Osama bin Laden's Dream Lives On

article by Scott Ashley

Osama bin Laden, whose al-Qaeda terror group was behind the devastating Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, has been dead for almost two years. But his dream lives on, and we see this being played out in headlines across the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

Good News Magazine - March/April 2013

What dream is that? It's the dream of forming an Islamic caliphate —a worldwide body of Muslim believers, transcending all national borders, united under Islamic sharia law and the rule of a caliph —a successor to the founder of Islam, Muhammad, who died in A.D. 632.

But the caliphate isn't an end in itself. Islam's holy book, the Koran, tells Muslims that Allah sent Muhammad "with guidance and the True Faith [Islam], so that he may exalt it above all religions" (Surah 61:9, Dawood translation). Thus the purpose of the caliphate is to be a stepping-stone to Islamic world domination.

The Arab Spring That Wasn't

article by Tom Robinson

Despite rosy forecasts of an "Arab Spring," a cold Islamist winter grips the Middle East, as developments in Egypt make clear. What does this mean for the future of this critical region?

Source: Photo illustration by Shaun Venish/iStockphoto

Sweet springtime! The birds are singing, the trees are budding, all is lovely. And so was it imagined to be by many in the West with the uprisings against dictatorial rule in Middle Eastern states that began at the end of 2010. Young visionaries coordinating through Google and Facebook spawned protests calling for reform throughout the region. Soon despotic rulers were ousted. It was hailed as the Arab Spring. No doubt freedom and democracy were on the way.

As the West, including the U.S. government, encouraged the various uprisings and ousters, some concerned voices warned of the revolts empowering Islamist forces. But this was brushed aside as Islamophobic fearmongering. All was sunshine and rainbows.