Unwelcome Home
But more than 30 years on, Pakistan’s Muslims are in a state of civil war. As well as the persecution of Ahmadis and recent attacks on the minority Ismaili sect, extremists from Pakistan’s dominant Sunni and Shi’ite sects are intent on destroying each other.

A Different Kind of Jihad in Kashmir
Let us hope that those radical imams who fuel Muslim anger learn to fuel Muslim charity.

Nature's Fury or Divine Wrath?
It is advisable not to attribute natural calamities to Divine wrath. Our efforts are best directed towards providing relief to the victims, be it through money or effort.

Let God be the Judge
Bariza Umar In August 2002 the US and Pakistan began allowing dual citizenship. I was thrilled. I had been born in the US to Pakistani parents, but moved to Pakistan when I was seven. Having lived in Pakistan since...

Islamists and Hindutva Fascists: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Islamists and Hindutva fascists cannot survive without each other despite claiming to be the most inveterate foes.

Pakistani Democracy: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
We are caught between those who while being committed to the democratic process are detrimental to it because of their corrupt ways and those who may offer clean governance but are dangerous because of their ideological intransigence.

September 6th Had Direct Bearing On September 11th: Breakfast at Lahore
By Seeme Gull Hasan To the chagrin of my husband, I always forget my wedding anniversary date. In fact, I have been known to mix it up with my engagement date. In this fumble of memories, there is one...

Clash of Fundamentalisms
When I was asked to review two movies, one about "Muslim fundamentalism" and one about the Gujarat massacre in India, I thought it would be great – two movies with lots of similarities. I was wrong.

Changing My Curriculum
One of the first things that most children learn in school is that most formal education is a fraud. What children are learning (and not learning) everywhere is a big scandal. Yet the curriculum wars are not about improving schools all over the world. They are about forcing one party’s myths as the official dogma

Review: Ten short films about Pakistan
Karachi Kamera short film festival does not promise anything more than an ounce of Pakistan’s soul, but this time it comes without all the other mind numbing chemicals.

Sweetness of Life: Review of Clay Bird
The Clay Bird is a beautiful and sophisticated film about a village in rural East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) during the turbulent years of the late 1960's, a time riddled with the rhetoric of war and political instability.

When Pakistan Hanged Its Prime Minister
April 4th came and went quietly. I am separated by more than 20 years and thousands of miles, so the day Pakistanis hanged their prime minister was like any other April day in Washington. It was chilly but pleasant.

Brother Against Brother: 'A bloodbath that seemed too gory to be real'
They were massacres: Iraqi and Pakistani Shiites suffered a week of carnage and horror as suicide bombers attacked religious sites last Tuesday, killing at least 200 people with some estimates running as high as 300, during the most holy day on the Shiite calendar. In Iraq it was the bloodiest day since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Looking East: Observations of a Malaysian in Pakistan
Prior to making the trip from Berlin to Islamabad, I made the usual round of good-byes and was somewhat surprised by the reaction I received from my colleagues in Europe. Most, if not all, had offered me the same morsel of advice: “You are going to Pakistan for your holiday? Be careful!”

Awaiting Mahdi
You Yazid! (grows silent). Oh, wait...you want to attack me? This...this might be doable. Go ahead then. Attack me. Go right ahead. I urge you to. My people are used to your people's attacks. In fact, I urge you to make a martyr out of me. My people like martyrs. Shall I present my neck or can you shoot from there?

McCarthyism Ashcroft-Style: Post 9/11 Immigration Policies
Since these new policies have been implemented more than one year has passed, and thousands have been detained and deported, but only four have been arrested upon connection to terrorism. The overwhelming majority of immigrants were detained, as time would show, for no other reason than they were Muslim and held citizenship in a Muslim country.

Rescue Us from This Town: Confronting the Oppression of Women in Muslim Society
There are too many unfortunate realities in Muslim communities and countries. It’s time to overcome our fear of facing those realities, and it’s time to work to change those realities. That work isn't only about getting poor men jobs and getting people to pray and fast more. A lot of that work is very uncomfortable work, which entails us feeling guilty, angry, and ashamed about our larger Muslim family.

The View from Lahore: What Pakistanis Think of Iraq's Liberation
“But war is not some kind of harmless video game,” insists Mohsin, a computer science student (and an enthusiastic video game player himself). Referring to General William Wallace’s statement early in the war-‘The enemy we are fighting is different from the one we had war gamed against’- he says, “Personally I would have liked George Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney to be embedded with journalists in the front lines to get a taste of what it feels like to be on the receiving of an artillery barrage rather than miles away in the comfort of the White House enjoying live television coverage”.