The recentarticleby Shaaban Abboud on Islamic Movements in Syria highlights the fact that, in the final analysis and after all is said and done, these movements are formed along provincial rather than ideological lines, with personalities playing a huge role in this regard. Different sheikhs have different followers, disciples and devotees. They will compete with each other, and vilify each other, now somewhat quietly but tomorrow quite overtly, but they will eventually agree on one thing: the Shariah. Continue reading “Wet Dreams and Dry Realities!”
Tag: Islamists
Heresies, Public & Private!
The reason I tread lightly in the political field is because it is, in essence, only a manifestation of the real problems in our part of the world, most of which tend to be not simply social but psychological in nature.And since such problems, due to their very intricate nature and the fact that we have to work on both the individual and collective levels simultaneously, cannot be dealt with in matter of days or months and tend to require years, if not decades, to be handled effectively, seeking political fixes to these problems is nothing short of idiotic. Continue reading “Heresies, Public & Private!”
Family Affairs!
I never knew my father-in-law, for he disappeared long before I even met Khawla. This happened way back in the 1981, less than a year after his arrest on March 31, 1980. That was the second time that my father-in-law, one Abdulwadood Yusuf, was arrested. Continue reading “Family Affairs!”
Secularists & Islamists – The Promise & the Dread
This is the paper that I have prepared during my second stint as a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution (October 2005-March 2006). It, too, was too whimsical for publication as a Brookings policy paper. So, here it is. Continue reading “Secularists & Islamists – The Promise & the Dread”
The Ammar Abdulhamid Archive 