Al-Azhar torn between secularists and Islamists

Noha El Hennawy, Almasy Alyoum, Cairo. Despite ongoing feuds over the identity of the state in post-Mubarak Egypt, both secularists and Islamists have recently agreed on one issue: the necessity of liberating Al-Azhar from government control. Yet, each camp has its own motives for supporting an autonomous clergy. Islamists view an autonomous Al-Azhar as key […]

India: The next university superpower?

Source: BBC News India has ambitious plans to increase graduate numbers in a way which would give it the size and status of an education superpower. The figures are staggering. India’s government speaks of increasing the proportion of young people going to university from 12% at present to 30% by 2025 […]

The Second Great Contraction

By Kenneth Rogoff, Straight Times, Singapore CAMBRIDGE – WHY is everyone still referring to the recent financial crisis as the ‘Great Recession’? The term, after all, is predicated on a dangerous misdiagnosis of the problems that confront the United States and other countries, leading to bad forecasts and bad policy. […]

Excerpts from the writings of the Promised Messiah: About the Holy Quran

  Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani (1835-1908) Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community The Promised Messiah and Imam Mahdi INFINITE TREASURES OF THE HOLY QURAN AND SCIENCE قُل لَّوْ كَانَ الْبَحْرُ مِدَاداً لِّكَلِمَاتِ رَبِّي لَنَفِدَ الْبَحْرُ قَبْلَ أَن تَنفَدَ كَلِمَاتُ رَبِّي وَلَوْ جِئْنَا بِمِثْلِهِ مَدَداً Say, ‘If every ocean becomes ink for […]

Ramadan Mesaharati

By RIMA AL-MUKHTAR, RIMA.ALMUKHTAR@ARABNEWS.COM Mesaharati is a 30-day job created especially for Ramadan that requires a man with a special drum to go around his neighborhood early in the morning to wake up people to eat suhoor (starting of the fast meal) before Fajr prayer, signifying the start of the […]

Naked speculation

Editorial: ARABNEWS How in the real world can anyone sell something that they do not already own? The decision by France, Italy, Spain and Belgium to impose a ban on the short selling of shares will be approved by many well beyond the confines of those particular four countries. Indeed, […]

Blogging in Ramazan

Source: Excerpt from Dawn By Asif Akhtar …All I have set out to do today is simply point out a blatant contradiction that seems to go unnoticed in our exceedingly self-righteous society: Why does blogging go reprimanded in Ramazan? Here we have a practice that is completely unacceptable and goes against every […]