US study downplays Pakistan madrassa threat dawn.com A Madrassa in Swabi District, Pakistan. – AFP (File Photo) WASHINGTON: Pakistan desperately needs more schools to curb extremism but madrassas – the Islamic seminaries that have struck fear in the West – are not the main problem, a US study said Wednesday. The Brookings Institution, a think-tank, estimated that fewer than 10 per cent of Pakistani students attended madrassas and said the number of such “militant seminaries” was not increasing. Rebecca Winthrop, a Brookings fellow and co-author of the report, said more Pakistani parents preferred not sending children to school at all … Continue reading Madrassas a threat to the West or Muslims?

This is Radio Conspiracy FM-70 … by Nadeem F. Paracha dawn.com Hello this is Radio Conspiracy FM-70 and I’m your host and RJ, Ali Azmat. Today in the studios we have with us Pakistan’s leading DJ and rock star from the band Conquering Israel, Ghalat Hussain, hello Ghalat … Hello. You’re bleeding. Yes, I am. Maria B. said the colour red goes well with my wild shining bald. Who beat you up?  The cops? No, no, I beat myself up. A bleeding forehead looks very dramatic on TV. But we’re not on TV. We’re not? No. We’re on radio. Damn! … Continue reading Pakistani Mullahs on The Moon by 2012!

Order to block nine websites with blasphemous material dawn.com People shout slogans and wave placards as they protest against Facebook in Lahore on May 26, 2010. — AFP Pakistan LHC hints at banning nine websites LHC hints at banning nine websites LAHORE: A Pakistani court has ordered the authorities to block access to nine websites including Google, Yahoo and YouTube for allegedly offending Muslims with blasphemous material. Judge Mazhar Iqbal ordered Pakistan’s Telecommunications Authority to block the websites due to “material against the fundamental principals of Islam and its preaching,” according to a copy of the judgement obtained by AFP. … Continue reading Order to block nine websites – playing for Mullahs or Islam?

BOOK REVIEW: A mammoth venture —by Dr Amjad Parvez Heer Damodar (4 volumes) By Muzaffar A Ghaffar Ferozesons (Pvt) Ltd; Pp 427 (each volume); Rs 3,995 The publishers of the four volume-set, Heer Damodar, written by Muzaffar A Ghaffar, claim that the Within Reach series of the master works of Punjabi Sufi poetry is an attempt to bring the outstanding verses of major Punjabi Sufi poets to an English reading public. The latest in this series is based on the story of Heer Ranjha. Muzaffar says that the origin of this tale is uncertain. Though references to Heer are found … Continue reading Heer Damodar

PENSIEVE: A Pakistani dream —Farrukh Khan Pitafi Let us think of a future where there is no fear of implosion, where even the poorest of the poor live above the line of basic subsistence. And where merit is rewarded open-heartedly and those with limited capacities are helped to reach their maximum potential With so much going on in Islamabad, one is often seized by the mad desire to bring one’s own paradigm to the table. I most certainly have dreams for a Pakistan that our children will inherit from us. And then, of course, there is the sad reality of … Continue reading A Pakistani dream

VIEW: Central Asia’s identity crisis —Dr Azmat Hayat Khan Russia views Central Asia as its backyard, but it has no interest in cleaning up this particular bit of it. Moscow is not enthused that the provisional government in Kyrgyzstan, for all its many failings, talks of building a multiparty democracy Until the Soviet period, Central Asia had never been possessed by Czarist Russia. The various states and entities of the region had long consisted of loose and shifting alliances of tribal groupings. The names attached to them did not represent nations but rather were drawn from several key tribal designations … Continue reading Central Asia’s identity crisis

COMMENT: Af-Pak: a flurry of reports —Dr Mohammad Taqi The lack of attention to a population-centric counter-insurgency approach is not because of lack of capability but flows directly from the Pakistani security establishment’s policy to preserve and promote its jihadist assets Just when the Pakistani sleuths and their media cohorts were attempting to trash the London School of Economics (LSE) report on the former’s nexus with the jihadists, the RAND Corporation’s National Security and Research Division published its monograph ‘Counter-insurgency in Pakistan’, last week. The 209-page work, authored by Seth Jones and Christine Fair, concludes that Pakistan’s record against the … Continue reading Af-Pak: a flurry of reports