Treating Religion like a brand?
By Amaar Ahmad: Just when it seems that the boundary of idiocy cannot be pushed any further, Punjab police has proved us wrong. There are recent reports that an Ahmadi “place of worship” in Sultanpura, Lahore was damaged by policemen to fulfill the demands of local religious clerics. The offense which the Ahmadi “place of worship” had caused was the public display of Kalima in the premise. Apparently, the Islamic creed “There is no God but … Read entire article »
How Trolls are confounding the Shia Rights Discourse
by Abdul Majeed An article recently published in a notorious blog went on to criticize The Friday Times, Raza Rumi, Saleem Javed, Khaled Ahmad and Ali Chishti,because they dared to use the word “sectarian killings” instead of “Shia genocide” which is the term favored by the author of that post. The article also posited that there is a systemic genocide committed against Shias and that the #DeepState is somehow promoting it. The author did not specify exactly what benefit the #DeepState gets if they are actually complicit, when all it does is to actually compromise and damage its own writ and control. The article wanted us to believe that “Sectarian Violence/Genocide” is being “mis-represented” as a Proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The article mentioned the plight of the Hazara … Read entire article »
Filed under: Al Qaeda, Army, baluchistan, Citizens, Democracy, Iran, Islam, Media, Pakistan, quetta, Religion, Society, Taliban, Uncategorized, USA
The Jew is Not My Enemy-by Tarek Fatah (Excerpt)
Anti-Semitism (hatred for Jewish people) is not a new or unique phenomenon for us Pakistanis. We love to hate the Jews and to blame all our ills on the ugly, hideous, nefarious designs of the Zionist Jews. After all, Jews control the world and it is only because of them that we Muslims are so far behind the rest of the world. It’s all a big conspiracy. Journalist and Political advocate Tarek Fatah described and analyzed … Read entire article »
Filed under: Books, Europe, Great game, History, Iran, Iraq, Islam, Law, Religion, state, Uncategorized, USA
The hate campaign by fake bloggers: whose agenda they are promoting?
Raza Rumi A dubious blog – LUBP – has taken some of my tweets and weaved a story around it. The problem with that blog is that it is not managed by real people but by individuals who have no moral courage to reveal their names. I was wrong about the blog and the people who manage it. I must admit my mistake and change my view. I was supportive of them in the past thinking … Read entire article »
Fallacies that befuddle the ‘educated’ Pakistani mind
by Abdul Majeed Wise people always say, Do not try to present complex matters in black and white terms as it will defeat the purpose. To quote Paul Valery: “That which is simple is always false; that which is not simple is always unusable”. Kala Kawa, a widely read blogger, recently wrote, “Something I Wrote On Pakistan Day”. In that particular blogpost, the blogger expressed his opinion about “confronting your own biases or assumptions” and “middle class … Read entire article »
Filed under: Al Qaeda, Conservation, Islam, Islamism, Pakistan, Politics, Society, Taliban, Terrorism, Women
Murder of History (Part 2)
For Part 1, Click here. by Abdul Majeed I have written in for Posterity. In a hundred years’ time when the future historian sets out to contemplate the Pakistan of an age gone by and look for the causes that brought it low, he might find in this book of mine one small candle whose quivering flame will light his path. K.K.Aziz, in Preface to his book ‘The Murder of History’ We discussed last week about some of the prevalent … Read entire article »
Filed under: History, Identity, Islam, Literature, Pakistan, Society
Profile: Zaid Hamid
by Abdul Majeed Biography Zaid Hamid was born in Karachi on March 14, 1964. His father, Col. Zaman Hamid (Retd), served in the Pakistan Army. Zaid spent his early life in Karachi. He received a Bachelor of Engineering (BE) degree in Computer Systems Engineering from NED University, Karachi in 1980′s. According to the brochure published by BrassTacks, available on the website www.zaidhamid.pk. Zaid Hamid rose to the fore when he started a program named Brass Tacks on a TV channel, discussing … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, History, Islam, Pakistan, Politics, Society, Terrorism
The Curious Case of Difa e Pakistan Council
Difa-e-Pakistan is an Urdu word meaning Defense of Pakistan. Difa-e-Pakistan Council means a council willing to/responsible for defending Pakistan. The semantics dictate that the said council should comprise of representatives of the armed forces, the para-military forces, domestic law enforcement agencies, defense ministry and foreign ministry. In fact, the esteemed council that has come to the fore recently consists of none of the above. In the words of the journalist Ejaz Haider, it’s a “circus”. Much … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, Islam, Pakistan, Politics, Society, Taliban, Terrorism, Uncategorized
Quranic Reflections: Surah Al-Mulk (The Dominion)
By Aasem Bakhshi An important element of Quranic discourse – and a kind of indirect proof of its Divine originality – is how it pushes the reader towards an almost natural and impulsive mode of pondering. This is sometimes achieved by countering the inner-most arguments developing deep within the folds of the human self. In his autobiographical journey towards Islam from atheism, Dr. Jeffrey Lang shares how he used to encounter responses to his questions as he interacted with the Quran on day to day basis. In fact, most of the Quranic interlocutors would agree that this observation is not a totally extraordinary experience and often there are moments when an unbiased and persistently reflective reader would feel as if his subconscious is laid bare before the Quran. Being structurally as well as … Read entire article »
Filed under: Islam, Islamic Holy Book Quran
On the tele-evangelist who got caught with his pants off….
