Muslims and Liberals

Myriad East-West interactions renewing religious and secular values

Muslim democracies confuse US

Posted on by Mustafa Malik

(Published in the Daily Star, Lebanon, September  14, 2011; Dawn, Pakistan, September 13, 2011) By Mustafa Malik POLASHPUR, Bangladesh – Since September 11, 2001, I visited my mother four other times here in the village of Polashpur in northeastern Bangladesh. She is 92 and lives in my ancestral home, surrounded by three fish ponds and...

U.S. policy threatens Pakistan’s stability

Posted on by Mustafa Malik

Book Review: Middle East Policy, Washington, D.C.;  Fall 2011 By Mustafa Malik THE QUESTION once again: Is Pakistan a ‘failed state’ that’s going to bite the dust? Anatol Lieven is among the latest authors to try an answer. His book Pakistan: A Hard Country is a broad and detailed survey of the security, economic, social,...

Afghanistan eroding US hegemony

Posted on by Mustafa Malik

By Mustafa Malik EVER SINCE THE U.S. NAVY SEALS killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, the Obama administration is being urged by some progressives and conservatives to “declare victory and come home” from Afghanistan.  The Taliban apparently have different ideas. They have ratcheted up their attacks on U.S. and NATO forces. The 30 deaths from...

Norway terror echoes clash of civilizations

Posted on by Mustafa Malik

THOMAS HEGGHAMMER, a Norwegian terrorism specialist, says Anders Behring Breivik is no different from Osama bin Laden, and he describes Breivik’s carnage in Oslo and Utoya Island as “an attempt to mirror Al Qaeda.” I agree. I would add that both 9/11 and the Norwegian tragedy are part of the fallout of the latest “clash...

U.S. policy smothers Pakistani freedom

Posted on by Mustafa Malik

By Mustafa Malik WHILE THE PAKISTAN ARMY reels from public outcry over it highhandedness toward the press and public, a bribery scandal involving top generals has brought the army under international scrutiny. Would this help bring the generals under civilian control and secure freedom and democracy in Pakistan, continually disrupted by military coups? Would the...

26 hours in Pakistani torture chamber

Posted on by Mustafa Malik

By Mustafa Malik (Published in the Daily Star, Lebanon, June 10; Islam and the West, June 10; and the  Asia Times, Hong Kong, June 6, 2011) I’M SADDENED but not surprised by news of the slaying of Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shehzad. He didn’t have an American passport or other credentials that apparently had enabled...

Pakistan: A Hard Country

Posted on by Mustafa Malik

Middle East Policy2011 The question once again: Is Pakistan a “failed state?” Anatol Lieven, a professor at King’s College in London, is among the latest authors to try an answer. His book Pakistan: A Hard Country is a broad and detailed survey of the security, economic, social, political and ecological challenges facing Pakistan. But he argues that...

Pakistan plays China card against U.S.

Posted on by Mustafa Malik

By Mustafa Malik (Published in The San Francisco Chronicle, May 20; Islam and the West, May 22, 2011) The rebuff couldn’t have been starker. Sen. John Kerry was probably still unwinding on his return from Pakistan when the Pakistani prime minister decided to test U.S. foreign policy. He declared in Shanghai, “China is a true...

U.S. should nurture Arab democracy

Posted on by Mustafa Malik

The Columbus DispatchApril 30, 2011 Democratization of Arab societies “would be a disaster” for the West, warns Princeton University scholar Bernard Lewis. Yet he predicts that Islamic political parties are “very likely to win … genuinely fair and free elections” in the Arab world. Democratization of Arab societies “would be a disaster” for the West,...

Aiding Arab freedom serves U.S.

Posted on by Mustafa Malik

(Published in the Columbus Dispatch, April 30, 2011) By Mustafa Malik Democratization of Arab societies “would be a disaster” for the West, warns Princeton University scholar Bernard Lewis. Yet he predicts that Islamic political parties are “very likely to win … genuinely fair and free elections” in the Arab world. One of the West’s best-known...