Category Archives: History

Mohammad Mosaddeq: Some Myths Dispelled

By Guest | Published: February 6, 2010

This is a cross-post of an article by Michael Ezra on Harry’s Place

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Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq was a popular Iranian politician. An Iranian nationalist, who hailed from a wealthy and prominent family he served as Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 – 1953.[1] According to one of his own cousins, as well as being “Distinguished,” he was “highly emotional.” He would gesture “wildly” in “theatrical” speeches. When he was nervous or in a rage, tears “sprung unbidden from his eyes” that he would wipe away with his hand.[2] His major political achievement was to nationalise the British controlled Anglo-Iranian Oil Company[3] (abrogating an agreement that would have expired in 1993).[4] Mosaddeq’s time as Prime Minister ended abruptly in August 1953 after a CIA sponsored coup that replaced him with a retired army major general, Fazlollah Zahedi.[5]

Myth 1: Mosaddeq was a Democrat.

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Posted in History | 5 Comments

The Mughal Caliphate

By Guest | Published: January 5, 2010

This is a re-post of an article by Raziq  first posted in January 2010

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Islamist groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir, Al-Muhajiroun and the Muslim Brotherhood claim that Muslims were ruled by a single political leadership which started from the time of the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century and lasted until the last days of the Ottoman Empire in 1924. According to Islamists, this political leadership looked after the interests of all Muslims worldwide. The central aim of Islamist groups today is to recreate this leadership by uniting the 52 or so Muslim-majority countries in the world into a single state ruled by a single ruler (Caliph). They refer to this totalitarian system as the Khilafah (or the caliphate).

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Also posted in Islamism | 40 Comments

Independence Day

By Faisal | Published: December 16, 2009

Thirty eight years ago on this day East Pakistan gained independence from the tyranny of West Pakistan’s feudal oligarchy and it’s clergy. Bengalis fought off the Punjab dominated military and state sponsored Jamat-e-Islami death squads Al-Shams and Al-Badr, and formed their secular state.

But the scars of its war with Pakistan remain. Al Jazeera’s Tony Birtley reports from Dhaka [18/04/09] about the thousands of women and girls who were raped by Pakistani soldiers and their collaborators during the war of liberation. Some victims of those attacks are finally starting to speak out about the trauma which, up until now, has been largely ignored.

Posted in History | Tagged | 1 Comment

Guru Gobind Singh’s stance towards Muslims

By Guest | Published: November 28, 2009

This is a cross-post of an article by Jai from Pickled Politics

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I think a few more things need to be stated for the record in relation to Rajinder Singh [the Sikh who is supporting the

Guru Gobind Singh

The venerable Guru Gobind Singh

BNP]. While his reaction is understandable from a “flawed human nature” perspective, considering the apparent loss of his father during Partition, it isn’t justifiable, either from a general moral perspective or indeed from a specifically Sikh perspective. Let me give an example of another Sikh who suffered immense personal tragedy at the hands of Muslims, in some cases explicitly claiming to be acting in the name of Islam.

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Also posted in Interfaith, Sufism | 32 Comments

The Mufti and the Führer

By Yossarian | Published: October 8, 2009

Also posted in Antisemitism | Tagged | 11 Comments

Syed Qutb: The Philosopher of Militant Islamism

By Guest | Published: October 2, 2009

This is a guest post by Raziq

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What’s wrong with Syed Qutb? I’ve heard this said many times by different people. Some see him as a hero, others the inspiration behind terrorist movements like al-Qaeda. There are even those, like Inayat Bunglawala, who see him as nothing more than a little controversial.  In this article I will be taking a brief look at Qutb’s life and ideas, and why he is still admired by militant Islamist movements today.

Early Career

Syed Qutb was born in 1906 in Musha in the Asyut province of Upper Egypt.  In his early twenties he moved to Cairo and worked as a teacher for the Ministry of Public Instruction. During this period he was also interested in literature and became known as a literary critic. It is noted that Qutb was liberal in the early part of his life, at one point he even advocated nudism:

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Also posted in Islamism, Your View | Tagged | 13 Comments

What is the Quran?

