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 […]
Pakistan is reeling from the murder of 70 of its own citizens-massacred due to their faith by the self-appointed guardians of faith. Anyone with a shred of conscience left in Pakistan should declare themselves as Ahmadi – “I am an Ahmadi” should be the call of the day. Just as they should have declared themselves […]
by Ali K Chishti Published Daily Times Ali K Chishti in his article on the flaws and misleading notions of our education system has pointed out that unnecessary and often misplaced emphasis on religious education is nothing more than a clever ruse to deflect attention from the real issue: the general state of education in […]
by Pervez Hoodbhoy DAWN – May 8, 2010 The man who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square was a Pakistani. Why is this unsurprising? Because when you hold a burning match to a gasoline tank, the laws of chemistry demand combustion. As anti-US lava spews from the fiery volcanoes of Pakistan’s […]
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 […]
By Nadeem F. Paracha DAWN – Sunday, 14 Mar, 2010 Many young Pakistanis, who in their reactionary worldview cannot relate to the conventional make-up of the long-bearded and mullah-looking hawkers of intransigent ideas, have found their man in the dashing (Che Guevara-meets-Saladin) shape of Zaid Hamid. But this phenomenon does not begin or end with […]
Middle East Quarterly Winter 2010, pp. 69-74 Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy (b. 1950) is one of South Asia’s leading nuclear physicists and perhaps Pakistan’s preeminent intellectual. Bearer of a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , he is chairman of the department of physics at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad where, as a high-energy physicist, he […]
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 […]
By Hassan Jafar Zaidi (hjzaidi@hotmail.com) (The author delivered his lecture on the same subject in Conway Hall, London on January 7, 2007) Courtesy Danishkada.com God did not create state. Man evolved and created state in the shapes and forms suited to him according to growth of means of production and the level of organization required […]
By Ale Natiq Cross-Posted from Ale’s blog (Thanks to Pakistani intelligence agencies for their illegal Denial of Service (DOS) attacks on Ale’s blog) Religion has quite frequently been used as an excuse for military motives. Talking specifically about Islam, hadees has been used as a tool to invent excuses for political motivations and military interventions/attacks […]
By Sahar Saba Sahar Saba is the spokesperson for Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) For rest of the world, victims of Afghan war remain nameless and faceless. Not for us in Afghanistan. I myself have mourned number of such victims including my real uncle (father’s brother). Three weeks back, there was yet […]
By Eqbal Ahmad Dawn- 7 March, 2009 In two earlier essays l had argued one, that all religio-political movements are products of the shift from the agrarian/pastoral to the capitalist/industrial mode of production and the many forms of dislocations that it entails and two, that the religious tradition they invoke is more imagined than real, […]
by Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy and Abdul Hameed Nayyar [Source: Islam, Politics and the State: The Pakistan Experience, Asghar Khan (ed.) Zed Books, London, 1985, pp. 164-177.] From indoctrination’s foul rope Suspend all reason, all hope Until with swollen tongue Morality herself is hung. Introduction Education in Pakistan, from schools to universities, is being fundamentally redefined. […]
by Prof. Shahida Kazi DAWN- March 27, 2005 History is a discipline that has never been taken seriously by anyone in Pakistan. As a result, the subject has been distorted in such a way that many a fabricated tale has become part of our collective consciousness Does mythology have anything to do with history? Is […]
by Eqbal Ahmad from The Selected Writings of Eqbal Ahmad (Editor’s Note: This first hand narrative of Afghanistan during Taliban regime should be read by those who believe in absurd notions of ‘Good Taliban’ and ‘Bad Taliban’) I have seen the future as envisioned by contemporary Islamists. It horrifies and does not work – anywhere. […]
Source : Courtesy Diep and Raheem A talk on the current situation in Malakand and Swat was organized by the Amn Tehreek on 23rd July, 2009 at Nehrghar. The speaker Izhar (pseudonym) is a political and social worker from Madyan, Swat. An initiative of Institute For Peace & Secular Studies After appreciating the efforts of […]
How the intellectuality of Political Islam turned into the brutality of faithful fascism by Nadeem F. Paracha Source: DAWN Blogs In Pakistan even the traditional Muslim practice of reasoning in matters of religion – originally introduced by the 9th century Mutazilites – is at times treated like some kind of an abomination to be feared, […]
by Pervez Hoodbhoy Mr. Jinnah’s Pakistan Isn’t Working. What Can? [Commencement lecture by Pervez Hoodbhoy at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi, 9 December 2006.] It is indeed a pleasure to see the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture emerge as a thriving educational institution. I remember my first visit here […]
Eqbal Ahmad DAWN – 24 January, 1999 THEY belong to differing, often contrasting religious systems-Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Yet their ideas and behaviour patterns bear remarkable similarities. In India they have burned down churches and destroyed a historic mosque. In Palestine they describe themselves as ‘pioneers’, desecrate mosques and churches, and with state support […]
Sunday, June 08, 2008 Dr Farrukh Saleem Afghanistan, Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Guinea, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sudan, Somalia, Tunisia, Turkey, Yemen, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Syria, UAE, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Comoros, Iraq, Maldives, Djibouti, Benin, Brunei, Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Albania, Kyrgyzstan, […]
August 15, 2010 by aliarqam
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