2003

The Media War November 2003

It is instructive to examine how the United States and its staunch ally Britain were able to neutralize one of the most powerful public outrage since World War II. The Western world has seldom seen public demonstrations on the scale witnessed during the weeks preceding the invasion of Iraq. Millions of men, women and children marched on the streets of London, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington DC, in the hope that this public outcry would stop the impending attack. One important aspect of this public declaration was the emergence of a loosely organized network of peace activists who provided “human shields”, hoping the United States and UK would not bomb their own citizens. All of this, however, proved totally ineffective against the war machine. Not only did the United States go ahead with its plans, it used some of the most deadly weapons and ammunition ever used in any war. Read full article

Iran’s New Security Challenges December 2003

A quick glance at the map of Iran and the surrounding region is enough to infer that Iran is now a besieged land. Sandwiched between two US-occupied countries (Afghanistan and Iraq) on its eastern and western borders and flanked by two US allies (Turkey and Pakistan) on its northern and southern sides, Iran has hardly any room left to maneuver. In addition, just across the narrow Persian Gulf, Oman has the largest accumulation of US troops and equipment on a brand new base built to maintain US presence in the Middle East for an indefinite period. This formidable presence of American troops in the region is further augmented by large bases in Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan on Iran’s northern borders. Read full article

2004

The Real Clash January 2004

A small gathering at the American Enterprise Institute in October 1992 was the first to hear Samuel P. Huntington express an idea that would eventually become his now famous article published in the summer 1993 issue of the journal Foreign Affairs, “The Clash of Civilizations?”. But even before the article made its appearance in Foreign Affairs, it was set forth in an Occasional Paper prepared for the Olin Institute’s project on “The Changing Security Environment and American National Interests”. These details are important because they tell us a great deal about the institutional and personal affiliations and support behind this otherwise flawed description of the present global situation, as well as provide clues to the invisible hands behind its global projection that would take its author around the world. The article has since been expanded and “documented”, and the resulting book has drawn attention from every continent and translated into almost all major languages. Read full article

Stop the Desecration of Islamic History February 2004

Once again they came in their thousands, traveling from places as far apart as Bukharah and Damascus. On planes, ships, buses, and cars, they came following the tradition of Ibrahim, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him. Their destination was the House of Allah, the Sanctified Sanctuary in the heart of the blessed city of Makkah. Reciting “Labbayk, Allahuma Labbayk, Here I am O Allah, Here I am,” and glorifying His Hallowed Name, the pilgrims arrived, submitting themselves to their Creator, hoping to renew and revitalize their faith. Read full article

Iranian Elections: Fair or Unfair? March 2004

Only the initial results of the February 20, 2004 elections in Iran had been announced when Adam Ereli, a US State Department spokesman, declared that these elections were not free and fair, nor were they consistent with international norms. The basis for this verdict, he said, was the fact that a large number of candidates had been barred from contesting. In addition to this official US position, almost the entire coverage of these elections in North America was negative. A common feature of this coverage was to view the political situation in Iran as a contest between “conservatives” and “reformists”, as if these two ambiguous terms defined the whole political reality of a country which remains unique in the entire Muslim world for developing a political system based on Islam’s fundamental principles of representative government. This experiment, as we shall see, is not only unique for modern times, it is a product of a political philosophy that is itself of considerable importance for it is based on principles that provide an alternate to the Western political philosophy. Read full article

Middle East Democracy Fever April 2004

The US Secretary of State Colin Powell announced the creation of the “Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI)” on December 12, 2002 as a program designed to “promote political, economic, and educational development in the Middle East”. This initiative is bound to receive major attention at the “Group of Eight Summit” to be hosted by George Bush at Sea Island, Georgia, in June 2004. What are the real motives for this project? What does it mean to promote “democracy” in the Middle East? What is at stake for Muslims? Muzaffar Iqbal explores the subtle undercurrents of this new initiative which is, as he explains, a new ploy for securing American interests. Read full article

