Ahmet T. Kuru, San Diego State University A Sri Lankan working in Pakistan, Priyantha Kumara, was lynched by a mob of hundreds of people on Dec. 3, 2021, over allegations of blasphemy, or sacrilegious act. After being assaulted, he was … Continue reading Understanding the history and politics behind Pakistan’s blasphemy laws
Islamabad diary Pakistan has still to recover from its last troop export to the holy kingdom. This was in the 1980s when Mard-e-Momin Gen Ziaul Haq was reconverting the Islamic Republic to Islam – or, to be accurate, his version of Islam. His understanding of Islam, understandably, was of the most primitive kind. Maulana Maudoodi he took to be his guide and, if imperfect memory serves, lectures on Maudoodi were dished out on Radio Pakistan. And we on whom these experiments in re-Islamisation were being carried out were helpless…because the spirit had been taken out of us and the … Continue reading Learning little from our desert infatuation
Pakistan: a culture of intolerance By Sajjad Ashraf Pakistan’s impoverished and peaceful Christian community has endured mob rampages, blasphemy charges, and was largely spared the ravages of suicide bombings, till last month. Suicide bombings on September 22 at Peshawar’s All-Saints Church, which is designed like a mosque to reflect inter-faith harmony, killed 83 worshippers and injured more than 125, bringing to focus how the danger minorities face in the militancy raging across Pakistan. With almost a bomb a day since Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government took over in June, the church was indeed a soft target. Since independence in 1947 … Continue reading Pakistan: a culture of intolerance
Mohammed Abbasi 