Pak Tea House » Archive
Spurning Non-Muslim Pakistanis, Celebrating Muslim Non-Pakistanis
By Yasser Latif Hamdani Raza Rumi, who is probably the most balanced Pakistani commentator out there, recently made a startling statement which surprised me greatly. The statement made, as obiter dicta, suggested that Maulana Azad is spurned in Pakistan because he might have thought that Muslim identity would be better protected in United India. It is startling because it is untrue. Every Sunni non-muqalid and Deobandi scholar invariably carries Maulana Azad’s Tafsir of the Quran. Of all the Congress leaders, he is the only one who is spared and is even championed. Same is the case with Maulana Hussain Ahmad Madni of Darul-uloom Deoband- another opponent of Jinnah and supporter of the so-called “composite nationalism”. Many Mullahs in Pakistan continue to take their lead from him and many of them place him above Jinnah, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
Should Muslim Children Receive Sex Education?
This news story represents in our view all that is wrong with Muslims in general but Muslim minorities in the west in particular who are hell bent on rejecting western civilization and western values to an extent that they end up becoming infinitely more rigid and maniacal about faith than Muslims from Muslim majority countries. There is nothing wrong with sex education in schools and in a market place of ideas, Muslim parents ought to try and make their ideas more palatable to their children. And if western values are so unbearable, move back (and be prepared to find out that people in your motherlands are NOT like you either). Otherwise embrace your new homes wholeheartedly. But please stop this drama for god’s sake.-YLH By Lila Green In an underground hall at the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Islam
(UPDATED) Musharraf, The Reformer That Never Was: A Soldier Remembers
By Brigadier Simon Samson Sharaf (The previous version was an excerpt. Brigadier sb has been kind enough to send us his complete piece) General (r) Pervaiz Musharraf had been the GOC in Okara and a role model in all respects. Training, administration, welfare or extra curricular, he was seen everywhere. In the evenings, he with his wife were a common sight, sitting at the bedside of patients and inquiring their welfare as also keep the hospital staff on toes. I remember my course mate Lt. Col Zia getting a cardiac arrest. The couple sat through the night outside the CCU and wept profoundly when his death was announced in the morning. His presence brought a big developmental and social change in the deserted garrison. He played sports with youngsters, took care of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
Pro-People Supreme Court tells NEPRA to behave
While the Nay-sayers continue to abuse the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the Lawyers’ Movement, the SCP has struck another one for the people. -YLH … Read entire article »
Filed under: lawyers movement, Pakistan
Of Marriages and Civil Unions
By Anthony J. Aschettino In the giddying days following the election of Barack Obama, a momentous occasion for a multitude of reasons, many in America could have been forgiven for losing sight of several ballot initiatives from across the country. Although one of the more radical ones was defeated (Colorado’s attempt to define life as beginning at the moment of fertilization), sadly another ridiculous one was passed. California’s “Proposition 8” effectively overrides that state’s Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage by amending the state constitution to read that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” … Read entire article »
Filed under: USA
The 30th Sandinista anniversary and the San José proposal
By Fidel Castro THE Honduran coup d’état promoted by the ultra-right wing of the United States – which was maintaining the structure created by Bush in Central America – and supported by the Department of State, was not developing well due to the energetic resistance of the people. The criminal adventure, unanimously condemned by world opinion and international agencies, could not be sustained. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Colonialism, Imperialism, Left, USA
Ishtiaq Ahmed on "Islamism" in Pakistan
Professor Ishtiaq Ahmed offered a historical perspective on Islamism in Pakistan for the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center. Shuja Nawaz, director of the South Asia Center, moderated the following Q&A session. In his presentation, Professor Ahmed outlined how and why Islamism came to dominate Pakistani politics, despite the secular vision of the state put forth by its founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in 1947: If you change your past and work together in a spirit that everyone of you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter what is his colour, caste or creed, is first, second and last a citizen of this State with equal rights, privileges, and obligations, there will be no end to the progress you will make. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
Ideological battles in Turkey & Pakistan
Since we are discussing Turkey a lot these days, I thought I’d share my piece in the News from 2007 which got quoted by Christopher Herbert of the Post Global Power Barometer. By Yasser Latif Hamdani Secularists and Kemalists in Turkey have taken to the streets against the ruling Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi or AKP) on grounds that the AKP wants to Islamise the secular republic of Turkey. While AKP in its four years of power has not attempted to bring Islam into the governance of Turkey and has followed a largely secular agenda of improving the economy and human rights to enable the country to enter into the European Union, there is a lot of merit in the argument that the Kemalists are putting forth, when considered … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
