Mark Durie
The plethora of reports of the Gaza Flotilla incident are confused, contested and contradictory. This is hardly surprising, given the intensity of the feelings on each side, the traumatic nature of the events, and the reality that propaganda generators are hard at work. It seems...
Today there are many debates about the meaning of the Arabic word jihad. Most recently John Brennan, White House adviser on terrorism, has reiterated views which he had previously presented at the Center for Strategic and International Studies: Nor does President Obama see this challenge as...
In these days, the Israel Defense Force's fatal engagement with Islamists on the Marmara has been drawing intense criticism from far and wide. However of particular interest to me was an Al-Jazeera report on the flotilla, showing interviews with an international collection of Muslim radicals on...
This article was published in the National Observer. It is a condensation of Chapter 6 of The Third Choice, which discusses the theological and legal status of the dhimma pact, in the light of Sura 9:29 of the Quran. ============== Islam and the dhimma pact Khaybar, Khaybar ya...
I have been thinking a lot about women in Islam recently, challenged by the message of Wafa Sultan's book "The God who hates", which I recently reviewed. Will the lot of Muslim women improve through a 'reformation' of Islam? Trying to reform Islam from Islam's own...
Wafa Sultan describes herself as an atheist. Her autobiographical A God Who Hates: The Courageous Woman Who Inflamed the Muslim World Speaks Out Against the Evils of Islam is a witness statement concerning Islam's God, of whom she writes "I did see the influence he...
The recent assassination of Hamas militant Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai has created a huge international reaction, not only for the killing—although al-Mabhouh was himself a killer—but also for the multiple identity heists which it seems the hit team perpetrated. Australian passports were used, among others,...
Last weekend President Obama announced the appointment of Rashad Hussain as Special Envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Already embroiled in controversy over remarks Hussain was alleged to have made in 2004 concerning the prosecution of Sami al-Arian, this appointment warrants careful consideration...
