| Editorial |
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| Microscope |
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| New Caliphate New Era |
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Akmal Ashgar
The Muslim world is suffering at the hands of a failing political architecture that continues to hold back the region. Few now doubt this, but while for the west talk of change has centred on promoting a model rooted in liberalism, political movements indigenous to the region increasingly assert a political model rooted in Islam - the Caliphate. Akmal Asghar introduces a discussion on the Caliphate and concepts that form a distinct political system.
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| Israel: Heading for a Strategic Precipice |
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Sajjad Khan
The conventional wisdom when looking at the Middle East is to assume that Israel because of its military might has the strongest hand in future negotiations. However in reality, Israel faces significant security challenges which go to the heart of the Jewish state's viability. However the author believes these challenges are virtually insurmountable.
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| The Turning of the Tide |
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Barry Gills
Over two centuries ago, in the year 1776, the historian Edward Gibbon published the first volume of his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which he entitled 'The Turn of the Tide'. In this epic work, Gibbon analysed the historical processes by which the prosperity, peace, and stability of the Roman world order gradually came to an end, ushering in a new epoch defined by first the disintegration and subsequently the rebuilding of Western civilization over the course of many centuries.
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| Minorities - Challenging Existing Conventions |
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Hassan Choudhury
Race and minority relations remain high on the political agenda but how should we assess the trends since 9/11? Hassan Choudhury argues the identity politics consistent with the multicultural paradigm has ended and we are in a new liberal phase and assesses what this means for secular society
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| Muslims Don't Go 'Bowling Alone': a New Paradigm for Thinking about Citizenship and Civil Society |
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Dr Abdullah Robin
Some of the discussions of civil society, especially the orientalist ones, tend to focus on the structures of civil society to the detriment of its actual functions. In so doing the existence of civil society in hitherto underestimated forms can be overlooked. The family, for example, has a much more extended and interconnected character in Muslim societies than in the west. Dr Abdullah Robin examines a new Islamic paradigm for citizenship and civil society.
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The US Military - A Tactical & Strategic Crisis
- Andijan: Why We Must Look Beyond Double-Standards
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Two short articles on the brutal suppression in the city of Andijan and an examination of the duplicity of the US policy in Central Asia. In addition a review of the new asymmetric challenges the planners in the US military now face.
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| Life - A Liberal Conundrum |
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Jamal Okae
Earlier this year, the legal dispute in the US over the fate of Terri Schiavo, between her husband and her parents, led to the full-scale mobilisation of the 'right to life' and the 'right to choose' camps. The case was a key stage in the kulturkampf between the conservative and liberal factions, due to its assumed ramifications on other thorny issues, especially abortion. The upcoming battle over Supreme Court nominations promises to split the country once more - and the likely result will be a further step away from liberal values.
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| Can We Have a 'Global Civil Society'? |
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Hassan Choudhury
In a more interconnected world the challenges to nation-state authority represent new opportunities for humanity. If we accept we require new models of governance in the global age then what alternatives are available to us? Hassan Choudhury critically evaluates one such model, the Cosmopolitan notion of a Global Civil Society
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| A New Approach to Immigration |
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Dr Salman Ahmed
Immigration is a matter of serious concern for many people in Europe. In some European nations immigrants get the blame - arguably unfairly - for many of societies ills. Although immigration could help many European countries with their problems of ageing populations and the need to compete with new Asian economies, the fear of foreigners seems to be always be present amongst their publics. In this regard Europe can learn several lessons from the treatment given to immigrants by the Islamic civilisation when it existed
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| Critiquing Orientalist Perceptions |
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Mohammed Zahid
The political and socio-economic failings of the Middle East are visible for all to see, clearly highlighted in successive Arab Human Development Reports. The failings have been in the limelight more extensively post September 11th, as the west try to deal with the causes of terrorism which are seen to be rooted in a 'crisis paradigm'. An intellectual discourse that has been dominant within the media post September 11th has laid the blame of the failings of the Middle East at the doorstep of purely internal factors within the Middle East. This discourse has become synonomous with the Orientalist school of thought.
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| Letter to the Editor | |
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