The Two Hundred and Sixth Year of Oppression May 2004

“I have not come to you except for the purpose of restoring your rights from the hands of the oppressors.” These words could have been uttered by the US President George W. Bush or the British Prime Minister Tony Blair during a visit to Iraq. They also echo what proconsul Paul Bremer said upon arrival in Baghdad. These were, however, the words of a 28-year-old man who had arrived in Egypt on June 28th, 1798 with a fleet of 400 ships, carrying 36,000 men. This young man from France, who would later etch his name in history as the last maverick king of France, had the singular distinction of inaugurating a new phase of history by occupying a Muslim heartland. Read full article

Napoleonic origins of 200 Years of Muslim suffering June 2004

“I have not come to you except for the purpose of restoring your rights from the hands of the oppressors.” It is not difficult to imagine these words being spoken by US president George W. Bush or British prime minister Tony Blair during a visit to Iraq. They also echo what proconsul Paul Bremer said upon his arrival in Baghdad. In fact they were spoken by a 28-year-old man who arrived in Egypt from France on June 28th, 1798, with a fleet of 400 ships, carrying 36,000 men. This young man, who would later etch his name in history as the last maverick king of France, had the singular distinction of inaugurating a new phase of history by invading and occupying a Muslim heartland. Read full article

Institutions of Hope July 2004

For almost two centuries Muslims have been forced to react to various aggressions against them. This necessity has led to an alarming decline of positive pursuit of well-thought-out agendas for the improvement and development of their own societies. This situation has produced a series of setbacks which continue to dictate the course of events in the entire Muslim world. While it is true that by about 1800 Europe had attained an upper hand in international affairs and that all other people were forced to adjust their social, economic and political orders to cope with the aggression and brutality of a technically industrialized Europe bent upon colonizing the rest of the world, it is equally true that this fight for survival can only succeed if there is a simultaneous agenda of positive change that can create and sustain truly Islamic polities in various Muslim lands in a world dominated by unIslamic social, political and economic systems. Read full article

What Future for Pakistan? August 2004

August 14, 2004 marks the fifty-seventh year of the existence of Pakistan as a state. Carved out of the Indian Subcontinent in the name of Islam, Pakistan came into existence through a historic process that emerged over centuries through a peculiar set of civilizational currents that produced a unique hybrid culture. These crosscurrents gave birth to a new language (Urdu), a certain lifestyle distinct from that existing in India before the arrival of Islam, and a singular expression of the Islamic belief system combining various Arabian, Persian, and Indian elements. In many ways, Pakistan is really a very extraordinary country: not only because it came into existence to embody a belief system, but also because through its creation, the unfolding of Islamic revelation in history found an expression that combined several major streams of human civilization including elements of Persian, Arab and local Indian cultures. Read full article

Alibi of September 11 September 2004

The real story behind September 11 is slowly emerging, shattering the myth propagated by the Bush administration. Numerous independent investigators continue to bring forth bits of new evidence which expose the lies crafted by the neoconservatives with the help of CNN and other media outlets soon after the events of that fatal day. The whole truth is still not out, but one thing has already attained conclusiveness: the official version does not hold together anymore; there is something terribly wrong with this version of an event that has been used by the Bush administration to launch two invasions and numerous overt and secret aggressions against Muslims throughout the world. Read full article

Intellectual Harem of the West October 2004

One of the most remarkable features of the contemporary Muslim world is the absence of representative governments based on Islamic principles of governance. With the exception of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the entire Muslim world is now being ruled by those who have sworn allegiance to the United States of America or one of its allies, rather than to Allah, the real Sovereign and Ruler. In almost all cases, these rulers have been installed by the Western governments through covert operations, rigged elections or military coups. They exist solely for serving the interests of those who have installed them in positions of power. But these rulers do not exist alone; they function within a social, political, and cultural milieu and are surrounded by men and women who are loyal to them and to their masters in Washington DC, London or Paris. These secondary loyalties have been bought by using state resources as well as US dollars that flow out of the Western capitals into the pockets of these men and women who are an integral part of the “intellectual harem” established by the West within the Muslim world. In addition to the apparent rulers, these men and women constitute a very large number of mini power centers which are active to achieve certain goals set by the West as part of its agenda for the Muslim world. Read full article

