PEW Forum: The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society
The PEW Forum on Religion & Public Life has issued a very detailed poll of the Muslim countries Chapter 1: Beliefs About Sharia Navigate this page: Sharia as Divine Revelation […]
Bangladesh Govt does its homework – Constitution leaves no room to declare Ahmadis non-Muslims
Courtesy: The Daily Star Thursday, April 11, 2013 Law ministry finds 6 against constitution, 7 covered by existing laws By Reaz Ahmad and Shakhawat Liton Out of the 13, […]
Hasina rejects blasphemy law
Source: The Daily Star Sheikh Hasina speaks to the BBC’s Anbarasan Ethirajan during an exclusive interview in Dhaka. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, has firmly rejected the demand for […]
The Only Way Forward for Pakistan is to Become Truly Federal and Secular State
Daily Times: True federalism or secularism? Or both? — Shahid Ilyas Pakistani leadership since the initial years of the country’s creation has followed a self-defeating policy with regard to the ‘linguistic’ issue Some fellows are against both linguistic and Islamic identity in Pakistan. They fail to understand that Pakistan without […]
Deconstructing the Shahbagh Square protests
Courtesy: DAWN.com Bangladeshi students and pro-government supporters gather during a rally demanding death to Islamic political party leaders who are on trial for alleged war crimes during the country’s 1971 independence war, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. Eight top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamic party, are […]
Islam and Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Sharia- by An Naim
Top university in the world: Harvard University in Boston, USA Publisher: Harvard University Press (March 30, 2010) By Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na‘im: He is Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at […]
Why Bangladesh Should be a Secular State?
Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD Bangladesh will retain Islam as the state religion in amendments the government is proposing to its constitution, a government minister said yesterday, […]
Jinnah’s Passport and Letter to Churchill- Would he be Muslim Today in Pakistan?
Pak Tea House: Editor’s note: It is quite evident from this letter to Churchill that while Muslims League accepted the Cabinet Mission proposals to keep India as a loose Confederation, Congress […]
Jinnah and secularism; Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed distorts history yet again
Pakteahouse: by Yasir Latif Hamdani: “Professor emeritus” Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed is the sort who loves to take liberties with the facts. In his article today “Jinnah and secularism” he has resorted to two outright lies which need to be exposed so that people are not misguided. The article began well […]
Upright Opinion: Is Saudi Monarchy Islamic?
November 26, 2012 By Saeed Qureshi, who is a senior journalist and a former diplomat. Those who believe that Saudi Arabia has an Islamic system of government are either mistaken or ill-informed. It is outright a monarchy or kingdom that runs counter to the concept of an Islamic state. Even […]
Pakistan: Remove politics from religion if not religion from politics
Daily Times: By Muhammad Akram LAHORE: The rough and ready security arrangements like closure of cellular phone service in fifty cities, ban on pillion riding in four big cities and […]
Opposing Sharia Law Is a Defence of the Rights of Muslims
Huffington Post: by Anne Marie Waters: How can we be a multicultural society if we do not accommodate sharia law? That is one of the most common questions I am asked when travelling the UK as spokesperson of the anti-sharia ‘One Law for All’ campaign (www.onelawforall.org.uk). It accompanies ‘why are you […]
President Obama on Separation of Church-Mosque and State
He says that we can draw our inspiration from our scriptures but we have to translate the message into a language that is understood by other fellow citizens from different […]
Smokers’ Corner: Refiguring Jinnah- Secular or Islamist
Dawn: Nadeem Paracha: Today many Pakistanis are aware of Jinnah’s August 11, 1947, speech in which he clearly explains Pakistan to be a democratic Muslim majority country where religion has nothing to do with the business of the state. Well-known historians have all maintained that to Jinnah the Muslims of […]
Religious freedom in Europe – when both sides go too far
theguardian: Linda Woodhead. Who could have imagined that a court in Cologne would, this year, rule the ancient and sacred practice of male circumcision illegal, or that the previous year the European court of human rights (ECHR) wouldoverturn its earlier ruling that crucifixes should not be displayed in state schools? The see-sawing […]
RELIGION AND POLITICS: A New effort Secularise Pakistan- Is it too Late?
Dawn: by Zubieda Mustafa: RELIGIOUS extremism has come under discussion in numerous forums as incidents of violence and terrorism have increased in recent years reflecting negatively on what many claim to be Pakistan’s Islamic identity. This has left people confused because whatever is done is in the name of religion. Yet the […]
The secular Jinnah
Daily Times: by Yasser Latif Hamdani Apparently, ‘secular’ is some sort of a bad word and anyone using this word in connection with Quaid-e-Azam is automatically a traitor Our Urdu press, conspiratorial, nationalist and rightwing, is full of nazriati (ideological) warriors. This article is a rebuttal of two of the most popular standard-bearers […]
Solomonic wisdom needed to establish Separation of Mosque-Church-Synagogue and State
By Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times Fresco of the Judgment of Solomon (Courtesy: Wikipedia) The Judgment of Solomon refers to a story from the Hebrew […]
5 signs of a lame conspiracy theory
Source: Express Tribune We often find ourselves being buried alive beneath an avalanche of conspiracy theories that are often racist, usually illogical and almost always hilarious. That does not change the fact that conspiracies do sometimes take place. So how do we sift out the handful of sensible theories from […]
Seminar held on Strengthening Indian Secular Democracy
Source: Two circles.net By V.M. Khaleelur Rahman, A seminar on “Strengthening Indian Secular Democracy” was held in Chennai on 6th September 2012 jointly by Church of South India Inter-Faith Dialogue Centre, Islamic Forum for the Promotion of Moderate Thought and Rajaji Centre for Public Affairs. Rev. Viji Varghese Eapen, Director, […]