As the Pakistani media has become more influential, government efforts to curtail it have become more creative. In early July, the Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting proposed a new media code of conduct. The bill calls for a ban on graphic footage of terrorist attacks and forb

Terrorism is brutal and devastating, and its ultimate goal is fear. Terrorists hope to set allies against each other, and build tension between compatriots. The atrocities carried out by terrorists on September 11, 2001 were particularly devastating and, in many ways, the fear generated by the attac

When do Jews pray? Do they have a prayer book? Which direction do they face when they pray? These questions were directed to a Canadian Jew by his new Syrian-born Muslim friend.
They met at the annual Society for Scriptural Reasoning conference held at Huron University College in London, Ontario i

Public Service Guarantee Act 2010 is the first-of-its-kind in the country. I think that it is the historic victory of the people in Madhya Pradesh. It has thrown a challenge to the State Governments and Central Government which finds it difficult to amend the constitutional safeguards provided to th

In June, at the latest loya jirga (a grand assembly comprised of tribal leaders) meeting in Kabul, 1,600 local Afghan leaders endorsed a social reintegration programme for low-level Taliban insurgents willing to renounce violence, accept the Afghan Constitution and return to their homes with potenti

Despite of AIDS programmes prioritising men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) and transgender people as high risk communities, not only the existing services are reaching appalling low numbers of MSM and trangender people, but also the funding for programmes targeting these communities is shockingly, name

The proposal for a Muslim community centre called the Cordoba House, two blocks from where the World Trade Centre stood, has unleashed a torrent of emotions. The New York Times described some of the speech emerging from debates in the media and during protests against the centre as “vitriolic commen

Looking at the shape of the art world's character today, there is one aspect that clearly stands out. Modern art's trajectory, which remains centred in Northwestern Europe and the United States, is experiencing a shifting of axis. Countries long exempt from participation, such as Turkey, are eager t

For fans of Sex and the City – a television series and movie centred on the lives of four single women living in New York City – the summer movie sequel Sex and The City 2 promised fashion, fun, friendships and more. Viewers who watched it when it premiered on 15 July in Lebanon felt it delivered on

In Somaliland’s 26 June presidential elections, voters were faced with a pivotal choice in determining their future prosperity, security, freedom and peace. On that date, which marked the 50th anniversary of Somaliland’s independence from British rule, citizens voted to change the current regime tha

The beginning of 2010 saw much violence directed towards Indonesia’s religious minorities. On 3 January, a group called the People Communication Forum burnt down the Filadelfia Church, a house of worship for the Protestant Batak Christians in Bekasi, West Java. In a separate instance, extremist grou

In this age of widespread misperceptions that Islam is a religion of violence and intolerance, an Islamic peace education curriculum, addressing peacebuilding from an authentic Islamic perspective, is essential.
A group of 35 Muslim educators from eight countries came to Mindanao, the second large

“What is it like to live in Egypt as a Western woman?” During the years I lived in Cairo, I was often asked this question while visiting my native Finland, or when travelling outside the Middle East.
My short answer was “different”.
In fact, I was asked this so many times that I decided to write

Papers around the world have speculated that Hosni Mubarak, the 82-year-old Egyptian president, is suffering from terminal stomach and pancreatic cancer and may not live to see the next presidential elections. This has once again raised the crucial question of political succession in Egypt, the Arab

Have you ever heard of Bhim Sen Sachar? Surely not. In the elections to the last Punjab Assembly before independence, he was elected from the Lahore city seat in a predominantly Muslim constituency, and he won a resounding victory. The run up to 1947 was not all hate after all.
Our children are ne