COMMENT: Ban the internet? —Dr Syed Mansoor Hussain Censorship of any means of communication rarely works and often has the opposite effect from the one intended. It only helps to tweak the interest of people in the censored piece of information Evidently, a divisional bench of the Lahore High Court ordered many major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and search engines including Google, Yahoo, MSN and a slew of others closed down in Pakistan. The reason of course being that it was possible to access ‘blasphemous’ sites through these search engines. Before I go any further I do have a few … Continue reading Ban the internet? or Ban the mullah?

COMMENT: Indo-Pak dialogue: undertones and ramifications —Shahzad Chaudhry Pakistan must stay the course against terrorism and its deadly manifestations along its own timeline as per the dictates of its own priority list McChrystal’s sacking was dramatic and carried that underlying sensitivity to the Pakistani sentiment of seeing civilian superiority assert itself over the military — something the Pakistani political system has not yet been able to establish with any assurance. It was an operationally wrong move to sack McChrystal. While principle trumped operational sense — this may be the only redemption for the US political cause — US policy will … Continue reading Indo-Pak dialogue: undertones and ramifications

dawn.com Lebanese male-to-female transsexual Randa, a pioneer of the Arab world’s underground transgender movement who has released her memoirs, recounting her struggle to become a woman against all odds, in a daring, unprecedented move in the region, poses for a picture at her office in Beirut on May 18, 2010. – AFP National Eunuchs seek ‘ special person’ tag Eunuchs seek ‘ special person’ tag BEIRUT: In a daring, unprecedented move, a pioneer of the Arab world’s underground transgender movement has released her memoirs, recounting her struggle to become a woman against all odds. “Mouzakarat Randa al-Trans”, or “The Memoirs … Continue reading Transsexual’s memoirs breaks new ground in Arab world

Who Are the English Defence League? And Are They Fascist? Ben Gidley In the last thirteen months, a totally new political phenomenon has taken to the political stage in the UK. The English Defence League (EDL), along with its offshoots in Wales and Scotland (the Welsh and Scottish Defence Leagues) appeared in the spring of 2009. Its marches mobilize thousands of people but it has no clear agenda, apart from disliking Islam and defiant patriotism. Despite the completely novel nature of the EDL, its opponents have little trouble in understanding it through the prism of the longer standing and more … Continue reading Who Are the English Defence League?

The Apostate Temptation By Mark Silk on June 25, 2010 (from http://www.spiritual-politics.org ) On June 29, 1106, a Jewish intellectual named Moses Sephardi had himself baptized into the Catholic church in Huesca, Spain. Taking the name Peter Alfonsi, he went on to achieve fame throughout Christian Europe as an astronomer and author. In his Dialogues against the Jews, he presents his present self arguing against his former self in the most important anti-Jewish polemic of its era. Just as Peter Abelard (at just the same time) established the Western model of the Parisian celebrity philosopher, so Peter Alfonsi established the … Continue reading Sexy Apostates or Simple Twits?

History is Powerful Why the Christian Right Distorts History and Why it Matters By Frederick Clarkson The Public Eye Magazine The notion that America was founded as a Christian nation is a central animating element of the ideology of the Christian Right. It touches every aspect of life and culture in this, one of the most successful and powerful political movements in American history. The idea that America’s supposed Christian identity has somehow been wrongly taken, and must somehow be restored, permeates the psychology and vision of the entire movement. No understanding of the Christian Right is remotely adequate without … Continue reading Christian Right Distorts History and Why it Matters to all of us

Why ‘Toy Story 3’ plays with men’s emotions Across America, Toy Story 3 is moving grown men to tears.Tom Teodorczuk wonders what all the fuss is about By Tom Teodorczuk telegraph.co.uk Toy Story 3: ‘We have come to love and care about Woody, Buzz and the rest of the toys’ The scene is surreal even by the standards of New York, where characters are located on every street corner. In the midst of a stampede of children exiting a Manhattan cinema as the credits roll on Toy Story 3, grown men stagger out of the auditorium wiping tears from behind … Continue reading Toy Story 3 is messing guys up!

by Faria Syed Vinod Masani, owner of the boat Kasab hijacked suggested that he be hanged at national monument, Dehliâ��s India Gate. PHOTO: AFP According to an AFP report two Pakistanis are to be executed for drug smuggling in Yemen. Their  trial began in December last year and is likely to end in front of a firing squad.  Ajmal Kasab, bad guy extraordinaire, is another Pakistani waiting for justice through death. He has appealed the  sentence. Mujahid Abdullah, Abdul Hai and Saleem Zaman, three men found guilty of involvement in an attack on a police check-post in Mianwali that claimed the lives eight … Continue reading Would you kill a killer?

By Syed Talat Hussain The writer is executive director news and current affairs at Aaj TV (syed.talat@tribune.com.pk). If someone with no sense of geography and national politics had landed in Pakistan the day after Stanley McChrystal lost his job he would have surely thought that perhaps a Pakistani general, and not US and Nato forces commander in Afghanistan, had been sacked for insubordination. Such deep interest among the top decision-makers in Islamabad about the sorry fate of the man leading counter-insurgency in Afghanistan goes far beyond a legitimate anxiety about the impact of his removal on the nature and direction … Continue reading McChrystalisation of national policy

By Fawad Shah Around 20 would-be militants have left Karachi for training KARACHI: “Congratulations, your son has embraced Shahdat” the parents of a young militant were told by an unknown caller about a month ago. They are the parents of a young man, Ejaz, who was killed in Nakhtaroghar area of Orakzai agency when security forces shelled a training camp there. They had received confirmation about their son’s death from none other than the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The couple, who lives in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, said that they received a call from an unknown person. “We did not tell him to become … Continue reading All aboard the militants’ train