As elsewhere in the public sector, the problem is not just boom-to-bust funding – it’s that cuts are in all the wrong places Sheila Lawlor guardian.co.uk The row over university cuts does no credit to the government, nor to those universities that have been panicked into destroying the only thing they have to offer – academic teaching. Lord Mandelson has announced cuts of 5%. They come on top of earlier cuts. But the problem is not just less money. The government seems set on attacking the academic subjects in the humanities while promoting its agenda for “access”. If those in … Continue reading Labour’s dumb university cuts

I found myself named on a website’s ‘shit list’, which lists thousands of ‘self-hating and/or Israel-threatening’ Jews Yigal Bronner guardian.co.uk Funny, but only recently it was brought to my attention that I am listed in the Jewish “Shit List” (where “Shit” stands for Self-Hating and/or Israel-Threatening), by some wacky rightwing organisation (masada2000.org). I clicked on the site and found myself perversely fascinated by the world I entered. What struck first me was the size of the list. There are thousands and thousands of us self-haters and threat-posers. Israel must be in great and imminent danger. The main criterion for being … Continue reading Antisemitism without bounds

By Peter Allen The architect of France’s burka ban has been forced to deny claims he will convert to Islam to marry his secret Muslim girlfriend. Eric Besson, the country’s 51-year-old immigration minister, has admitted the relationship with Yasmine Tordjman, a Paris art student less than half his age. But the hardline conservative threatened legal action when a website suggested the pair, who have set up home together, might marry, which under Islamic law means he would have to convert. Enlarge   Setting up home: French Immigration Minister Eric Besson with his young Muslim girlfriend Yasmine Tordjman at the France … Continue reading French burka ban minister denies planning to convert to marry secret Muslim lover

By Beth Hale A Hindu grandfather has won the right to be cremated on a traditional open-air funeral pyre in Britain. Davender Ghai, 71, believes such a cremation is essential to the liberation of his soul after death. His local authority and the Ministry of Justice said the ancient practice of ‘natural cremation’ breached the 1902 Cremation Act, but the Court of Appeal ruled Mr Ghai’s request could be accommodated under existing laws. Joy: Davender Ghai salutes his court success as he’s raised aloft by friends and family Yesterday’s landmark ruling means thousands of Hindus, Sikhs and anyone else wanting … Continue reading British Grandfather wins ‘human right’ to be cremated on open-air funeral pyre

Zubair Torwali The Pashtun living on either side of the Durand Line are bearing the brunt of both terrorism and counter-terrorism. They have suffered because of the “jihad” against the former USSR. They have suffered also because they fulfil a government’s need for “strategic depth.” Now it is mostly the so-called war on terror. In this violent game the major players never bothered about the people whom they used in the furtherance of their regional agendas. What happened in the region, and what is happening in it now, is the result of the sharply conflicting agendas of the major players … Continue reading Grievances

Yusuf H Shirazi The “Aman ki Asha” initiative of the Jang Group and the Times of India group is indeed laudable. It is a step in the right direction. The people of India and Pakistan have long aspired for peace. However, the realisation of this ‘Asha’ is not possible without the two governments sharing. Peace, and thus the welfare for the people of the subcontinent, lies in political, economic and social harmony between the two countries. Whichever way one may wish to interpret the history of the two countries’ independence, in the present situation it is only political, economic and … Continue reading A laudable initiative

Ikram Sehgal Insurgency and terrorism having become endemic in Pakistan. The mixed success in developing an inherent capacity to counter both is surprising. We have to deal with two insurgencies, one feeding the Taliban in Afghanistan, the other directed towards terrorism within Pakistan and the world in general. Cocooned comfortably since 2002 in South Waziristan Agency by an inner core of Chechens, Arabs, Uzbeks, etc., settled here from the early 1990s, the Al-Qaeda hierarchy was holed up here since 2002, protected by an outer core of Mahsud tribal mercenaries, short on ideology but long on media hype, with cash fuelling … Continue reading Countering insurgency and terrorism

Thanks: Hamza Alavi Internet Archive Religious fundamentalism has become a powerful and dangerous force in Pakistan, due mainly to the opportunism of successive political leadership that has pandered to it. Militant sectarian religious groups and parties, led by half-educated and bigoted mullahs,many of them armed to the teeth, are holding our civil society and the state to ransom. They threaten the very fabric of Pakistan society. Threats of disruption from religious parties have escalated in recent decades. They have steadily grown in strength since the time of General Zia. They now claim that they are thet rue custodians of Pakistan … Continue reading The Rise of Religious Fundamentalism in Pakistan

Farrukh Khan Pitafi I have come across people who think that the Taliban have a better idea of our faith and should be proclaimed our saviours even when they kill us. And then there are those who think that the American predator attacks are a pretty neat idea and hence should be welcomed “The truth will set you free,” says Jesus in John 8:32. That is true. But truth is often presented as a thing ridiculously simple; something that is indivisible or that which is easily attainable. Yet such a perspective precludes the possibility of half-truths. Then where does the … Continue reading It’s complicated