9/11 was an inside job

Saturday, Sep. 22, 2001

By Sally Donnelly

US officials are compiling what one called “growing” evidence that other hijackings may have been planned for September 11. Officials from both the government and the airline industry tell TIME Magazine that a knife-like weapon was found on each of two separate Delta Airlines aircraft later that day, although neither plane took off due to the nationwide grounding after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks on hijacked United and American airlines planes.

On the Search for Divine Revelation Outside of It

 
By Rashid Shaz

Divine revelation is a definite and self-contained entity. Even after its revelation if supplementary materials for human guidance are needed then it would be considered a lack or an inadequacy of the divine revelation. At all places in the Qur’an where divine guidance has been alluded to, it has been clarified beyond doubt that whenever such guidance was sent, it was sent in the most comprehensive form, including all details related to it. Verses like ثم آتينا موسى الكتاب تماماً (Al- Ina’m: 154) and وكتبنا له في الألواح من كل شئي موعظة و تفصيلا لكل شئي (Al- A’raf: 145), in fact, point to the fact that after the revelation of Torah, the Israelites did not need any other supplementary sources for their guidance. The attitude of the Qur’an towards its addressee, as evidenced in verses like –  افغير الله ابتغى حكما وهو الذي أنزل إليكم الكتاب مفصلاَ(Al- Ina’m: 115) is a pointer to its nature of being complete, comprehensive and definitive. Be they the Divine scrolls revealed to earlier prophets or the Qur’an revealed to Prophet Muhammad, if they do not have the status of being the primary and seminal sources of guidance, then they raise questions about the very nature of the divine revelation. As the Qur’an is the final document in the chain of divine revelations, it has the status of the guide to humanity after the Prophet. This is the reason why it includes the wisdom revealed to the past prophets. The style of the Qur’an at numerous places aims at teaching lessons to the present community through the narration of the stories of the earlier communities. These parables provide them the guidance to lead life righteously. وما كان هذا القرآن أن يفترى من دون الله ولكن تصديق الذي بين يديه وتفصيل الكتب لا ريب فيه من رب العالمين (Yunus: 37).

The Nature Of The Environmental Crisis

 
By Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim

Ours is a period when the human community is in search of new and sustaining relationships to the earth amidst an environmental crisis that threatens the very existence of all life-forms on the planet. While the particular causes and solutions of this crisis are being debated by scientists, economists, and policymakers, the facts of widespread destruction are causing alarm in many quarters. Indeed, from some perspectives the future of human life itself appears threatened. As Daniel Maguire has succinctly observed, “If current trends continue, we will not.”[1] Thomas Berry, the former director of the Riverdale Center for Religious Research, has also raised the stark question, “Is the human a viable species on an endangered planet?”

ISLAM AND THE WEST: CLASH OF CIVILISATIONS?

Francis Robinson

In 1993 the journal Foreign Affairs published an article entitled ‘Clash of Civilizations’ by Samuel Huntington, Harvard Professor, former Director of Security Planning for the National Security Council, and President of the American Political Science Association. By 1996 Huntington had developed his article into a book, and it was published under the title The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. ¹

Is Religion all about Rituals and a Fancy Dress Code?

The Muslim community is going through a deep crisis. The intensity of this crisis can be gauged from the fact that everyone, be he a leader or commoner, is asking the question as to why, despite the presence of the Qur’an amongst us, we cannot see any light at the end of the tunnel. Why the community that was entrusted with the task of leading the world, despite the presence of the Qur’an and the teachings of the scholars and commentators, is going through a deepening ideological crisis? After the trauma of Auschwitz this question had raised its head among the Jews too as to how could God abandon His chosen community to fend for itself? The Jewish scholars and intellectuals asked themselves the question that if the community of Jews was wiped out from the face of earth, then what possible meaning can the history have for them? The Israelites who, for a long time, have been accustomed to live in history are yet to fully recognise the fact that they have been ejected from the seat of authority and guidance. The basic difference between the Israelites and the Muslims is that while the deposition of the former is a divine decision, the deposition of the latter is an historical aberration that can be corrected through recourse to the Last Revelation. However, the irony of the situation is that instead of critically assessing their situation and attempting to light up their path with the help of the Divine Revelation, the Muslim have become prisoners of history. This has made it difficult for them to come to grip with this historical aberration and understand the full extent of their decline.