Remembering the First Ramadan November 2004

Every year, the month of Ramadan brings with it memories of that Ramadan when fasting was first prescribed for believers through a Divine Command brought to the Prophet of Islam—may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him—in the second year of Hijrah. This command, now enshrined in the second Surah of the Qur’an (Ayah 183), was revealed at a time when the nascent Islamic state was still in its formative period and the Muslim community of Madinah was facing grave dangers. Read full article

Book Review: M. M. Al-A‘zami: The History of the Qur’anic Text From Revelation to Compilation November 2004

It was toward the end of the month of Ramadan (in August 610 CE) when one night an angel came to Muhammad—may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him—in the form of a man and said: “Recite!”. Then in his fortieth year and given to spending long periods of solitary meditations in the cave of Hira, about ten kilometers south of Ka‘bah, the sanctified House of God in Makkah, Muhammad (SAW) said, “I am not a reciter. Whereupon “the angel took me in his embrace,” he himself later narrated, “and whelmed me, until he had reached the limit of my endurance. Then he released me and said, ‘Recite!’ I said: ‘I am not a reciter,’ and again he took me and whelmed me in his embrace, and again when he had reached the limit of my endurance, he released me and said: ‘Recite!’, and again I said: ‘I am not a reciter’, and then a third time he whelmed me as before, then released me and said: Recite in the name of thy Sustainer Who created, He created man out of a leech-like clot. Recite; and thy Sustainer is the Most Bountiful. He Who taught by the Pen, taught man what he knew not.” Read full article

The Making of the Muslim Holocaust December 2004

No one is counting but even a cursory glance at the daily news is enough to confirm that a large number of Muslims are being killed in different parts of the world every single day. This has become such a routine affair that it does not even raise a concern anymore. This callousness has emerged slowly. Israeli raids into the occupied Palestinian territories used to become flashpoint for large public demonstrations in various parts of the world, but now even large-scale devastation of whole villages does not produce a whimper. Emboldened by this callousness, a number of organized armies are now busy slaughtering Muslims in places as far apart as Wana in Pakistan and Falluja in occupied Iraq. Read full article

2005

Global Islamic Movement: Genesis and Road to Success January 2005

Over the last three decades, the Western discourse on Islam has, in general, posited the rise of the Global Islamic Movement in negative terms with such consistency and force that many aspects of this worldwide phenomenon are now associated with fanaticism, extremism and violence. This negative projection is not only limited to the West, however; it has also found its way into the Muslim world. The ferocity of this global effort, supported by a multimillion dollar budget, has been so powerful that even many sincere Muslims find it difficult to remain clear about this historical development that has deep roots in Islam and Muslim history. Thus, it is not uncommon to come across negative formulations of the Islamic Movement by otherwise devout and pious Muslims who mean no harm to the cause of Islam and who would willingly contribute to the Movement if their doubts could be removed. Read full article

The Global Islamic Movement: Its Genesis and Manifestations February 2005

While most of the Arab world was under the sway of nationalism and petty men were walking haughtily on the political stage of the Middle East, propagating their fiery brand of Arab nationalism tinted with socialism, a quiet revolution was taking place in the religious circles of Iran: A man, who had devoted all of his adult life in pursuit of religious knowledge was calling his companions to give up their abstinence from politics and provide desperately needed leadership to a nation that was rapidly being westernized by its ruling circles. Born on September 24, 1902 in Khomein, a small town about one hundred kilometers southwest of Tehran into a family well known for its religious scholarship and learning, Ruhullah al-Musavi al-Khomeini clearly perceived the great danger that had arisen out of political abstinence of religious leadership and had decided to dedicate his life to change it. Read full article

