– Pakistani Shia pilgrims killed in gun attack on bus
At least 25 Shia Muslim pilgrims have been killed after gunmen opened fire on a bus in western Pakistan, officials said. The pilgrims had been travelling through Mastung in Balochistan province on their way to the Iranian border when the attack happened. Several other people were injured, some critically, Pakistani media reported. …
Read more → BBC
CNN’s Phil Black reports on a community in Pakistan under siege by militants for more than four years.
Courtesy: CNN, YouTube
by Ian Black, Middle East editor
The Al-Khalifa family, who control Bahrain, has cracked down on dissent with little condemnation from the west
History and geography explain why Bahrain’s peaceful uprising was the early exception to the “Arab spring”, which began with high hopes in Tunisia and Egypt but now faces bloody uncertainties in Libya and Syria.
Sitting astride the faultline between the Shia and Sunni worlds, the small Gulf island state lies at the heart of a strategically sensitive region that is dominated by bitter rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia – both very tough neighbours. …
Read more: guardian.co.uk
By Salman Siddiqui
KARACHI: Kashif Mehmood joined the Bahraini police force soon after he graduated from the Pakistani school in Bahrain.
He wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps who joined the Bahraini police after migrating from Gujranwala’s Mandi Bahauddin area, some 30 years ago. …
Read more : The Express Tribune
by Nadeem F. Paracha
Plans are afoot to build the world’s first ever international Sufi university near Bhit Shah in Sindh.
The main purpose of the institution would be to promote interfaith and intercultural education to tackle extremism in the country.
Such a thought and project could only have come about in Sindh. Especially in the context of what Pakistan has beengoing through in the last many years. …
Read more : blog.Dawn
While the Pakistani media went hoarse over Raymond Davis, it conveniently ignored several other foreign thugs of the tallest order, operating with impunity inside Pakistan …
Read more : Daily Times
We are with our brothers and sisters in Egypt. We Salute you and want you to know that we are by your side in this struggle against Tyranny. Be strong, we are with you. The whole world is watching you and it is by your side. Dictators of the Arab world listen the voice of the people. People will Prevail, and Tyrants in the Arab world will Fall. We are with you People of Egypt.
By SALIM MANSUR, QMI Agency
History lessons are useful, and when events are in flux it is the past that can shed light on what the future might hold.
Autocracies, as I have indicated in recent columns, have shelf life. But there are caveats in any generalization, and the shelf life of any particular autocracy could get extended beyond its expiry date.
The current crisis in Egypt erupted with surprising speed for President Hosni Mubarak. The public demonstrations demanding an end to his 30-year rule has undermined him and very likely, as he has himself indicated, will end his presidency. …
Read more : TORONTO SUN
by Wichaar Analysis
Sunni Tehreek, that includes the Brailvi sect of Indian Muslims, was the last straw that broke the religious tolerance’s camel’s back. Now, it can be safely said that there is no tolerant Islami sect among Pakistani Muslims: they have all become ritualistic and part of Mullah Shahi.
The Sunnis, particularly Brailvis were the least politicized by political Islam. Following the Sufi traditions faith was purely personal belief for them. However, the temptation of power and fame (or notoriety) of political Islam was hard to resist for Mullahs even of Brailvi sect. When they saw JI and JUI leaders like Liqat Baluch and Fazalur Rehman regularly appearing on the TV talk shows and rubbing shoulders with most powerful people they thought that they were majority and yet ignored. Therefore, they had to venture into political Islam and TNR was a perfect excuse for them.
As a matter of fact the Brailvis had abandoned the Sufi tradition long ago. They had become a ritualistic sect who took ‘khatam, drood’ as their basic distinction. The Sufi shrines had become the jagirs (estates) of sajjada nashins who were running them like feudal dynasties. The trend had started much earlier in the history. Baba Farid and his nominated leader of Chishtia sect, Nizamud Din Aulia had refused to see kings and their men. However, great grand sons of Baba Farid joined the Tugliq’s and were awarded a huge estate in Pakpattan. It was a noteworthy estate when Ranjeet Singh conquered Punjab and he had to negotiate with the then sajjada nasheen.
Read more : Wichaar
Achievements & Disappointments of Pakistan. The language of discussion is urdu/ Hindi.
