Word: islam
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Prophet Muhammad taught that all men are equal. Over the centuries Islam has nourished scientists, philosophers, architects and writers. But the last phrase of the Koran's injunction to "obey Allah, the messenger and those of you who are in authority" is a boon to autocrats. Saddam pretends devotion when it suits his purposes. He has gone from murdering clerics to proclaiming a jihad and televising his prayers during...
...Constitutional and representative government has been a miserable failure in the Arab world," says Elie Kedourie, a renowned scholar of Islam. "Elections and parliaments have no roots in classic Muslim thought. Only one figure holds ultimate legitimate authority in both the secular and religious realms, and that's the Caliph. The title may change, but the theory does...
Says Graham Fuller, a Middle East specialist with the CIA during the 1980s: "There was a genuine visceral fear of Islam in Washington as a force that was utterly alien to American thinking, and that really scared us. Senior people at the Pentagon and elsewhere were much more concerned about Islam than communism. It was an almost obsessive fear, leading to a mentality on our part that you should use any stick to beat a dog -- to stop the advance of Islamic fundamentalism." That stick was to be Iraq...
...group of 40 Bangladeshis employed at the Meridien Hotel were living in its basement. On Feb. 23, they say, a squad of Iraqi troops stormed in and gave them 10 minutes to get out. "They parked two tanks in front of the hotel and shelled it," says Rafiq Islam Bulu, 29, from Dhaka. "When we came back, it was on fire." The Bangladeshis, he adds, lost everything they owned. That night the Iraqis also destroyed the offices of Air France and Saudi Arabian Airlines, the Gulf Bank and Kuwait's largest building, al-Montana complex...
...flew their colors with special pride. Its members resisted outside help to the point of refusing desert-camouflage fatigues, resting content with green winter uniforms and caps complete with earflaps. Asian Muslims -- including 11,000 Pakistanis, 2,000 Bangladeshis and about 310 Afghan mujahedin guerrillas -- were assigned to guard Islam's shrines. As for the inconspicuous Moroccans and other minor units -- well, the way Washington was feeling last week, they also served who only stood and waited...