The Global Islamic Movement: Road to Success March 2005

No doubt this has happened to Muslims before; not only once, but several times during the last fourteen hundred and twenty-five years, have we faced the threat of a total annihilation either due to internal strife or because of external threats. Recall the day when the Companions of the Prophet found themselves pitched against each other, with ‘A’ishah, his beloved wife—may Allah be pleased with her—commanding one army and ‘Ali, his dear cousin and son-in-law—may Allah be pleased with him—the other. Or think of the twelve long and terrible years of the second fitnah (680–692) during which Husayn b. ‘Ali and all but one of his companions were ruthlessly killed at Karblah, when Makkah was besieged not by an alien army but by men who professed the same faith as those who were going to be slaughtered by them in the sanctified precincts where fighting had been declared unlawful by Allah Himself (Qur’an 2: 217), and when the Khawarij took control of much of Arabia. Indeed, there is, in our history, the great deluge of 1258 when Baghdad, even now under a barbaric occupation, had been taken over by a ruthless army of nomads who would erect a tower of heads in that city which had remained the seat of glory and power for five centuries. And, not too long ago, almost the entire Ummah was under foreign occupation. Read full article

Malaise of the Ummah: Diagnosis and Solutions May 2005

It is now well recognized that 1.5 billion people who call themselves Muslims are in a state of multiple crises encompassing all aspects of life. The explanations offered for this devastating state of their political, economic, cultural, and social lives vary depending upon the perspectives used for analyses, but all answers eventually fall into two broad categories: in the first category are the explanations which hold Islam responsible for this state of affairs, in the second, those which consider abandonment of Islam by Muslims as the main cause of their present state. The former views Islam as a static dogma that is antithetical to progress, the latter considers Islam to be a dynamic system of life, meant to be for all times and places. The former perspective originated in the West some 300 hundred years ago and has seeped into the Muslim world where it has now assumed a modified form in which instead of blaming Islam directly, a circuitous route is used to blame Islam: those who hold this view in the Muslim world say that it is not Islam, but a static interpretation of Islam that is the cause of decline of Muslims. The remedy suggested by these people calls for a new and enlightened interpretation of Islam—an interpretation of Islam that is consonant with modernity which is, in turn, equated with progress. Read full article

Bushy Democracies and the Future of the Muslim World June 2005

“We now live in a world in which the United States is the only superpower. We must recast our foreign policy to cope with this radically new situation.” Thus wrote Richard Nixon in his 1992 book, Seize the Moment. Surely, Nixon was neither the first nor the last American leader to dream of a unipolar world dominated by America, but his book provides intriguing insights into the making of the post-1989 American policies based on the premise of America being the only superpower after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The end of the Cold War, symbolized by the so-called fall of the Berlin Wall, was also taken by American policy-makers as the beginning of a new phase in world history in which all other civilizations would adopt the three idols of Western civilization as their ideals: democracy, freedom, and free market economy. Read full article

Iranian Elections and the New Challenges July 2005

Even before the first vote was cast in Iran’s ninth Presidential election since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, George W. Bush had passed the verdict: “Iran’s electoral process ignores the basic requirements of democracy.” He did not have the moral courage to make the statement himself; instead, it was issued by the White House and it was so absurd that hours later, Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, had to explain to the press his administration’s “logic” in condemning Iran's electoral process while it had praised the sham elections in Egypt: “Egypt has not had an election for 7,000 years. They are trying to start one up, and it won't be perfect,” Hadley said, “[Iran and Egypt] couldn't be more different cases. Iran is the No. 1 state sponsor of terror. Egypt is fighting terror. Iran's policy is to get rid of Israel. Egypt is fostering the peace process.” This statement may provide us an understanding of the reality of the White House’s black logic: judgments on Iran’s presidential elections are not based on electoral process, but on its policies toward Israel. Read full article

External Threats to Iran unpublished August 2005 article

When the forty-nine-year old Mahmoud Ahmadinejad assumes the presidency of the Islamic Republic of Iran in August 2005, he will find his country surrounded by the American army from all sides: The US army not only has an active presence in the neighboring occupied Iraq, it also has military bases in Afghanistan, Turkey, Pakistan, Qatar, the U.A.E., Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The U.S. Army has its Central Command in the Emirate of Kuwait, its Pacific Fleet—with 200 ships, 2,000 aircraft and 250,000 sailors and marines—and its Seventh Fleet—the largest of the forward deployed fleets—in the Persian Gulf.  In the case of air strikes, Iran has no defense against the high-flying B-52 bombers. Read full article