Hijab-wearing women rock! Why hijab-wearing Muslim women have a real affinity for hard rock Remona Aly guardian.co.uk Hijab-weariing rock fan Remona Aly. God gave rock’n’roll to you! So US rock band Kiss chanted in the early 90s, a cover of the original song by British group Argent. My relationship with this “divine” gift started early. At 12, I riffled through my brother’s vinyl collection and emerged a fan of U2, Faith No More and Led Zeppelin. Recently, aged 31, I set out in my coolest headscarf to see the best live band in the world: Muse, on their Resistance Tour. … Continue reading Hijab-wearing Rock Fanatics

Facebook: the election’s town square Are you thinking what your friends are thinking? Social networking looks set to be an interesting influence on voters Alan Finlayson guardian.co.uk What might be the impact of social networking on the general election? Party political communications officers are sure it will be significant. Steve Grove from YouTube has been to parliament to urge parties to use his site. And Mumsnet is the site of the newest key election battlefield. All of this promises to cause us much pain. If party election broadcasts are inexplicably poor on television why would they be any better on … Continue reading Facebook due to be used by ass-kissing UK politicians?

We have let Obama down When Obama came into office with a mandate for change, the left sat back and waited. Instead, we should have mobilised Clancy Sigal guardian.co.uk When Barack Obama became US president, the left should have mobilised. Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images Both Barack Obama and I are Chicago boys, schooled in the tough-minded, arm-twisting don’t-mess-with-me attitude of crushing rather than compromising with your unforgiving enemies. We are both products of machine politics, I from the west side’s “rotten borough” 24th ward loyally turning out Democratic party majorities of almost, and sometimes exceeding, 100% (“Vote early, vote often!”), … Continue reading When Obama came into office with a mandate for change, the left sat back and waited.

Mandarins in the margins Peter Preston guardian.co.uk You can make it sound very grand indeed. A great department of government with 4,062 chunks of real estate worth £1.6bn spanning 279 countries around the globe. You can also make it seem rather puny. A core budget this year of only £830m – some 0.4% of what our nation spends, and less than a 12th of what Goldman Sachs gives away in bonuses; a budget, moreover, that now rises and falls with sterling. But let’s ask the question that underpins everything. What is our Foreign Office for? What does it actually do? … Continue reading The advice of worldly, well-educated Foreign Office diplomats is simply being ignored

The state has lost its authority to challenge the semi-literate maulvis who do more harm than good.—Photo by AP As the residents of a village near Kasur have demonstrated — with fatal consequences — there is little that is as explosive as anger ignited by religious passions. In yet another incident of a frenzied mob out to punish alleged blasphemy, a young man was beaten to death after his father reportedly claimed that he was the last prophet of Islam. The alleged blasphemer — an illiterate brick-kiln worker-turned-faith healer — is in police custody and other members of his family … Continue reading Blasphemy allegations – the life blood of Takfiri Mullahs

Margaret Fuller It should be remarked that, as the principle of liberty is better understood, and more nobly interpreted, a broader protest is made in behalf of woman. As men become aware that few men have had a fair chance, they are inclined to say that no women have had a fair chance. The French Revolution, that strangely disguised angel, bore witness in favour of woman, but interpreted her claims no less ignorantly than those of man. Its ideas of happiness did not rise beyond outward enjoyment, unobstructed by the tyranny of others. Man, born to purify and animate the … Continue reading Of women and slaves

Bilal Abbas Extremism breeds terrorism. Due to General Ziaul Haq’s Islamisation drive in the 1980s, Pakistan has no dearth of radicals. Problems of poverty, illiteracy, lack of swift justice, and unemployment, among others, serve the purpose of the Taliban when recruiting foot soldiers Today, Pakistan finds itself at the centre of the global war on terror. The US government believes that Pakistan is the primary place from where terrorism against the West will emanate as the leadership of al Qaeda is allegedly hiding here. It was in 2007, more specifically after the mishandled Lal Masjid operation, that Pakistan went deep … Continue reading Light at the end of the tunnel — breaking the backs of Takfiri Mullahs

Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur Here mobsters like Tipu Truckanwala and Abdul Rehman Dakait have funeral gatherings of thousands where their virtues are extolled while the ignored eminent educationists, intellectuals and journalists have very few people to mourn them The chaos, anarchy, corruption, ineptitude, misrule, mess, buffoonery and the sheer hopelessness that we see in everyday life and the sheer irrationality that passes off for governance, diplomacy, strategy or for that matter piety does not surprise me in the least now. No, I have not become insensitive to the surroundings but as Ghalib said, ‘Jab tawako he uthh gaye Ghalib, Kyun … Continue reading Musings on Pakistan

Reem Wasay While they staged rallies to bring the women’s liberation movement to the forefront in the West, we were being silenced into submission, while they rectified their divorce laws to grant an egalitarian position to the women who screamed for freedom, we were still battling with our polygamous traditions I am no fan of patriarchal mindsets; I rather admire the utopian concept of equal emancipation and I sure as hell am no devotee to the cause of anti-feminist deliberations, but I have to hand it to our high-strung politicians to bring me crashing down from my pedestal of double-gaited … Continue reading This woman scorned — The Woman and her doings….

Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi Pakistan cannot be described as a failed state, but it is not a success story either. Pakistan is a troubled state that faces the threat of going under due mainly to internal problems and external pressures. However, it also has the potential to overcome these challenges and shape up as a reasonably effective state A widely shared concern at the international level is Pakistan’s uncertain future. This perspective questions the long-range capacity of the Pakistani state to effectively fulfil its obligations towards the citizenry and the international community. Several predictions of catastrophic end were made before and … Continue reading Uncertain future for Pakistan?