Viewing the Islam Channel critically We have a duty to hold to account broadcasters such as the Islam Channel that spread reactionary, intolerant messages Maajid Nawaz guardian.co.uk For the last seven years, since its launch in 2004, the London-based Islam Channel has been a hugely influential in the British Muslim community, where it has played a pivotal role in the development of a British Islam. Every night, thousands of British Muslims, many of them young, tune into the channel to watch programmes dealing with news, current affairs and religion from a distinctly Islamic angle. In addition, every few years, the … Continue reading Are we viewing the Islam Channel critically?

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke of a “new day” in relations with Pakistan, praising security cooperation that has included the arrest of key Afghan Taliban leader. — Photo by AFP dawn.com WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s foreign minister declared himself a “happy” man after high-level talks in Washington this week aimed at reversing tempestuous ties between the two allies. Despite his optimism, tensions persist from security cooperation to how aid is spent, but winning over a strongly skeptical Pakistani public may be the toughest task. Opinion polls show less than one in five Pakistanis view the United States favourably despite a … Continue reading In Pakistan, money alone can’t buy US love

By Kamran Shafi dawn.com It is wrong to think that all it will take for the Taliban to stop their attacks on Pakistan is the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. –Photo by Reuters And by golly are they in a raging fire, no matter what anyone says. So let us say it straight. Rather than cursing the Americans for being in Afghanistan and making us fight the war against terror, we should be grateful that they forced the Pakistani establishment, at that time under the command of the Commando, to turn on its own creation. To prove the point … Continue reading The chestnuts are our own

Still, the arrests in Pakistan have sown nervousness among Taliban leaders. The arrests appear to represent a significant shift in tactics by Pakistani security officials, who have allowed Taliban leaders to operate freely in their country for years. The Pakistani military and intelligence services helped create the Taliban in the mid-1990s, and elements of their security services have maintained a shadowy relationship with the group ever since. – Photo on File dawn.com KABUL:  The Taliban’s supreme leader has replaced his top deputy with a young but hardened fighter, an indication of the Taliban’s determination to push ahead with its insurgency, … Continue reading New leader indicates Taliban’s determination

By Rafia Zakaria dawn.com Special envoy Richard Holbrooke’s recalibration of how aid to Pakistan is utilised is commendable. –Photo by APP Last year, after the United States Congress passed the Kerry-Lugar Bill, and after a series of visits to the region, special envoy Richard Holbrooke, who personally signs every contract concerning projects in Pakistan, began doing something markedly different. In a massive overhaul of the aid regime that grants money to development projects, Holbrooke began rejecting all projects that used American contractors with the directive that aid projects in Pakistan should use Pakistani contractors and organisations. This move is likely … Continue reading Aid without USAID

The phoenix flops Posted by Nadeem F. Paracha For months the Zaid Hamid brigade had been congesting cyber space and the two TV channels that the haughty ideological quack is a regular fixture on, with promises of holding a ‘massive gathering of youth’ at the Minar-e-Pakistan on this year’s Pakistan Day (23rd March). However, the no-show by Zaid and his fans at the Minar-e-Pakistan suggests the long honeymoon Mr. Hamid had been enjoying may be as good as over. He simply failed to reach the Minar-e-Pakistan, not because he had a massive body of passionate young men with him chanting … Continue reading The phoenix flops?

Beyond Bhagat Singh’s headgear By Jawed Naqvi dawn.com Far more integral to an honest discourse on Bhagat Singh is not what his preferred headgear was but the request he had made in a bone-chilling last letter to the British governor of Punjab about what his choice was in the method of his own execution. He desired to be shot like a soldier and not hanged as a criminal. South Asians in particular revel in starting debates that miss the point. It was the revolutionary icon Bhagat Singh’s birth anniversary on Tuesday. It triggered a well-meaning discussion but one which was … Continue reading Beyond Bhagat Singh’s headgear and supposed religion

Drastic cut in visas By Kuldip Nayar dawn.com Recent talks between India and Pakistan’s foreign secretaries have shown that they have no will to normalise ties. — Photo by AFP India and Pakistan are growing more and more distant from each other. They have never been normal neighbours, but after the attack on Mumbai in November 2008, both are intentionally moving apart. Recent talks between the foreign secretaries of the two countries, more because of international pressure, have shown that they have no will to normalise ties. What has suffered most in the process is people-to-people contact. New Delhi and … Continue reading Drastic cut in visas is not going to help people on both sides to connect

Turning a new page By Ayesha Siddiqa dawn.com Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Quershi addressing the US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue in Washington. –Photo by APP That Pakistan needs an alternative vision and leadership is beyond doubt. Any forward movement will depend on our national ability to recreate ourselves in our own eyes before we can have an impact on how people think about us or what they are willing to offer. Such were my thoughts as I stood in the company of some 300 Pakistani expatriates at the US State Department. We were all there at a reception during the US-Pakistan strategic … Continue reading Turning a new page in US Pakistan relations?

Posted by Amber Rahim Shamsi dawn.com A colleague of mine used to extinguish his cigarettes in his tea. His favourite Indian actor was Sunil Shetty, and he once wrote the first four pages of a proposed Mills and Boons romance between an Afghan girl and an American soldier. So while we took his editorials seriously, it was a little hard to digest his rants about food. “I wish they’d invent a pill so we wouldn’t have to eat food,” he once said as he scooped up his daal fry with a huge, palm-sized cone of roti. Or, before an editorial … Continue reading Royal Vegetables