Rounded Analysis On Contested Issues; Spotlighting Blind Spots; Politics, Religion, Travel, Books
In 1963, crown prince Faisal told US ambassador Parker T Hart that 'after Allah, we trust America' while Saudis were involved in a confrontation with Egypt over Yemen, highlighting the depth of their relationship that has endured
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini developed wilayat al-faqih (the rule of the jurist theory), the basis for the Iranian political system, during his 15-year exile in a small house in the warren alleys ringing the shrine of the Prophet's son-in-law, Caliph Imam Ali, in Iraq's Najaf
As the faithful prayed at the mosque in Dubai's Barsha Heights, their right to worship did not impinge on the rights of those going about their business in the vicinity, including women in shorts and mini-skirts
Medieval Europeans felt inferior to the then vastly advanced Muslim world before they outshined and rejected its scientific legacy besides writing Islamic civilization out of their intellectual history
Scholar Abdallah bin Mahfudh ibn Bayyah crafted the legal framework that inspired the declaration connecting early Islamic sources and the Prophet Muhammad's Charter of Medina with international human rights law for a model of equal, contractual citizenship as an Islamic principle
The Crusades were not just any other wars or an ordinary event in world history, but a theologically-justified attempt to erase Islam and the Islamic civilisation
Regime change has been a recurring theme in Iranian discourse. It has had resonance since 1951 when the West removed democratically-elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh (1880-1967) from power for keeping his poll promise of nationalizing oil to invest its profits for the welfare of the poor
The Mecca siege, Iranian revolution and Soviet invasion of Afghanistan back to back in the same year triggered a chain reaction and among other things fuelled Islamophobia, which has now escalated globally to epidemic proportions
Two Hellfire missiles with long blades meant to kill targets with kinetic energy to minimize collateral damage were fired on July 30 to take out al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri
Equality was the essence of the Prophet’s teachings, which first resonated with marginalised people such as women and slaves in seventh-century Arabia with entrenched notions of superiority
