Ten million reasons on November 24, 2011“Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” This is a well-known quote. But the devil’s workshop also contains ample room for the willing hands of the greedy. Greed and opportunism have been in play from the beginning of recorded history. One of the original recorded tales springs to life in the Biblical Book of Genesis. A […]
A cannibals tale on November 17, 2011“Consumption of human flesh is a delicate topic. It is an acquired taste. So introducing human flesh into the diet must be accomplished at a fairly young age. When you think of it, the human breast milk, which nurtures the newborn, can be viewed as the introduction to a craven instinct. It is buried in […]
Tackling jihadi literature on November 10, 2011The media is reporting that the Obama administration is in the process of instructing the US Department of Justice to embark on a course of purging intelligence training materials. References that link Islam and terrorism are to be scrubbed. This is an ill-advised policy move. On October 19, the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed […]
Global national trauma II on November 3, 2011“Occupy Wall Street” has birthed similar regional demonstrations including the one in Dallas, Texas. I have watched with mild interest but also a sense of detachment. The leadership is co-opted and I am acquainted with one of the Dallas men tasked with legal affairs. In spite of middle-class disenfranchisement, these movements in the US will […]
Interfaith relations on August 25, 2011My eyes fell on the following in my e-mail: “Dear Tammy, I want you to know that my Christian neighbour’s dog bit my Muslim cat.” Well, not exactly. The aforementioned is a bit of literary license at work. But sentiments and passions run wild as I continue to write for Daily Times. The words of […]
The killing fields of Syria on August 18, 2011“The true theatre of a workable faith is the holocaust, the cancer ward of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the soup kitchen of Thomas Merton, the slum of William Booth, the abortion clinic, the Sudanese famine, the child prostitute, the murder victim, the tortured, the exploited, the wretched of the earth. It is one thing to reverence the […]
Guidelines for writing on August 11, 2011Rupert Murdoch declared his testimony before the House of Commons Select Committee as the most humble day of his life. He then reached inside of his ego to pull out a CEO who wants to cleanse the media temple of a phone hacking scandal. His son James gave his testimony like an empire scion in […]
Guidelines for journalists on August 8, 2011‘Guidelines for writing’ appeared on the editorial page of Daily Times on August 12, 2011. I shared ‘rules of one’ for journalism. Since the piece was published, I have received Urdu poetry for review. There is not a word of Urdu in my vocabulary. I also received a request from a writer and poet whose […]
A madman in a new century on August 4, 2011“Once you decide to strike, it is better to kill too many than not enough…” — Anders Behring Breivik. Hate is like a heat-seeking missile acquiring a target. Once the target is identified, hatred finds meaningful expression that effectively decouples conscience from action. We need to begin to reduce the lexicon of adjectives used […]
The warm call on July 28, 2011Naeem Tahir received his first glimpse of members from Hizb-ut-Tahrir on the streets of Birmingham in October 2010 (‘Hizb-ut-Tahrir infiltration, Daily Times, July 16, 2011). My own ‘first contact’ with Hizb-ut-Tahrir was not one of physical proximity. Introduction to the organisation came through an article sent to me by an Islamic scholar several years ago. […]