The world needs a new Islamic leadership that is enlightened and is capable of addressing the peace and development needs of the ASEAN. This leadership that is pro-peace and prodevelopment must be well-versed with the inner resources of Islam, as derived from the Qur’an and from Islam’s rich history of leadership.......... Download the full article in pdf attachment (below)

THE untimely death of Ashraf Hafiz Abdul Aziz at 26 and the difficulties he faced put many in a reflective mood as to what could have been done better to address his suffering when he was alive. By refusing to grant Ashraf his plea to change and register his name as Aleesha Farhana, the courts may have adhered to the letter of the law but it is questionable whether they were compassionate enough. If one were to learn a lesson, it would be to find better answers through suitable legislation and grant of flexibility in the adjudication of intensely humanitarian cases such as Ashraf's.......... Download the full article in pdf attachment (below)

Modern man learns the wisdom of ecological equilibrium and environmental health the bitter way. It is also the expensive way. Not until he has seen with his own eyes the bitter fruits of his scientific and technological culture and of his extravagant life style does he come to realize how important ecological equilibrium and environmental health are to the survival of humankind on earth. The names of these bitter fruits are environmental pollution and ecological disasters. The modern industrialized West became the first sector of humanity in history to taste these bitter fruits, just as it was the first to have planted the “forbidden tree of secular knowledge” that had borne these fruits. It was most unfortunate for humanity that the rest of the world, including Muslim societies, had uncritically followed the footsteps of the West in planting and cultivating the same tree and reaping its fruits......... Download the full article in pdf attachment (below) size 4.0MB

Among non-Muslims both in the West and in the East Islam is widely perceived today as an exceptionally intolerant religion. It is viewed as intolerant of other religions, cultures, ways of life, and points of view. It is also viewed as critical of modern civilization. Muslims are generally seen as inclined to violence. “Islam has bloody borders!” claimed the late Samuel Huntington many years ago in his controversial book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order.3) What he has sought to capture in these four words is the widespread belief in the West that Islam and Muslims somehow cannot coexist peacefully with other people of different beliefs and ways of life......... Download the full article in pdf attachment (below)