by Afrah Jamal The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power By David E Sanger Harmony; Pp 472 Today, US Vice President Joe Biden believes that the US foreign policy is once again respected in the world. While the new face of this policy — composed of something old, something new and something borrowed — unveiled a year ago was a prelude to Obama’s uphill battle to regain the military/political high ground; the fallout from the old policy is the dominant theme here. The Inheritance is a dramatic playback of events that follows parallel timelines to … Continue reading Musings on US foreign policy

Farhat Taj The media in Pakistan is constantly promoting a one-sided view of Dr Aafia’s case. Nobody is expecting 100 percent objectivity from the media. But still one is surprised how some of the most important issues in this case have never been touched upon by the Pakistani media Pakistani neuroscientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui was convicted on February 4 by a US court for shooting at her US interrogators in Afghanistan. The jury gave a unanimous verdict on seven counts, including attempted murder and assault. A high profile campaign, run by pro-Taliban religious and political forces like the Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan … Continue reading Caravans and howling of stray animals

Mohammad Jamil The liberalisation of imports exposes local producers to subsidised foreign competition, but, on the other hand, the governments of developing countries are not allowed to grant subsidies to domestic producers by the IMF and WTO In 1989, Francis Fukuyama declared in his controversial treatise The End of History that capitalism and liberal democracy had won, communism had lost, and there would be no more ideological conflict in the world. But he ignored the ongoing war between the exploiters and the exploited. Secondly, his myopic vision could not visualise the rise of China as a superpower, whose leadership came … Continue reading Era of de-globalisation and protectionism

Nazish Brohi The 1958 conflict between the colonists and colonisers was referred to as the Battle of the Veil. The asymmetry of seeing without being seen was the essence of power, and the colonial desire was articulated as that to unveil Algeria I wonder how Michel Peyrard is reacting to the burqa ban controversy in his homeland. He was the French male journalist who entered Afghanistan wearing a burqa while the Taliban regime was in power. He was caught, because his accent gave him away. The Taliban, it seems, while averse to looking at women, were willing to listen to … Continue reading French Mullahs – Liberté unveiled

Salman Tarik Kureshi It is not just an issue of the rights of the judiciary or the president or parliament or any other state entity. Institutions have been emasculated and conventions have fallen into disrepair. All these had to be re-envisaged and put into place. There is a whole raft of serious constitutional distortions that needs to be untangled and reaffirmed Aging anglophiles will recall an outstanding BBC programme from the early 1960s called ‘That was the week that was’. Compèred by David Frost, ‘TW3’, as it was abbreviated, was an irreverent run through of the happenings of each week … Continue reading The week that was

IslamToday Last December 31, the Catholic Weekly Herald in Malaysia was given the constitutional right to use the word “Allah” to describe God among the Catholic congregation to the consternation of some of Malaysia’s Muslims who say it is exclusive to them. The court’s decision overturned a ban that had been in effect for 24 years. Some Malay politicians have insisted on exclusive rights for Malay Muslims, while some Muslim groups have argued that Christians using a word so closely associated with Islam could be a ploy to win converts. Other Muslim groups, such as the Islamic Party of Malaysia … Continue reading Malaysia’s Youngest Mufti: Get Rid of Banned Words for Non-Muslims

by Abdassamad Clarke WHO KILLED HIM? We did! We located Him and confined Him to the heavens, excluding Him from the earth. We dared to make images of Him. We gave the Ancient of Days a long grey beard and a human form. We cast His role as lying at the beginning of creation, with odd interventions here and there in history. We only conceded to Him “Acts of God” strange capricious disasters which insurance companies will not cover. We restricted His worship to drafty, old, stone buildings, one day out of seven. We gave Him Who has no form … Continue reading God Is Dead!