Muslims and Liberals

DawnJanuary 8, 2009 `UNPRECEDENTED election!` The headline in the Bengali-language newspaper Jugantar aptly described Bangladesh`s parliamentary election. Thanks largely to the deployment of 600,000 security personnel, the voting passed off without violence, which had marred most of the previous elections. Unprecedented, too, was the level of political consciousness revealed by the Dec 29 event. The...

The Columbus DispatchOctober 10, 2008 Pakistan is too weak to have repelled recent American ground and air raids on suspected Taliban targets within its borders. It has protested the violations of its sovereignty by its “war on terror” ally and fired what appears to be symbolic shots at some intruding U.S. drones. Pakistan is too...

The Columbus DispactchJuly 5, 2008 Pakistan’s assault last weekend on a militant stronghold in the Khyber tribal area might have been a sop to the Bush administration, fuming over Islamabad’s peace deal with the Taliban. But I doubt that the Pakistani army or government will, or can, rein in anti-NATO guerrillas in Pakistan. Pakistan’s assault...

The Daily Star – LebanonJuly 1, 2008 As NATO troops face stepped up guerrilla attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s new ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, is trying hard to explain to Americans why his government has tried to make peace with the Pakistani Taliban. That peace deal, despite the army’s confrontation with a senior Pakistani Taliban...

Council for Research in Values and PhilosophyChapter X in the 2008 publication entitled: ‘Communication across Cultures: The Hermeneutics of Cultures and Religions in a Global Age’ Chapter XIslam’s Emerging ‘Third Space’ in the West Whether a full-blown “clash of civilization” is inevitable between Islam and the West, a culture clash in the West between Muslim...

Pittsburgh Post-GazzetteMay 25, 2008 WASHINGTON — The other day my wife and I headed for New Hampshire to spend the weekend with my in-laws. At the Baltimore-Washington International Airport, Patricia used her e-ticket to get her boarding pass from a self-help computer. But when she keyed in my e-ticket information, a message on the computer...

The Daily Star – LebanonMay 20, 2008 The other day my wife and I headed for New Hampshire to spend the weekend with my in-laws. At the Baltimore-Washington International airport, Patricia used her e-ticket to get her boarding pass from a machine. But when she keyed in my e-ticket information, a message on the computer...

The Columbus DispatchApril 5, 2008 Pakistan’s new prime minister is distancing his government from the U.S.-sponsored war on terrorism that President Pervez Musharraf carried on for six years. In so doing, Yousaf Raza Gilani is reviving a stance typically adopted by Pakistan’s democratic regimes that succeeded pro-American dictatorships. Pakistan’s new prime minister is distancing his...

The Baltimore SunApril 3, 2008 SYLHET, Bangladesh — The new Pakistani prime minister is distancing his government from the U.S.-sponsored “war on terror” that President Pervez Musharraf carried on for six years. In so doing, Yousaf Raza Gillani is reviving a stance typically adopted by Pakistan’s democratic regimes that succeeded pro-American dictatorships. “Dictators always supported American policy to make...

Middle East PolicySpring 2008 A recent visit to Pakistan reminded me of the movie Gone With the Wind. The country where I lived and worked has been hit by turbulence that has blown away many of the symbols of secularism and Western lifestyle that once characterized its urban life. Gone were the bars and dance clubs,...