Is criticising blasphemy laws blasphemous?
Dawn: ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) bench hearing an appeal filed by Mumtaz Qadri – the murderer of former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer – asked his defence team whether […]
Author Archives
Dr. Abdul Alim
Dr. Abdul Alim is a national of Pakistan and is a physician with specialization in Public Health from University of Texas at Houston USA. He is a member of the reformist, democratic and moderate Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam which inspires his deep commitment to Human Rights, Social Justice, Peace and Secularism. He is an author and Editor on Islam, for The Muslim Times (www.themuslimtimes.Info), a global blog highlighting the positive and true character of Islam as a basis for peace building.
Professionally he is a member of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and UN Development Policy Network. He has more than 20 years of work experience in development management related to governance in social sectors, more specifically in public policy, programme planning, and monitoring and evaluation. For the last 15 years he has worked with the United Nations in the developing world covering countries in South Asia, South East Asia, CEE/CIS, and the Middle East.
Wingnuts’ latest meltdown: Conservatives go nuts over Obama’s remarks on Christianity and Islam
Epigraph: Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to […]
Literature: Four blasphemy suspects declared proclaimed offenders
ET: LAHORE: Additional District and Sessions Judge Mian Shehzad Raza declared four blasphemy suspects proclaimed offenders on Friday for not appearing in court. The suspects had earlier been granted after-arrest bail by Lahore High Court. The district and sessions court also issued non-bailable arrest warrants for the suspects and ordered action […]
Extremism not unique to Islam, says Obama
Dawn: WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama said on Thursday that Islam was not the only religion distorted by extremists to suit their practices, it was done in other faiths too. “Lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the […]
Pre-9/11 Ties Haunt Saudis as New Accusations Surface
NY Times: RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — During the 1980s and ’90s, the historic alliance between the wealthy monarchy of Saudi Arabia and the country’s powerful clerics emerged as the major financier of international jihad, channeling tens of millions of dollars to Muslim fighters in Afghanistan, Bosnia and elsewhere. Among the […]
CAMON… Two decades of promoting scholarship among Muslims
Guardian News: IN 1995, Conference of Muslim Organisations of Nigeria, CAMON, came into being through the efforts of about 28 Muslim organisations in Ibadan, Oyo state. However in 1998, about 10 Muslim organisations constituted the foundation members. The groups were Muslim Association of Nigeria, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, Ansar-ud-Deen Society of […]
Can a police constable determine if someone is Muslim or infidel? IHC
Daily Times: ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday remarked that no one had the right to “kill anyone and violate the law” as it heard convicted killer Mumtaz Qadri’s appeal against his death sentence. Qadri murdered former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer and was sentenced to death by an […]
The Chinese Communist Party cracks down on religion: All party members must be atheist
The Indepedent: Applicants to the Communist Party of China (CPC) will be rejected in future if they are found to embrace any religion, and existing members forced to denounce their beliefs. Party authorities in Zhejiang province said that the pre-examination system for recruiting CPC members should be improved and stricter […]
The Importance of the Institution of Khilafat for the Modern Age
Review of Religions: Seen and Unseen Qualities of Khilafat Ahmadiyya Allah the Almighty tells us in the Holy Qur’an, that everything in this world is important and serves a purpose. […]
ISIS captors ‘didn’t even have the Quran,’ says former hostage
London (CNN) A French journalist’s ISIS captives cared so little about religion they did not even have a Quran, Didier François — who spent over 10 months as the group’s prisoner […]
Nations Must Repeal Blasphemy Laws
Huff Post: What did the terrorist attacks against the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and the kosher supermarket in Paris share with the flogging of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi in Jeddah last month? Each was an assault on freedom of conscience, religion, or belief. Moreover, in the Charlie Hebdo and Badawi cases, […]
Rap and radicalism: Does hip hop create extremists?
On January 1, the French rapper Medine uploaded his latest track “Don’t Laik”. Surrounded by youth from the banlieues, he sounds off against secularism, taking swipes at Nietszche and the […]
Recipient of foreign funds: Tough hunt for Punjab to identify madrassas
ET: ISLAMABAD: Civilian forces and intelligence agencies engaged in enrolling over 6,550 unregistered madrassas in Punjab are facing stiff resistance from hundreds of clerics who have refused to reveal their sources of funding. A senior officer, who is also a member of the committee overseeing the implementation of National Action Plan […]
How the Philippines saved 1,200 Jews
(CNN) —Even at the age of seven, Lotte Hershfield knew her world was crumbling. She avoided the benches with the sign: No dogs or Jews allowed. She couldn’t attend public schools. And the Nazis and their growling German shepherds raided her family’s house, throwing their books into a fire. As […]
Jihad or Murder?
By Kunwar Khuldune Shahid Newsline: Such is the unfortunate volatility of our state that a blast in Peshawar, on any other day, might have been viewed as just another act of terrorism. Bomb blasts have been ubiquitous in Pakistan in the last several years, and this city has been jarred […]
Time for honest debate about Islam
CNN.com: Harris Zafar is national spokesperson and youth vice president for Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA, which describes itself as an international revival movement within Islam. He is also author of “Demystifying Islam: Tackling the Tough Questions.” The views expressed are his own. (CNN)Just a month into the year, and already […]
What Gandhi Understood About Inflammatory Depictions of Muhammad
New Republic: On a spring day in 1929, a young Muslim man by the name of Ilam Din burst into a bookstore in Lahore, in the British colony of India, […]
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Islam!
Source: Muslim Sunrise, Winter 2009 volume Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times With the election of a son of a Kenyan man to the […]
Following Obama’s advice Ahmadiyya’s married to Pakistan brides writes to Modi
Times of India: AMRITSAR: Following US president Barack Obama’s advice to India for protecting religious freedom during his trip to India, the Pakistani brides living in Qadian, Ahmadiyya Muslim sect’s headquarters in India, has blamed Narendra Modi government of religious discrimination and not giving Indian citizenship to Pak brodes despite […]
As Muslim Uighurs Flee, China Sees Jihad Risk
As Homeland Grows Violent, Some Uighurs Seek Haven in Turkey By JEREMY PAGE And EMRE PEKER KAYSERI, Turkey—In hindsight, it was a soccer match that kindled Mehmet’s hatred of Chinese rule and set him on the path to exile. In 2002, Mehmet was at university in Xinjiang, the northwest corner […]