By Sadef A. Kully Dawn Irum Farooque speaks to juvenile prisoners during one of her weekly motivational classes at the Youthful Offenders Industrial School – Photo by Sadef A. Kully Media Gallery Prisoners of the mind Prisoners of the mind KARACHI: There is a huge difference between Irum Farooque and the inmates at the Youthful Offenders Industrial School, a juvenile prison in Karachi. But the difference ceases to matter when the message is to help the imprisoned youth. On a weekly basis, a confident Farooque walks into the juvenile prison with her best clothes on, her nails painted in bright … Continue reading Prisons the shackles of the mind

An exterior view of the mosque where Hafiz Saeed, leader of Jamaat-ud-Dawa preached every Friday, in Lahore, Pakistan. – AP Dawn LAHORE: Long-haired jihadis toting automatic weapons patrolled a mosque last week as the cleric who heads the militant network blamed for the Mumbai attacks preached inside. The group’s supporters collected funds in the courtyard and later marched through this eastern Pakistani city, calling for the death of those who insult Islam. Pakistan announced a ban on Jamaat-ud-Dawa – sealing the group’s offices, freezing assets and rounding up leaders – amid international outrage after the 2008 siege of the Indian … Continue reading Why Jamaat-ud-Dawa easily evades ban…

US London embassy trades Mayfair mansion for futuristic cube in Battersea http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7302771/US-London-embassy-trades-Mayfair-mansion-for-futuristic-cube-in-Battersea.html Continue reading US Embassy to be replaced with Borg cube in London!

The ‘Boneyard’: £22bn ‘military cemetery’ pictured in stunning Google Earth photos The world’s most expensive military cemetery, a £22.6 billion centre dubbed “The Boneyard”, has been pictured in a spectacular series of new high-resolution Google Earth satellite images. By Andrew Hough Telegraph Google Earth Image of the the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group Photo: BARCROFT The site is often called The Boneyard Photo: BARCROFT The ‘Boneyard’ is a 2,600-acre (4-square-mile) facility whose mission is the sustainment of U.S. and allied war planes Photo: BARCROFT Opening in 1946 the storage facility began as the final resting place for WWII B-29 … Continue reading £22bn ‘military cemetery’ pictured in stunning Google Earth photos

Dr Maleeha Lodhi The writer is a former envoy to the US and the UK, and a former editor of The News. Have the military operations in South Waziristan, other tribal areas and Swat helped to create a strategic moment in the country’s struggle against militants? Will 2010 be decisive in reversing the tide of militancy after a deadly year that saw a record number of terrorist attacks and killings? Has military action scattered the local Taliban or irrevocably weakened the movement? There are no easy answers to these questions in a fluid and fraught situation gravely affected by border … Continue reading Turning the tide of militancy

Newspapers may profess to hate the far right, but their narratives about race continue to shore up support for the party Sunny Hundal guardian.co.uk There was a brilliant column by Johann Hari a few years ago about his experience of appearing on a Sky News programme hosted by newspaper columnist Richard Littlejohn. Having admitted he didn’t know how much an asylum seeker got in benefits, Littlejohn screeched at Hari: “It’s people like you who help the BNP!” Now, you could be forgiven for thinking that the election of two MEPs would bring the BNP under closer scrutiny since last year. … Continue reading How the media helps the BNP and other Extremists

With blatant disregard for the first amendment, Republicans’ intolerance of US secularism means things are turning ugly Dan Kennedy guardian.co.uk If you’re part of secular America – that is, if you’re an atheist, an agnostic, a religious liberal or even a mainstream believer who thinks religion should be kept out of politics and vice-versa – then you should be very afraid of what the Republican party has in store for you in 2012. No news there, you might say. The Republicans, as we all know, have been in thrall to the Christian right since the Reagan era. But there’s something … Continue reading Christian Mullahism v Secular America

Shocking film footage has emerged showing how riot police brutally suppressed protesting Tehran University students Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk Last night the BBC Persian service broadcast for the first time a very disturbing video of the attack by the Basij militia and riot police on Tehran University’s campus just two days after the stolen election last June. The attack was one of the seminal events of Iran’s post-election unrest in which the police broke locks and then bones as they rampaged through the dormitories, carted off more than 100 students and killed five. The following day I went to Tehran … Continue reading The truth about Iran’s campus attack

Muslim teachings have a lot to offer when it comes to bringing personal values into public life and how best to live together Tariq Ramadan guardian.co.uk Let us agree on this: we live in pluralistic societies and pluralism is an unavoidable fact. We are equal citizens, but with different cultural and religious backgrounds. So, how can we, instead of being obsessed with potential “conflicts of identity” within communities, change that viewpoint to define and promote a common ethical framework, nurtured by the richness of diverse religious and cultural backgrounds? After all, a pluralistic society needs a strong and effective ethics … Continue reading Islam’s role in an ethical society

Photos: AP Are these men both ‘terrorists’? Joseph Stack (L) and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (R). A running NEWSWEEK debate about why and when we decide to call attacks on our country by the loaded word “terrorism.” Newsweek Late last week, NEWSWEEK staffers debated over email about the “terrorist” label. The discourse went well over three days. Should Joseph Stack be labeled a terrorist? Who decides? Can we, as journalists, apply the label equally to the likes of Stack, the Unabomber, Al Qaeda, Timothy McVeigh or anyone who plans to kill, injure or plan some kind of destruction of government property … Continue reading Should Joseph Stack Be Called a Terrorist?