Canada and the World Backgrounder articles from September 2006

Canada and the World Backgrounder archives from September 2006

Corruption of the faith: many people over the ages have used various religions as a guise for acquiring power, and justifying violence as a means to an "enlightened" end.
September 1, 2006... The transcript of the cockpit voice-recording is chilling: "Allah is the greatest" is repeated nine times in the last seven seconds of Flight 93. The Boeing 757 aircraft then hit the ground in southern Pennsylvania at more than 900 km/h. ...

The path of Allah: perhaps, few concepts are more misunderstood in the world than those of Islam, which shares a common heritage with Judaism and Christianity. With about 1.4 billion followers, Islam is the second-largest religion in the world.
September 1, 2006... Islam focuses on a belief in God, His messengers, His books, the Angels, and the Last Day (the Day of Judgement). Under its teachings, God has guided humans through His messengers, the prophets. They began with Adam and ended with Mohammed....

Internal conflict: the delegates at the Organization of the Islamic Conference summit in Malaysia in 2003 agreed on at least one thing: that the Muslim world was going through a very rough spell. One member said it was time for more dialogue among Muslims.(ISLAM--WITHIN)
September 1, 2006... There seems to be almost as much conflict within Islam itself as between Islam and the West. There are often violent clashes between the Sunni and Shi'ite branches playing out now as a vicious civil war in Iraq. Reports of horrific brutality...

The radical philosopher: being a suicide bomber is a career choice most of us reject. The fact that several thousand young men and women do chose this occupation can be credited to a man who wrote the book on extremism.(Jessica Stern's Terror in the Name of God )
September 1, 2006... Jessica Stern is the author of the 2003 book Terror in the Name of God (ISBN: 006050338). She has spoken to hundreds of young Muslims in various parts of the world and writes that: "Jihad has become a global fad, rather like gangsta rap. Among...

Playing for both teams: base camp for the clash between extremist Muslims and the West is the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a county that seems to be a Western ally but that also supports terrorism.(ISLAM--SAUDI ARABIA)
September 1, 2006... For 200 years Muslim civilization was overwhelmed by foreign cultures. From 1750 to 1950, European powers ruled over Muslim lands across North Africa, the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, Central and South Asia; in fact, every region where...

Under a cloud: everywhere in the Western world Muslims are under suspicion because of the terrorist attacks carried out against Western targets in the name of Islam.
September 1, 2006... Police and security people are edgy. In May 2006, 250 law enforcement officials swooped on a house in London, England. They had a tip that two brothers, both Muslims, were making a "chemical device." One of the brothers took a bullet in the...

Seeking some middle ground: can Muslims and non-Muslims live peacefully and quietly side by side in a secular society such as ours?
September 1, 2006... In 2004, the British House of Lords agreed to set aside a Muslim prayer room on its premises to accommodate the four Muslim Lords. One of them said that the British establishment is "more welcoming to Islam than any other country in Europe."...

Quote ... unquote.(Islam)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... "Some leading students of Islam have argued for a long time that radical Islamism passed its peak years ago and that its downfall and disappearance are only a question of time, perhaps not much time." Walter Laqueur, co-chair of the...