Morgue - Muslims and Liberals

Cow, Crescent and Star in Postcolonial States

Mustafa Malik — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 15:03:00 +0000

Middle East Policy2015 In November 2014, President Obama accepted India’s invitation to be the chief guest at its Republic Day celebrations. He will be the first American president to do so. I was in Kolkata (Calcutta), India’s “cultural capital” when this was announced. Most of my interlocutors there were euphoric about the news, especially the...

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Bangladesh’s quest for identity

Mustafa Malik — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Providence JournalMarch 17, 2013 I’m saddened by the bloody mayhem rocking Bangladesh, where I lived and worked through two turbulent decades. Street fights between the country’s secularist government forces and Islamist activists have claimed dozens of lives. The clashes were triggered by a death sentence handed down by a Bangladeshi court to a leader of...

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Benghazi murders: Revisit free speech

Mustafa Malik — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 14:54:32 +0000

SF Gate – Muslim WorldSeptember 14, 2012 It was a reprehensible crime. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other U.S. diplomatic staff members were nurturing excellent U.S.-Libyan relations until they were murdered by a Muslim mob in Benghazi. Many Libyans will fondly remember Stevens’ hard work to implement the U.S. policy to facilitate their liberation...

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New-Age Muslims: They Embrace Modern Life But Seek Meaning in Islam

Mustafa Malik — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 14:58:52 +0000

Pittsburgh Post-GazetteJune 13, 2012 A casualty of a trip to Bangladesh (and many other Muslim countries) could be the belief, or illusion, that Islam and modernity are conflicting value systems. A college classmate’s visit to my ancestral home here in Polashpur village reminded me of this illusion, which is widely shared in America. I wouldn’t...

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Pakistan: A Hard Country

Mustafa Malik — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:48:00 +0000

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...

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U.S. should nurture Arab democracy

Mustafa Malik — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 14:46:51 +0000

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,...

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Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West

Mustafa Malik — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:39:51 +0000

By Mustafa Malik Middle East Policy, 2010. In the spring 2004 issue of Middle East Policy (Vol. XI, No. 1), I argued that, while earlier groups of immigrants assimilated into European societies, “Muslims are unlikely to do so.” A majority of those who commented on it thought I didn’t get it. They basically said that modernity would...

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Pakistan: Can U.S. Policy Save the Day?

Mustafa Malik — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:35:56 +0000

Middle East PolicySummer 2009 Ever since 9/11, America’s preoccupation in Pakistan has been with “terrorism.” Anti-American Pakistani militants call it part of their jihad against the U.S.-NATO “occupation” of Afghanistan. Today political stability has become the overriding U.S. concern in Pakistan. President Obama says his administration is “working to secure stability in Pakistan” because he is “gravely...

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News of Pakistan’s demise is premature

Mustafa Malik — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:33:56 +0000

The Daily Star Beirut, LebanonMay 22, 2009 A friend called from Lahore, Pakistan, and asked if I could put up his family in my home in the Washington suburbs. “Most welcome!” I said. “When are you all coming?” “As soon as Pakistan begins to collapse!” replied Abdul Wahid Qureshi, a retired college professor. Qureshi was...

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Defeating the Taliban is a pipe dream

Mustafa Malik — Sun, 17 May 2009 16:27:32 +0000

SF GateMay 17, 2009 A friend called from Lahore, Pakistan, and asked if I could put up his family in my home in the Washington suburbs. “Most welcome!” I said. “When are you all coming?” “As soon as Pakistan begins to collapse!” replied Abdul Wahid Qureshi, a retired college professor. Qureshi was responding, facetiously, to David Kilcullen‘s forecast that...

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