By Guest | Published: September 16, 2009

This is a cross post from the Averroes Press
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Ten years ago, this cover story in The Atlantic caused quite a stir. It revealed, researchers were proposing new theories about Islam’s holy book and Islamic history to reinterpret Islam for the modern world.

I believe Muslims will be well served if they read this essay rather than burn it. We do not have to agree with the findings, but we need to know how academia views the Muslim holy book.

Read and reflect.

Tarek
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January 1999

Toby Lester

The Atlantic Monthly

IN 1972, during the restoration of the Great Mosque of Sana’a, in Yemen, laborers working in a loft between the structure’s inner and outer roofs stumbled across a remarkable gravesite, although they did not realize it at the time. Their ignorance was excusable: mosques do not normally house graves, and this site contained no tombstones, no human remains, no funereal jewellery.

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Also posted in Exegesis | 36 Comments

Hasan al-Banna: Brotherhood, Jihad and Nazism

By Guest | Published: September 1, 2009

This is a guest post by Raziq

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The Muslim Brotherhood is the largest Islamist party in the world today.  It also claims to be a democratic party.  In this article I will be looking at its founder Hasan al-Banna, the reasons why he established the Muslim Brotherhood and his Nazi sympathies.

Hasan al-Banna was born in 1906 to a poor family in Southern Egypt.  During his teenage years he took part in demonstrations against British Rule. He later went on to become a school teacher and in 1928 founded the ‘The Muslim Brotherhood’ (MB), the world’s largest Islamist group.

Although the end of the Ottoman Empire was brought about by Turkish secular Muslims, some Muslims, like Banna, blamed “the West” and thus he established the MB with the aim of creating an Islamist State in direct antithesis to western ideals.  Banna was able to recruit from a large cross-section of Egyptian society by manipulating issues such as social inequality, public health and the growing conflict in Palestine.  Banna claimed his group would solve all these problems and thereby resurrect lost Arab glories.

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Also posted in Antisemitism, Islamism, Your View | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

Sad, Paranoid and Delusional

By Guest | Published: August 6, 2009

This is a guest post by Raziq

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Fear mongering seems to have become a past time for some Muslims: the fear that the whole world is against Muslims and there are numerous forces out there wanting to undermine and destroy Islam. One of the chief instigators of this paranoid delusional mindset is an individual called Abdul Karim Hattin. This short biography of him appears on the Islamonline website:

Abdul Karim became a Muslim when he was 19 years old and now at 30, he has completed a degree in Media Studies at the University of Luton. He is the co-director and founder of Halaqah Media and Black Banner Media. He wrote the documentary From the Shadows…Exposing the New World Order.

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Also posted in Your View | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Spectator Against Anti-Muslim Bigotry

By Yossarian | Published: June 26, 2009

Strange as it may sound, the Spectator’s website – normally the domain of anti-Islam rants and Mad Mel’s Obama theories – now has an eminently sensible take on the hysteria surrounding Islam in Europe. Alex Massie compares current histrionics about Muslim immigration to Britain with that surrounding Irish Catholic immigration to Scotland in the early twentieth century.

Now historical analogies are necessarily slippery and, granted, just because the racists and bigots were wrong 80 years ago doesn’t necessarily mean they’re wrong now. But Irish catholics were just as alien and, in some eyes, hostile to the ethos and culture of presbyterian Scotland as muslims and immigrants are, again in some people’s view, to the ethos and culture of contemporary Britain.

Well, the bigots and racists were wrong back then and I rather fancy they’re wrong again today and that, in 80 years time, people will look back upon this era of scaremongering and paranoia and consider it a grubby, shameful episode.

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Also posted in Anti Muslim bigotry | Tagged | 4 Comments

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