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) intends to remain in firm control even after election of the People’s Assembly.
Only the demented minds of American officials could concoct a story of the alleged plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir. In making this scandalous allegation on October 11, US Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller looked shifty and visibly uncomfortable.
The West has gotten rid of another pesky dictator with the execution-style killing of Colonel Muammar Qaddafi on 10-20-2011 in Sirte. There was much jubilation in Western capitals as news of Qaddafi’s killing spread.
Even before the full extent of reforms for women in Saudi Arabia announced by King Abullah was known, western media outlets led by the BBC had started drum beating about the “reformer” Saudi king.
Two Americans accused of spying were released on September 21 as part of a humanitarian gesture by the Islamic Republic of Iran. A delegation of American Christian and Muslim leaders had traveled to Tehran to meet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other officials to seek the release of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal.
Egyptians will go to the polls on 11-28-2012 to elect representatives for a new parliament, the People’s Assembly, so that it can draft a new constitution. Elections to the upper Shura Council will take place on 1-29-2012. Once completed, the new constitution will then be put to a referendum for approval.
Thousands of peaceful protesters were back in the now-demolished Pearl Square in Bahrain’s capital city Manama on September 23 demanding serious and wide-ranging reforms to give the overwhelming majority the right to vote in free, fair and transparent elections.
Pakistan’s relations with the US have never been easy. The differences go beyond the question of divergent perceptions about each other although there was always something unnatural about the rulers of a country best described as a “basket case” rubbing shoulders with leaders of claimant to the title of “sole superpower”.
Since April 1978, the Afghans have experienced nothing but war. An entire generation has grown up with violence, murder and mayhem. First it was the Russians, followed by various Afghan factions fighting it out among themselves, then came the Taliban and now the Americans and their NATO allies.
The Islamic awakening sweeping the Muslim East has affected many parts of the world. Malaysia may not be the most likely place to experience revolutionary change of Middle Eastern proportions, but it nonetheless has not remained unaffected.
Beyond the drum-beating and chest thumping about what a great job the Canadian soldiers did in Afghanistan, the question that needs to be asked is: what exactly did they achieve despite spending $20 billion on a war that is still raging and the Afghans are no better off today, in fact much worse, than they were 10 years ago?
Over the past year the political scene in Azerbaijan has been dominated by two centers of power: the autocratic regime centered around Aliyev and the Islamic movement centered around activists, journalists, scholars, lawyers and the wider Azeri population.
Given the straightjacket in which Abbas and his disgraced cohorts operate, not only is it entirely unlikely for him to defy Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but it is hard to imagine he possesses any courage to defy his paymasters.
An estimated 138 million people live in places other than their country of birth. Many are forced by circumstances, especially wars, to flee to safer havens. The overwhelming majority, however, are economic migrants seeking a better life elsewhere.
