The instigators who provoke Muslims through hateful messages either have a politically motivated agenda or they want to flare up tensions. But surprisingly, every time they do it, they are successful in achieving their goals. Insulting Muslim icons in Western media and the resulting outrage in the Muslim world is becoming a routine with...
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At least five people are dead, including a dedicated US diplomat who had risked his life during the Libyan revolution to stand with the people of Libya against the tyranny of Qaddafi. These people certainly did not deserve to die especially since they had nothing to do with the film produced by a producer...
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Last year when the case was being made to alter or abolish the blasphemy laws, the argument from the liberal and progressive minority of Pakistan was mobilized primarily to point out as to how the law could be misused to persecute minorities. At that point, the case of Asia Bibi was at the forefront...
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It seems that those who claim to police the sanctity of the majority religion in Pakistan are on a constant and unending witch hunt. Their victims, or targets, mostly always happen to be poor and destitute women from the Christian minority that already lives a perilous existence in our increasingly intolerant country. A few...
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Recently, Eid-ul-Fitr photo shoot was arranged under the auspices of Pakistaniaat’s Pakistan Bureau featuring Hakeemah Beenish Jamal, a renowned nutritionist; TV anchor & socialite and children. Eid-ul-Fitr is an Islamic festival that marks the completion of the Month of Ramadhan i.e., Islamic holy month during which Muslims fast. ‘Eid’ means festivity and ‘Fitr’ refers...
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The old shrine and its rustic environs looked the same when I last visited it in 2007. Pallid walls topped with a fading green dome and a tattered flag, a few trees around it laden more with ribbons than leaves. The ribbons were actually rags, reminders of wishes made. Few women from the nearby villages...
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Muslim Becoming: Aspiration and Skepticism in Pakistan By Naveeda Khan Duke University Press In Muslim Becoming, Naveeda Khan challenges the claim that Pakistan’s relation to Islam is fragmented and problematic. Offering a radically different interpretation, Khan contends that Pakistan inherited an aspirational, always-becoming Islam, one with an open future and a tendency toward experimentation....
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Recently, those who have been following the news may have noticed an increase of terrorist attacks and the general persecution of Shi’a Muslims, particularly within Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and recently Palestine together with less reported, but still significant, events in Indonesia and Malaysia, among other Sunni majority countries. In the case...
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Roots of Fundamentalism
The textbooks being used in Madrassas were originally written in Arabic centuries ago. The books on philosophy and logic were written in thirteen and fourteen centuries. Books on health and medicine, written in the eleventh century, are still considered relevant and books on religion were written between eleventh and seventeenth centuries. Early schooling builds...
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