VIEW: Interfaith harmony for world peace —Mohammad Jamil It is true that cultural conflicts are increasing and are more dangerous today than at any time in history. Yet the fundamental reason for the turmoil and tension in the world is the absence of a just economic order Power has its own dynamics, and there are many instances in history when the victor and the vanquished belonged to the same religion. Of course there were military expeditions of European Christian powers during the 11th to 13th centuries to recapture the holy land from Muslim powers, which both sides claimed as their … Continue reading Interfaith harmony for world peace

ANALYSIS: A gender-blind ‘neo-miratha’ —Farhat Taj Tribal leaders in FATA have been killed along with their female relatives. The aim of such attacks seems to be to wipe out any possibility, no matter how remote it may be, of the female heirs taking up the anti-Taliban struggle Miratha is a Pashto word that refers to the now obsolete practice of killing all males, adult and minors, in a family so that there are no male heirs left to inherit the family property, which is taken over by the executer of the miratha along with the female members of the family, … Continue reading Miratha Manic Mullahs!

<!– –> // VIEW: After Sialkot, anger at the cricketers —Naeem Tahir We associate victory with national honour. Is this not overdoing things to the extreme? We should be able to take pride in the performance of our team or some special players who make an outstanding effort. Why do we have to link an individual action with the larger-than-life concept of ‘national honour’? An angry, aggressive and even vindictive mass is what our people have become. The killings in Sialkot shocked the sensibilities of the sensible and now, in a different way, it is happening to our cricketers on … Continue reading After Sialkot, anger at the cricketers

ANALYSIS: Talking about a revolution —Salman Tarik Kureshi Modern history has seen a number of major revolutions. Those of England in the 17th century, the US in the 18th and France between the 18th and 19th centuries are, in the Marxian paradigm, regarded as bourgeois revolutions, which led to the establishment of capitalist economies and constitutional democracies “I saw…a vision, Of a time when all men walk proudly through the earth, And the bombs and missiles lie at the bottom of the ocean, Like the bones of dinosaurs buried under the shale of eras, And men strive with each other … Continue reading Talking about a revolution

By Kuldip Nayar dawn.com Dongria Kondh tribals walk in front of Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, center wearing white, in the Niyamgiri Hills near Lanjigarh, in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, Thursday, Aug. 26, 2010. – Photo by AP. Some 80,000 farmers protested near Parliament House in New Delhi last week against the paltry compensation paid by the government for the land it took over in “public interest”. An 1847 act empowers the state to acquire land in dire eventuality. The UP government has taken over hundreds of acres to build an express Yamuna corridor for industry. True, the … Continue reading Waiting for Rahul?

by Faris Islam Watching the footage of the aftermath of the Lahore blast, it’s tragic how familiar a sight this has become across Pakistan. Too often, our national discourse been filled with angry citizens taking the law into their own hands. Before the Lahore bombings, we witnessed the gruesome lynching of two teenagers in Sialkot, a few weeks earlier Karachi erupted into flames of arson and looting following the murder of MPA Raza Haider. Prior to that, my home city of Karachi also burnt and bled after the Ashura blasts and of course, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Scenes of … Continue reading The need to confront violence and injustice

We cannot afford to shun Pakistan The world must not abandon Pakistan to the religious extremists Michael Nazir-Ali The Guardian, Saturday 4 September 2010 Article history On a recent Pakistan International Airlines flight from Karachi to Lahore, a local – and somewhat revealing – fashion show played out on the TV screens. Among those having to watch were a large number of people returning from the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. This scene is but a microcosm of contemporary Pakistan. On the one hand, there are signs everywhere not just of personal piety but of a narrow and intolerant ideology … Continue reading We must not abandon Pakistan to Mullahs

Five Ways You Can Help Pakistan (and the Rest of Us) by: Sarah van Gelder  |  YES! Magazine | Op-Ed A woman in Kalabagh, Pakistan, drinks dirty floodwater. Waterborne diseases continue to pose great risk to millions of people affected by the devastating floods. (Photo: United Nations Development Programme / Flickr) As the world comes to terms with the mind-boggling scale of the tragedy in Pakistan, many Americans are asking what we can do to aid the flood victims. Some may hesitate to contribute to flood relief because we associate Pakistan with qualities we don’t admire—nuclear proliferation, religious fundamentalism, the oppression of … Continue reading Five Ways You Can Help Pakistan

Flying the Flag; Faking the News Friday 03 September 2010 by: John Pilger, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed (Photo: DVIDSHUB / Flickr) Edward Bernays, the American nephew of Sigmund Freud, is said to have invented modern propaganda. During the First World War, he was one of a group of influential liberals who mounted a secret government campaign to persuade reluctant Americans to send an army to the bloodbath in Europe. In his book, “Propaganda,” published in 1928, Bernays wrote that the “intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses was an important … Continue reading Flying Flags; Faking News; Fox Fcuking