Malcolm X and the Media1

Who can deny the power and influence the media has in shaping our opinions, views, and ways of thinking? The media has the power to glorify and to humiliate, to exalt and to destroy, and to corrupt and mutilate reality. Of the many people who have been victimized and whose vision and beliefs have been distorted by the media, the case of Malcolm X stands out clearly. Not only was he victimized in life, but also in death.

The Internet is a jungle, a perilous place. You never know what is lurching behind the next link or the pop-up that just appeared. The Internet is a net, a trap, which can lure and capture even the most seasoned surfers. Considering the fact there are 4.2 million adult websites with over 372 million pornographic pages on the Internet, allowing a child to roam freely in its realm is frankly foolhardy. While the Internet contains many valuable resources, it is fraught with danger.

Sacrifice1

Who Needs Converts?1

We read your editorial from the Friday Bulletin (January 19, 2001; Year 3) written by Prof. M. Elmasry in which he says: “While occasional converts may result from apologetics-based public debates, one must ask: ‘Is it worth it?’” Please allow us to examine a few issues, point by point.

In Response to “America’s Amazing Record”1

The Foundations of Islamic Unity1

The Holy Qur’an repeatedly reproaches and condemns the Hypocrites among the early Muslims. With the exception of ‘Abdullah ibn Ubbay, universally accepted as being one of the Hypocrites among the Companions of the Prophet, the majority of Muslim scholars, mostly among Ahl al-Sunnah as opposed to Ahl al-Bayt, shy away from the subject, refusing to pin-point individuals in particular and some of the common characteristics of these false converts.

If Western philosophy is concerned with freedom, the quality or state of being free, Islamic philosophy is concerned with submission, the act of submitting to the authority or control of another. While Islam’s emphasis on submission may seem incompatible with Western notions of liberty it is not, however, a negation of freedom. There is freedom in Islam but it is qualified, conditional, defined and well-determined. It is not ambiguous, ill-defined and nebulous as it is in the West. For Muslims, true freedom can only be attained through submission to God.

Al-Qaeda differs radically from traditional Islamic movements in many respects. Unlike other guerrilla groups who seek to establish an Islamic State, it has no precise political aims and contents itself with “fighting the enemies of Islam, the Americans and the Israelis.” While revolutionaries of the past sought a seat at the political table, al-Qaeda seeks to blow up the table. While most Muslim militants are religious, albeit ignorant, activists, al-Qaeda is composed of marginally religious rebels.

Saudi Arabia: The Source of Salafism1