The high drama of the week status can be awarded to the leaked Amir Liaqut video that went viral in a matter of hours two days ago and was as swiftly taken off youtube and a host of other sites. Thanks to the democratic and interconnected nature of the web already copies of the video are floating on the net. Café Pyala has done an excellent commentary on the situation. The updates on the post … Read entire article »
Is Islam a patriarchical tradition (II): Exegesis or Eisegesis
by Aasem Bakhshi Those who listen to the Word, and follow the best (meaning) in it: those are the ones whom Allah has guided, and those are the ones endued with understanding. (Al Quran 39:18) Every interpreter comes to the text bearing those complex histories of effects we call tradition. There is no more a possibility of escape from tradition than there is a possibility of an escape from history or language. (David Tracy in Plurality and Ambiguity: Hermeneutics, Religion, Hope) Interpretation being a human enterprise primarily means that it would be essentially modulated by inherent subjectivities of the interpreters, about which they might not be fully aware of themselves. This is because we cannot claim objectivity beyond our personal and social construct of reality. This is exactly the kind of subjectivity which … Read entire article »
Is Islam a patriarchical tradition (I): Understanding the hermeneutical gap
By Aasem Bakhshi We have made it a Qur’an in Arabic, that ye may be able to understand. (Al Quran, 43:3) Nothing exists except through language. -Gadamer in Truth and Method Islamic tradition, in many ways, can be described as a tradition of literature and one way to legitimately analyze the above question is to ask whether the core Islamic texts, i.e., Quran and Hadith are necessarily patriarchical [1]. Although it is true that Quran was originally revealed in a primarily patriarchical society and, at least in Islamic tradition’s formative and post-formative periods, interpreted mostly by the subjects of patriarchies, its text equally allows more coherent, less subjective and unauthoritarian interpretations to contest the popular traditionalist (or orthodox) interpretations with a visible patriarchical bent [2]. A … Read entire article »
Five Myths About Pakistan
We are cross posting this short but insightful post by Anatol Lieven where he discusses the five popular myths about Pakistan. In our view, these myths as much of a must-read for non-Pakistanis as they are for the Pakistani nation. (Editors, PTH) … Read entire article »
Filed under: Islam, Islamism, Pakistan, Religion, state, Taliban
Lesley Hazleton: On reading the Koran
Lesley Hazleton sat down one day to read the Koran. And what she found — as a non-Muslim, a self-identified “tourist” in the Islamic holy book — wasn’t what she expected. With serious scholarship and warm humor, Hazleton shares the grace, flexibility and mystery she found, in this myth-debunking talk from TEDxRainier. Source: http://www.ted.com/talks/lesley_hazelton_on_reading_the_koran.html … Read entire article »
Filed under: Islam, Islamic Holy Book Quran
A.R Cornelius – The Islamic Catholic?
By AA Khalid ‘’Over the past twenty-five years, academics in Europe and the United States have written a great deal about the relationship between Islam and democracy, and between Islam and human rights. This scholarship often fails to acknowledge or take into account similar debates that occurred earlier during a period of decolonization. This article discusses the work of a Christian judge who served on the Supreme Court of Pakistan. This judge, A.R. Cornelius, was a famous Cambridge-educated legal liberal who courageously tried in the 1950s and 60s to protect human rights as Pakistan came under martial rule. Cornelius came to argue shockingly and controversially in the 1960s and 70s that Islamizing the law of the state not only permits the liberal rule of law to survive, but, under certain … Read entire article »
Filed under: human rights, Islam
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