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What is Enlightenment?
By Humayun Nosheerwan They say that there is no such thing as ideal in this world, and to look for one is an unavailing pursuit. But contrary to this popular notion, ideals do exist and they sustain their existence in the minds of the “idealists”. For some it must be quite surprising to know that […]
Land Reforms – History, Legal challenges and how Shariat Courts abolished them
by Shahid Saeed Khan The politics of land reform have always been tenuous in this country, the populist rhetoric very much opposed to the reality. It has the support of a large segment of the public who view abolition of large land holdings as a big step towards social progress. Land Reform has always been […]
“Jinnah became irrelevant after Objectives Resolution” : Interview with Mubarak Ali
By Mazhar Khan Jadoon First published in The News on Sunday, August 29, 2010 The News on Sunday: How do you view secularism as having evolved in the particular case of India where the kings did not run their empires on the clergy’s instructions but according to political exigencies? Mubarak Ali: Secularism has been in […]
Why Muslims reject modernity- by Khaled Ahmed
It is often said that Muslims in the 21st century have rejected modernity. What they are in fact rejecting is the process of suiting themselves to changing circumstances. There are two kinds of thinking: one that seeks to change in order to relate to times and one that seeks to change the world to suit […]
Religious Basis of the Enlightenment?
by A.A Khalid The calls of liberals and progressives in Pakistan in constructing a model of epistemology suitable for a modern nation state predicated on the notion of a reduced religiosity and a public conscience which adopts a minimalist understanding of religion is false. Historically it is false and from a positivistic point of view […]
The Two Nation Theory
by Yasser Latif Hamdani Daily Times, Monday, June 07, 2010 For Jinnah and the Muslim League, the Two Nation Theory was not an ideological position etched in stone. It was the restatement of the arguments needed to ensure national status for Muslims in a multinational independent India One of our most persistent national myths — […]
What Clash of Civilizations?
Why religious identity isn’t destiny. By Amartya Sen Slate March 29, 2006 That some barbed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed could generate turmoil in so many countries tells us some rather important things about the contemporary world. Among other issues, it points up the intense sensitivity of many Muslims about representation and derision of the […]
A history of prejudice
By I.A. Rehman The News, Sunday, May 6, 2010 Tracing the roots of how the level of tolerance for the belief of the ‘other’ sharply declined When the Second Amendment to the constitution was adopted in 1974, the government claimed honour and glory for having settled an 80-year-old problem. Each year since then has made […]
The Death of Jinnah, The New York Times Obituary
First published at the Pak Tea House In this post, we take a trip down the memory lane. Below we are reproducing the obituary of Quaid Muhammad Ali Jinnah that was published in the New York Times on September 13, 1948. In a first glance, there is nothing in this obituary that we don’t know […]
Allama Iqbal in Favour of Ataturk’s Secularism
By Tarek Fatah Excerpted with gratitude from his book Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic lllusion of an Islamic State’. Available for download at Let Us Build Pakistan The movement to restore the Ottoman caliphate was strong in India, under the leadership of none other than Indian nationalist Mahatma Gandhi. As in Egypt, Muslims in India […]
Cold War, Holy Warrior
By Robert Dreyfuss Published: Mother Jones – January /February 2006 Issue Ike was president. Washington was desperate for Arab allies. Enter an Islamist ideologue with an invitation to the White House and a plan for global jihad. In the fall of 1953, the Oval Office was the stage for a peculiar encounter between President Dwight […]
‘Burka’ and Intellectual Terrorism
By Awais Masood In an article published in the January 2009 edition of Newsline, prominent Pakistani academic, scientist and social activist Pervez Hoodbhoy outlined the root causes of religious extremism in Pakistan and while doing so pointed out towards deliberate attempts of imposing an Arab culture upon the pluralistic South Asian traditions upheld by the […]
Conspiracy Theories Galore
By Ayesha Siddiqa DAWN – Friday- 26 Feb, 2010 I COULDN’T believe my ears when responsible quarters informed me of an American-Blackwater conspiracy to isolate Pakistan. According to this heinous plan the objective will be achieved by infiltrating the media, specifically through placing people in responsible positions in the print and electronic media. These plants […]
Patriarchy and Caste System
by Taimur Rahman From Raza Rumi’s blog As I have elaborated before, the Asiatic Mode of Production (AMP) in India is based on the caste system. The caste system in turn is based on the confinement of a particular people to a particular occupation. This requires the intense control of women’s sexuality because if castes […]
Paradise Lost
By Nusrat Pasha Europe drew wisdom from pragmatism, and eventually separated the Church from the State. Ataturk had to struggle ardently to emancipate Turkey from its theocratic past and lead it to a secular and secure future. Secularism, as some people misleadingly propose, does not at all imply being anti-God, anti-Religion or atheistic or even agnostic; it only […]
Jinnah’s Will to the Nation He Founded
By Nusrat Pasha This nation still has hope if it succeeds in reverting to Jinnah’s Will : 1 : “….Religion should not be allowed to come into Politics….Religion is merely a matter between man and God”. [Jinnah, Address to the Central Legislative Assembly, 7 February 1935] 2 : “….in the name of Humanity, I care more […]
Identity Crisis: Rethinking the Politics of Community and Region in South Asia
By Ayesha Jalal (Harvard International Review, Summer 1999, vol.xxi, no.3) (Selected portion of the article) On the eve of the twentieth century, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) wrote a poem called ‘The Sunset of the Century’: The last sun of the century sets amidst the bloodred clouds of the west and the whirlwind of hatred. The naked […]
Conspiracy Theories and Rebuttals
It is an unfortunate and painful reality that Pakistani youth is mired in revivalism and conspiracy theories. Search for answers in this age of information and dis-information leads them to believe everything that appears on TV screens. It is the need of the hour to refute such gross distortions of historical, political, religious and economic […]
Role of Youth in the Current Situation
From Institute of Peace and Secular Studies The Institute for Peace and Secular Studies (IPSS) organized a day long youth convention with the theme of Terrorism and Peace under the title “The Role of Youth in the Current Situation” (on December 12, 2009). The convention was attended by over 200 youth including university students from […]
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Secular Pakistan 
December 8, 2010 by Awais
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