A collection of Malik’s writings published in American and overseas newspapers and journals.
Middle East PolicySummer 2004 Soon after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Arundhati Roy wrote an article sharing Americans’ “immense grief” but also suggesting that they reflect on “why 11 September happened.” She received a torrent of letters calling her “a black bitch,” an “anti-American whore,” a “Communist,” and a “coon.”...
St. Louis Post – DispatchJune 17, 2004 COMMENTARY – A FORUM FOR OTHER VOICES, IDEAS AND OPINIONS Mustafa Malik, a Washington journalist, has researched ethnic and religious movements in the Middle East as a research associate with University of Chicago Middle East Center. DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ President Bush has hailed Iraq’s unfolding democratic process, which...
The Daily Star – LebanonJune 8, 2004 US President George W. Bush gets excited when he says Iraq’s newly installed interim government will finally create a “democratic” country. The new 33-member Cabinet is charged with arranging elections to a Parliament that will draw up a democratic constitution. The United Nations is expected to soon bless...
Middle East PolicySpring 2004 On November 20, 2003, while President George W. Bush was visiting Britain, two Turkish militants bombed the British consulate and a British bank in Istanbul, killing 27 people. Bush’s state visit had been scheduled months earlier to celebrate what had been expected, if a bit presumptuously, to be an unmixed victory in...
The Daily Star – LebanonFeb 19, 2004 In December 1941, when the Japanese bombed US ships at Pearl Harbor, little did they know that the “isolationist” Americans would roar into World War II, occupy Japan and Germany and change the course of history. Could a real “clash of civilizations” over Israel be an unforeseen consequence...
The OklahomanOctober 8, 2003 WASHINGTON – If you fell for the American neoconservative propaganda that democracy doesn’t grow on Muslim soil, visit my native Bangladesh. You’ll know that it’s a lie. Bangladesh’s population is 88 percent Muslim and its coalition government includes the Islamist Jamaat-i-Islami party. Yet Washington extols its decade-old democracy and religious “moderation.”...
St. Louis Post – DispatchOctober 1, 2003 COMMENTARY: A FORUM FOR OTHER VOICES, IDEAS AND OPINIONS Mustafa Malik has worked as an editor and writer for the Washington Times, Hartford Courant and other newspapers, and is researching the evolution of Muslim cultural patterns. POLITICS AND RELIGION If you have fallen for the current jingoistic line...
The Austin American-Statesman2003 A.B. Mohammad Musa was my boss at the Pakistan Observer newspaper in the East Pakistani capital of Dhaka. He almost never prayed, and he recoiled at the word “Islam.” He and many other East Pakistani Muslims carped about West Pakistanis dominating them in the name of Islamic brotherhood. By 1971, East Pakistan...
Middle East PolicyMarch 21, 2003 The Turks are secular Muslims,” said Recep Tayyip Erdogan. For centuries they have “lived in peace with different cultures.” His Justice and Development party, known by its Turkish initials AKP, stood for justice for all Turkish citizens regardless of their creeds or cultures. Erdogan said he appreciated U.S. support for...
Hartford CourantMarch 17, 2003 President George W. Bush announced the other day he would help democratize postwar Iraq, which would spur a drive for “freedom in other nations in the region.” Democracies “desire peace,” and he expected democratic Arab regimes to facilitate peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians. Two days later, the parliament in Turkey...