In a new twist in the west’s escalating campaign against the independence-seeking ethnic Albanians in southeastern Serbia, the NATO-led ‘peacekeeping force’ in Kosova (KFOR) on January 8 launched a propaganda campaign to discourage the rebels from continuing their armed struggle.
President Islam Karimov, a dictator well-schooled in the old methods of Soviet repression, is intensifying his regime’s crackdown on all forms of dissent, whether Islamic or secular.
Out-going US president Bill Clinton signed the international treaty establishing the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal on December 31, in an unexpected move.
Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a peace-deal in Algeria on December 12 and formally ended a two-year border-war that has cost tens of thousands of lives, displaced hundreds of thousands of people, and wrought havoc on the economies of two of Africa’s poorest countries
The military regime in Pakistan has enough egg on its face over the Nawaz Sharif episode to feed a battalion. But those who expected it to behave differently should have known better.
The plight of the Chechens trapped in Johar-Gala (‘Grozny’) was briefly brought to the west’s attention earlier this month when the western media highlighted a leaflet dropped in the city by Russian aircraf
Hijab has also come to symbolise the Islamic identity of Muslim women. All over the world, Muslimahs in hijab have become targets for attack by secularists and others seeking to attack Islam. Even Sri Lanka, where Muslims have lived in harmony with the majority Sinhalese community for over 1,000 years, Muslimahs in hijab are now coming attack.
The agreement concluded between Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir and opposition-leader and Ummah Party chief Sadeq al-Mahdi in Jibouti on November 25 sets out the principles on which these men think that any political settlement of the Sudanese conflict should be based.
For Muslims, 1999 arrived with mayhem and bloodshed, not very different from the previous year. First, there was the four-day slaughter in Iraq which was euphemistically described as the ‘fireworks display over Baghdad’ by Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s latest darling from the scene.
America’s war on Islam suffered a setback on November 29, when Nasser Ahmed, an Egyptian asylum seeker, walked free after spending three-and-a-half years in a US prison. Nasser Ahmed’s ‘crime’ was that he was the court-appointed interpreter for Shaikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in January 1996 after a kangaroo trial.
The Russians are not doing as well militarily in Ichkeria (formerly the Caucasus republic of Chechenya) as they claim, nor are the Chechen fighters doing as badly as the Russian media reports. What Moscow is clearly winning is the propaganda war, having learnt the important lessons from its former enemies in the west.
A new Nile-water deal between Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia and a tripartite alliance between Jibouti, Ethiopia and Sudan directed against Eritrea ï a common adversary and neighbour ï have somewhat eased Khartoum’s embattled position, by complicating Washington’s declared effort to finance opposition-groups fighting to form a breakaway republic in the south of the country.
The plight of the beleaguered Afghanis placed under UN sanctions on November 14 was relieved a week later, when Iran opened its border for trade with Afghanistan.
Muslims in the Central African state of Malawi, west of Lake Tanganyika, are living in constant fear of violence from armed Christian fanatics who have already destroyed scores of mosques and killed dozens of people throughout the country.
Pakistan’s new military regime launched its promised crackdown on corruption on November 17, when it arrested a number of politicians, businessmen, bureaucrats and former military officers accused of corruption or willful default of bank loans.
The Muslims of Ichkeria are facing a long, hard winter as over 250,000 have been forced to flee their homes to avoid Russian military operations and air raids, and many are stranded in the open or with little shelter as the region’s harsh winter weather sets in.
The Muslim people in east Turkestan (officially the Xinjiang province of China), who have successfully resisted Chinese attempts to assimilate them for centuries, and have in recent years organized a credible struggle for independence...
Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s one day fast of penitence on January 30 is reflective of the widespread hyprocrisy in the ranks of the Indian ruling elite.
Zamfara, an overwhelmingly Muslim state in northern Nigeria, adopted Shari’ah law on October 27, amidst celebrations by the area’s Muslim population and widespread support among other Muslims in the country.
The second round of Niger’s presidential elections are due to take place on November 24. They will be contested by the two highest placed candidates in the first round, (which took place on October 17), retired Colonel Mamadou Tandja...