Point of view: Turkey and AKP
By M. Yakut Turkey is, unfortunately, economically bankrupt country. The governing party AKP knows this fact very well and only way to continue with the government is to draw people’s attention to different directions to keep people occupied with the “other world’s” issues. The mechanism for this for rural part of the country and rural areas is to polish and propagate the regressive Mohammedanism. In the cities and urban areas is to contimue with the propaganda for regressive Mohammedanism and create imaginary terrorist organizations, military coup plans, paranoid suspicions such as latest “document” case, crying victim, and etc. … Read entire article »
Filed under: World
Terror Tactics
By Nida Maqsud The people of Pakistan aren’t vociferously outspoken enough against the terrorist attacks that have taken place, both within and outside Pakistan’s borders – or so it has been claimed by many a commentator. I have read article upon article with such a premise, and, as a citizen of the world, I have agreed. But as a Pakistani at heart, I’ve struggled with this theory for many months, only to keep knocking against a wall of inconsolable despair. Why have I not spoken out until now? Because I am a hard-working, intelligent resident of Pakistani society, a loyal citizen of the United States, and it kills me to have to suffer the incompetencies of corrupt elected governments; the conniving schemes of powerful countries trying to take advantage of “failed … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
CIA: Licensed to Kill
By David Wise (Writing in the LA Times) Back in 1960, the CIA hatched a plan to kill Patrice Lumumba by infecting his toothbrush with a deadly disease. The Congolese leader would brush his teeth and, presto, in a few days or weeks he would be gone. Around the same time, the CIA’s Health Alteration Committee — who thought that name up? — sent a monogrammed, poisoned handkerchief to Gen. Abdul Karim Kassem, the leader of Iraq. … Read entire article »
Filed under: war
Upholding Universal Human Rights
By Anthony J. Aschettino As the world continues to shrink due to advances in communication and travel, disparate cultures who may have had limited contact with one another suddenly find themselves intermingling on a daily basis. Whereas less than a century ago the average American or European might have little to no understanding of Arab or Chinese culture, today, thanks in a large part to the internet, one can not only read up on culture from these areas but also watch indigenous programming and listen to ethnic music on a daily basis. The same can be said for the average person in those regions, and the result of this exchange is that now more than ever the world has truly become one large global community. The problem with this is that, … Read entire article »
Filed under: human rights
Left Opposition to the Pakistan People's Party
The Policy Document issued by the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party (Communist Workers and Peasants Party) of Pakistan: In the period of military rule (till February 2008), our Party supported all democratic forces fighting against Musharraf’s dictatorship. At the same time, we remained opposed to the extreme right-wing fundamentalists that had lodged themselves within the democratic movement (such as the JI, JUI, and other fundamentalist parties). … Read entire article »
Asra Nomani is Back: My Big Fat Muslim Wedding
By Asra Nomani Courtesy Marie Claire On the night of my wedding, I sat stiffly on a red velvet sofa in the main hall of the Margala Motel in the city of Islamabad in Pakistan, a picture-perfect image of a traditional South Asian bride. With an embroidered chiffon scarf over my hair and a cascade of shiny 24-karat gold necklaces around my neck, I kept my kohl-rimmed eyes cast downward, following the instructions of my hovering aunts. I caught a glimpse of my face, caked with makeup, reflected in my bangles. I didn’t know the woman who stared back at me. I thought, What am I doing here? … Read entire article »
Filed under: Islam
The New Kind of "Peace" Activist in Canada
PTH notes with concern that the Canadian Government is allowing groups like Al Fauz who are possibly funding, aiding and abetting the militant insurgency against Pakistan to operate from its soil. Our government must not talk to the Canadian Government unless and untill it dismantles the terrorist infrastructure. -YLH Terry Glavin, Special to the National Post Published: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 ‘Long live the Taliban” might seem an unlikely thing for a prominent anti-war figure to declare, but that’s to-day’s peace movement for you. Stranger still, the man who recently uttered those words, Azzam Tamimi, is being promoted by a new Toronto-based institute that says it is embarking upon a national campaign to cultivate wholesome, faith-based civic virtues among Canada’s young Muslims. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
PTH biweekly Cartoon
Picture of the Week
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Sunrise at the Arabian Sea, Charna Island
24 Dec 2011
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