Another tragedy: will we learn from Charsadda? on January 24, 2016Barely over a year ago, the Taliban attacked a school in Peshawar and took 144 innocent lives, mostly children. And now, they have struck again. Once again, the target of their terror was harmless students. As peace activist and Pashtun hero Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan’s death anniversary was being commemorated at Bacha Khan University earlier […]
Pakistan, Burma and the right to self-identify on June 13, 2015There are only a few countries in the world that deny their citizens the basic right to self-identity. Pakistan and Burma are two examples that come to mind. In both cases, the state-mullah nexus has changed the meaning of basic identities to exclude a group of people it despises. Despite the fact that they have […]
An open letter to Geo TV on December 28, 2014Dear Geo TV, I did not think I would be writing this letter to you just days after picking up the heavy coffins of over 100 innocent children in Peshawar. But here I am writing this letter in pain and disappointment. I am pained by your callous disregard for the peace and life of fellow […]
Imran Khan is no Jinnah on October 9, 2014I was living in New Jersey in the summer of 2011 when Governor Chris Christie appointed Sohail Muhammed to the bench of the Superior Court of New Jersey. Almost immediately, the governor faced a serious backlash from the conservative right, which attacked his move to appoint a US Muslim judge to high office. Governor Christie […]
Israels apartheid of its Muslim citizens on July 13, 2014Israel emerged on the world map as an independent nation in the late 1940s. Over the last 65 years of its existence, the nation has faced significant challenges. One thing that has remained constant, however, is the state’s treatment of its Muslim citizens. There are over a million Muslims in Israel. The orthodox rabbis have […]
Does PUC condemn sectarian violence? on June 9, 2014One of Pakistan’s organisations of the clergy, the Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC), held a national conference titled, ‘Why dialogue between various sects and religions is essential.’ The PUC’s central chairman, Maulana Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, presided over this well-attended conference in Islamabad. The conference was reported widely in the media. And why wouldn’t it be? The […]
Of Islam, Boko Haram and sexual slavery on May 24, 2014The Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram recently kidnapped more than 200 young girls, allegedly to sell into sexual slavery. Extremist Muslim clerics and extreme critics of Islam have long shared the conviction — amongst some others — that Islam allows keeping slaves, at least in certain circumstances, and permits their rape. This myth is unfounded. […]
Will you be Pakistans Mandela? on December 8, 2013One of the world’s most celebrated heroes passed away this week. Nelson Mandela was known for his persistent and heroic struggle against the South African apartheid — a system of racial segregation enforced through legislation after World War II — under which the rights of the black population were severely curtailed. Social discrimination was wanton, […]