Still shying away from condemning suicide bombings By Nasir Jamal dawn.com Supporters of Sunni Tehreek wave sticks while chanting slogans against clashes between Ahle Sunnat and Deobandi sects in Faisalabad March 1, 2010. The clashes between the two groups on February 27 left dozens of vehicles, motor bikes and buildings damaged in the city. – Photo by Reuters. Editorial No condemnation No condemnation LAHORE: The Deobandi leadership in the country has for the moment refused to give a consensual nod of disapproval to suicide attacks and other acts of militancy — despite efforts by some members to reconcile the school … Continue reading Are all Mullahs Terrorists?

Islam and Judiasm Influences Contrasts and Parallels by David Steinberg david@adath-shalom.ca Home page http://www.houseofdavid.ca/ 1. Israelite-Jewish Relations with the Arabs 2. Judaism and Islam – Influences and parallels 3. Theological Idiom – Toward the Future 1. Israelite-Jewish Relations with the Arabs From the earliest times, Israelite relations with the Arabs have been extensive but mainly limited to commerce and not generally acrimonious.  Typical is the first recorded interaction when Ishmaelites traders purchased Joseph from his brothers (Gen. 37:25-28).  These Ishmaelites were playing an unwitting part in God’s grand design to send the Israelites to Egypt.  Of course, from their point … Continue reading Mullahs and Rabbis – Time for enforced Civil Partnerships?

Negative penis personalities are the sources of penis weakness. These personalities are to be avoided at all costs. If you find that these descriptions describe your personality and character, then overcoming these traits should be the highest priority in your quest toward the full expression of your penis power. THE PAMPERED PENIS PERSONALITY THE PARANOID PENIS PERSONALITY The Paranoid Penis Personality is suspicious that if someone is willing to go to bed with him they must have ulterior motives. “What do they really want?” he wonders. If he can get over that hurdle, he will worry about whatever else it … Continue reading Negative penis personalities are the sources of penis weakness.

Aijaz Zaka Syed Allama Iqbal, one of the tallest poets and philosophers Asia has produced, had been endlessly fascinated by the rise and fall of the Muslims. He had been preoccupied with the issue in both his Urdu and Persian poetry collections, both incredibly rich in their range and language. When it comes to the breadth of vision, foresight and grandeur of ideas and thought, no one comes close to the man claimed by both India and Pakistan. The much exploited Saare jahan se achcha Hindustan hamara is just one gem from his repertoire. I have been constantly reminded of … Continue reading A love affair with Arabia

Michael Krepon In the 1950s, when the Soviet Union and the United States were regularly conducting atmospheric nuclear tests and spreading radioactive debris, India took the lead in seeking to end testing and promote nuclear disarmament. New Delhi still talks about nuclear disarmament, but India’s influence has waned on such topics because it is caught betwixt and between: India still has the potential to command moral authority, but this is very hard to do as an outlier from global nuclear compacts.  
Contemporary advocates of nuclear abolition and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty owe a considerable debt to Jawaharlal Nehru and … Continue reading India’s got a finger on the button

Suicide Terrorism, an Islamic Phenomenon? Is this the only image of suicide terrorism? Resident “Islam expert” Robert Spencer is at it again, using his skills of obfuscation to smear Islam. In a recent post, he claims “suicide for jihad” is nothing new in Islam: Actually the idea of suicide in the cause of jihad is no innovation. It is founded upon Qur’an 9:111, which guarantees Paradise to those who “kill and are killed” for Allah. It is a phenomenon that is actually found throughout Islamic history, and is not new. In the 18th century John Paul Jones wrote about Ottoman … Continue reading Suicide Terrorism – is it really by just Muslims?

A little bit of religious bigotry is tolerable in a healthy society The new secular orthodoxy comes laden with threats to traditional religious beliefs and freedoms Henry Porter The Observer The first thing you want to ask about Gary McFarlane, the man who lost his case against unfair dismissal from Relate because he refused to counsel gay couples, is whether a fundamentalist Christian heterosexual with strongly held views about homosexuality was necessarily the best person to give advice on gay sex. The second is why it didn’t occur to McFarlane before he signed up with Relate, which advertises courses on … Continue reading Is religious bigotry is tolerable in a healthy society?

Smokers’ Corner: ‘Concerned’ journalism By Nadeem F. Paracha dawn.com What to say of an electronic media some of whose channels, for example, decided to place the cosmetic Shoaib-Sania saga at the top of their main 9:00pm news bulletins on the day the 18th Amendment was passed by the National Assembly and a terrible suicide bomb attack that ripped across a crowded area in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Last week I visited one of Karachi’s sprawling (and impoverished) areas. I went there at the invitation of an old college friend who still lives there. Both of us were members of a progressive student … Continue reading Zardari and the media

Beyond beauty By Huma Yusuf dawn.com Unfortunately, Fatima Bhutto is not the first Pakistani woman who has braved the public sphere on the might of her brains, only to be judged on the basis of her beauty. Far from the firestorm in Pakistan, Fatima Bhutto is currently launching her controversial memoir, Songs of Blood and Sword, in London. A recent launch event at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts was well attended by Pakistani expatriates, attired in their designer best and armed with fierce opinions about the Bhutto family. For the most part, that is. At the post-launch … Continue reading Fatima Bhutto

Not the voice of the creator By Ardeshir Cowasjee dawn.com Jinnah’s Pakistan has virtually ceased to exist, but there are still some who hope it has not yet been interred for ever. We inhabit a land where death no longer diminishes us, where those that hand it out do so with impunity, with no fear or trepidation. Day after dreary day it goes on — a professor, a woman, shot and killed in a rickshaw in Quetta, four policemen blown up in Peshawar, five ‘activists’ shot dead in Karachi, and more, much more. This land has a helmsman of little … Continue reading Idolism of the Mullah makes Pakistanis forget about Allah