Lutfblogs: What do you imagine the front line against Islamist extremism looks like? Will this war fix anything? Image courtesy Stars and Stripes. Does it comprise of NATO led troops, security agencies and hired guns fighting against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan? Or is it the […]
HRW: (New York) – Pakistan’s government should rescind the suspension of fundamental rights and the grant of military authority for law enforcement in Islamabad, Human Rights Watch said today. Powers given to the military risk misuse in the face of ongoing large-scale political protests. “Pakistan faces very real threats of terrorism, […]
AMYA: Does Islam sanction murder in foreign lands? Does jihad entail forcing Islam on the unwilling? Is militant terrorism ever justified by the Qur’an or the practice of the Prophet Muhammad […]
Aljazeera: Rabwah, Pakistan – Seeing her lying in her hospital bed, it’s difficult to tell what Mubashara Jarra has been through. Outwardly, she appears fine. No intravenous tubes snaking into her body, and no bandages covering up her wounds. “I’m feeling much better,” she says, in a low voice. It is, […]
The Diplomat: While South Asian human rights discourse, including both Indian and Pakistani, is obsessed by the issue of Palestine, a cause that has little real relevance to the region, numerous violent incidents closer to home get scant attention, such as the violence in Xinjiang, China, just over the border […]
BBC Urdu: قاصد کی عمر ابھی ایک سال بھی نہیں مگر وہ اپنے والد کی گود میں آنکھیں بند کیے دنیا مافیہا سے بے خبر لیٹا ہوا تکلیف سے ہولے ہولے کراہ رہا تھا یا شاید اسے سانس لینے میں تکلیف ہو رہی تھی۔ قاصد کے سر کے اگلے حصے […]
The Nation: Let me start with a profound apology for covering, what many might deem an “unimportant” issue this week. With all my sympathies with the innocent children and civilians being killed on the pretext of targeting terrorists, I for one, could not help thinking about a ‘minor’ incident that […]
ET: Even after deliberating for 60 years, the jury’s still out on Muhammad Munir. Pakistan’s second chief justice was a symptom of the times he lived in: brilliant but tragic, visionary but weak. He cared nothing for the rule of law; he cared for nothing but the rule of law. […]
This is a quick report: Dear Sister Reshma: Assalamo Allaikum Wa Rahmatullah! May Allah bless you for hosting the conference call on a very, very important issue. I am glad you had GAZA in your mind when you sent the invitation. I was in my car and cell phone died […]
Dawn: It was one of those hazel sort of days that you sometimes get in Pakistan, in which a pleasant chill permeates the shining bright rays of the sun. The sky was as azure as the sea and the trees never looked so verdant. Summer was just around the corner, […]
ET: LAHORE: Last week an elderly woman and her two minor grand daughters were burnt alive in Gujranwala by a charged mob. A week of silence has passed since then. No suo motu notice of the mob attack was taken, no joint investigation team was formed to investigate the incident, no […]
France24: As Muslims across the world celebrate the end of Ramadan, we look at the persecution suffered by Pakistan’s Ahmadis. They consider themselves Muslim, but many Pakistanis see them as […]
Daily Times: by Yasser Latif Hamdani — Given that religious scholars are nothing but shopkeepers of religiosity whose livelihood depends on such hatemongering, it is hardly surprising that Ashrafi resorts to such incitement to violence. The deadly attack on Ahmedis, killing one unborn child, two little girls and one old grandmother, […]
Daily Times: by Aisha Fayyaza Sarwari — It is savagery at its worst, with everyone as an accomplice because there is a disagreement about your religious beliefs, under which many are unsure what kind of punishment is required. Yet there is no disagreement about random extremists acting out the judge, […]
(RNS) An independent religious freedom watchdog panel has welcomed the State Department’s annual religious freedom report and its list of the world’s worst offenders, which had laid dormant for three years. The list of “countries of particular concern” had remained unchanged since 2006 — and hasn’t been formally issued by the State Department since 2011 — when Burma, China, […]
seemamalhotra.com: Seema Malhotra has called on the British Government to do more to protect the Admadi community in Pakistan. Ms Malhotra’s call comes in light of the latest harrowing attack […]
ET: Murder is commonplace and so is mass murder. It is a news item, and news items change too quickly to keep count, to mourn properly, to be disturbed over for very long. Yet, even now, occasionally the soul is bruised. It will not last, however, it does linger. Death […]
‘By the heaven having mansions of stars, And by the Promised Day By the testifier and the one who is testified Cursed be the people of the trenches – The fire fed with fuel – […]
Dawn: TWO policemen stand guard over the charred remains of Boota’s house in a narrow alley of Arafat Colony off Racecourse Road in Gujranwala. They were deployed there on Monday to protect the ashes. For further security, the police have locked up the house, inside which may lie evidence against […]
The Hindu: The desire of Islamist extremists to ‘purify’ Pakistan has resulted in a major catastrophe for the minorities. The country cannot emerge as a modern pluralist state until the reversal of this culture of intolerance The murder in Gujranwala of an elderly woman, a seven-year-old girl and an infant […]