dawn.com Investigators claim that the former major provided logistical support to unspecified Taliban and other fighters. — Photo by AP World Afghan troops fear life after foreign pullout INSTABILITY Afghan troops fear life after foreign pullout LAHORE: A former major who trained fighters for war in Afghanistan and occupied Kashmir keeps cropping up in terrorism investigations in Pakistan. But police say the grey-haired grandfather is shielded by his links to the army and powerful intelligence agencies. The case of Ahsanul Haq shines a light on a murky side of the militancy infecting the country: the extent to which retired members … Continue reading Ex-major’s loyalties embody jihad woes

Attitude risks creating extremism, watchdog warns amid scepticism over claims of forced conversion to Islam Alan Travis, home affairs editor The Guardian, Tuesday 8 June 2010 Article history Brixton prison. Photograph: Martin GodwinThe blanket treatment by staff of the 10,300 Muslim prisoners in England and Wales as potential terrorists risks creating young men ready to embrace extremism on their release, the chief inspector of prisons warns today. Dame Anne Owers says the treatment of the rapidly growing population of Muslim prisoners as potential or actual extremists is prevalent throughout the prison system despite the fact that fewer than 1% are … Continue reading Muslim prisoners ‘treated as potential terrorists’

The Christian Fascists Are Growing Stronger Monday 07 June 2010 by: Chris Hedges  |  Truthdig (Photo: matthileo) Tens of millions of Americans, lumped into a diffuse and fractious movement known as the Christian right, have begun to dismantle the intellectual and scientific rigor of the Enlightenment. They are creating a theocratic state based on “biblical law,” and shutting out all those they define as the enemy. This movement, veering closer and closer to traditional fascism, seeks to force a recalcitrant world to submit before an imperial America. It champions the eradication of social deviants, beginning with homosexuals, and moving on to immigrants, … Continue reading US Christian Taliban – Growing Stronger

The virtual conspiracy of silence after the murder of 94 Ahmadis in Pakistan exposes the oppression suffered by the sect Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 June 2010 14.59 BST Article history Candles were lit by members of a civil society for victims of the attack on the Ahmadi sect in Lahore. Photograph: KM Chaudary/API often find myself defending Pakistan against the unbidden prejudices of the outside world. No, Islam is not the cause of terrorism. Yes, the Taliban is a complex phenomenon. No, Imran Khan is not a major political figure. This past week, though, I am silent. The massacre … Continue reading Ahmadi massacre silence is dispiriting

Ted Haggard: new man or same old charlatan? Hope and suspicion surround the religious rebirth of Ted Haggard and the unveiling of his ‘gay-friendly’ ministry Candace Chellew-Hodge guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 June 2010 13.19 BST Article history Ted Haggard, with his wife Gayle at his side, discusses their new church. Photograph: Ed Andrieski/APWhen I learned of Ted Haggard’s new church I experienced two conflicting emotions. I was at once immediately suspicious, but also strangely filled with hope and compassion. Haggard, the one-time president of the National Association of Evangelicals who fell from grace in 2006 after a sex-and-drugs scandal with a … Continue reading Ted Haggard: same old charlatan?

By Hajrah Mumtaz dawn.com Whether your leanings are towards the left or the right, if you’re a rational person in any way this will have set you shuddering. It’s awful, chilling and frightening. It is also hate speech, incitement to murder and violence, possibly conspiracy to commit crime (murder) and many other things viewed as criminal under the laws of the land. – Photo on file The ironies we witness every day in Pakistan would have us shaking our heads were it not for the fact that they usually provoke such deep visceral dread. Take the furore over the recent … Continue reading Pity the nation

By Jawed Naqvi dawn.com Why have we become so casual with facts? Or perhaps more worryingly, why do the media more and more lean on the side of the mob when they are not busy creating one with tendentious froth whipped up in the name of journalism? – Reuters Photo A young British woman joined our newspaper as a reporter in Dubai. It was her first job as a journalist, but on pressure from the local owners the editor assigned her the sensitive crime beat. In one of her first stories, she came back with the following copy: “Two Asian … Continue reading Why have journalists stopped saying alleged, feared, suspected?

What if Mousavi had won in Iran? A year after Iran’s rigged presidential election, the Islamic Republic is in greater disarray than ever Masoud Shafaee guardian.co.uk, Sunday 6 June 2010 13.00 BST Article history At the beginning of June last year, a thaw in Iranian-American relations looked increasingly likely. President Obama had been inaugurated less than five months earlier, promising the leaders of the Islamic Republic that America would “extend” its hand if the Iranians were willing to “unclench” their fists. Having been vilified as part of an “axis of evil” by the Bush administration, the Iranian leadership suddenly faced … Continue reading If Mousavi won in Iran?

Gay equality can’t yet be claimed a western value, but it is a human right The far right’s use of homophobia as a stick with which to beat Islam is symptomatic of a broader confusion Gary Younge The Guardian, Monday 7 June 2010 Article history In a brilliant exposé the Guardian reported how a lone man held up a pink triangle at a demonstration of the English Defence League – one of the most openly anti-immigrant and Islamophobic organisations in the country. When the reporter asked him what it was for he replied nervously: “This is the symbol gay people … Continue reading Using Gays to attack Muslims

Let’s be honest about placebo Rather than dismissing treatments that use placebo as hocus pocus, we should learn what we can from this powerful effect Ed Halliwell guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 June 2010 11.00 BST Though it’s rarely treated as a religious issue, the alternative medicine debate has a lot in common with the God versus science wrangle. Just as religious belief is scoffed at by atheists, so “traditional healer” services, while providing comfort and relief for many, are prone to come into collision with rationalist claims that they’re based on fantastical faith-based premises, that they prey on the delusions of … Continue reading Lets have honest talk about placebo!