Courtesy: Dunya TV (Tonight with Najam Sethi-23-03-2010-1) – You Tube Link
by Farooq Sulehria
Taseer’s assassin is a Barelvi Muslim belonging to the Dawat-e-Islami, and 500 clerics of this faith supported his action. Most of these mullahs are part of the Sunni Tehreek and are supposedly anti-Taliban moderates. Those who claim that Pakistan’s silent majority is fundamentally secular and tolerant may be clutching at straws …
Read more : ViewPoint
The People of the Book!?! Watch.
Hand over ‘terrorists’, Ahmadinejad tells Zardari
TEHRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari on Monday to arrest and hand over “known terrorists,” the Iranian leader’s office said on its website.
In a telephone call, the Iranian president “asked Zardari to order his country’s security forces to quickly arrest known terrorists and hand them over to the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Ahmadinejad’s office said in a statement posted on its website.
The phone call followed a suicide attack last week in the southeastern Iranian city of Chabahar that killed 39 people during a Shia mourning procession. …
Read more : DAWN
Stoning to death —Ishtiaq Ahmed
The well-known English journalist Robert Fisk has presented a detailed investigative report, ‘The crimewave that shames the world’ in The Independent, September 7, 2010, about so-called honour killings. Not surprisingly, the highest incidence of such crimes is in the Muslim world, though even some non-Muslim Middle Eastern minorities and Hindus in India practise it. What I found particularly shocking was that after murdering a daughter or sister, a Muslim culprit can walk away scot-free because the Islamic law of qisas (retaliation) allows heirs to pardon the criminal. Thus, other family members can pardon the offender. All such relics of barbarism have to be done away with. Already in the 19th century, Maulvi Chiragh Ali wrote that the Quran is not a book of law. Justice Munir has also advanced similar arguments. Privately, most of the educated Muslims I talk to agree with me that hudood laws, blasphemy laws and many other such laws are anachronisms that have no place in the 21st century. More such voices need to be heard in the public space.
The task in hand for modern Muslims is to separate the spiritual, moral and ethical message of Islam from penal laws reflecting the sensibilities of tribal society of the seventh century.
Stoning to death is practised as a routine punishment for adultery in Iran and Saudi Arabia. When the Taliban ruled in Afghanistan, they too imposed it with a relish and did it with the same enthusiasm in their enclaves called Islamic emirates when they ruled in some pockets of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Swat valley. There is no doubt that the origin of this barbaric punishment is the Old Testament of the Jews. The Jewish Torah prescribes it for a host of other offences as well. It is not mentioned in the Quran. However, all the five schools of Islamic jurisprudence — Hanafi, Shafai, Maliki and Hanbali of the Sunnis and the Ja’afri of the Shias prescribe it for adultery. On this point of law, there is complete unanimity of opinion. I believe the Khawarji school of thought adheres to it as well. …
Read more >> Daily Times
Protester killed in Gilgit clash
One person has been killed and several injured in clashes between protesters and security forces on the outskirts of the northern Pakistani city of Gilgit.
An indefinite curfew in the city and in other parts of the country’s northern areas remains in force.
There was widespread violence in the town of Hunza when the authorities tried to stop Shia from demonstrating. …
Read more >> BBC News
More than 20 people have been killed and scores injured in a suspected twin suicide bomb attack at a Shia mosque in Iran, officials say. Iranian state media said at least 100 were hurt in the blasts outside the Jamia mosque in the south-eastern city of Zahedan. The attacks, in a largely Sunni area, were the work of suicide bombers, the reports said. Members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard were reportedly among the dead.
The city, capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, has been targeted before by the Sunni rebel group Jundullah (Soldiers of God), whose leader Abdolmalek Rigi was hanged last month. Al-Arabiya television station said it had received an e-mail purporting to be from Jundullah, saying the group had carried out Thursday’s attacks in response to the execution of Mr Rigi.
Read more >> BBC
YouTube source – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqYyHh1MTw4
NEWS EXPRESS CHANNEL DISCUSSES ERASING OF KALIMA BY PAKISTANI AUTHORITIES (ISLAM AHMADIYYA) Ahmdi mosque destroyed
Description- URDU/Hindi: Pakistani TV hosts Mr Mubashir Luqman discusses the recent persecution against Ahmadi Muslims where Pakistan Punjab Police erased Kalima from Ahmadiyya mosque and other Islamic inscriptions from Ahmadi houses. The logic given by the panel justifying these unIslamic acts is even more irrational than these unholy actions. We thank Mubashir sahib for showing this courage. May Allah reward him for his integrity and honesty.
Courtesy: Wichaar.com
Indus Asia Online Journal (Click here to go to home page)