Many learned people have stood in this hall and spoken of the values that are shared between the Abrahamic faiths. That is not my purpose today. I want to talk – I hope in a spirit of humility and respect – from my perspective as Foreign Secretary, about the political process of building coalitions

Islam and the Muslim world have both become critically important in the national and international affairs of America. The lack of American Islamic scholars creates a barrier to properly understanding Islam and its relationship to modern American society.
Twenty years ago, it was enough for medical

Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao’s Labor Day 2009 Message, “Work is both a RIGHT & a DUTY” was very meaningful. It focused on the RIGHT & DUTY of the worker. The effect of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization has badly affected the worker and this is seen when workers are robbed of their emp

The budget 2009-10 is dogging after the poor, and certainly many of its pages would be dog-eared. Curbing inflation must be at the anvil and ironically speaking the anvil may be the worthy plight of the poorest!
According to the first quarterly of SBP, the July-Sep 2009 revenue stands at Rs 385 bil

A Thai Rock Band group by the name of Mulatto is really creating waves these days in Thailand. It can really be called a smoke free and environment friendly band, as all its members are non smokers. They come from different backgrounds but all have one thing in common – none of them ever liked the s

A Short-Message-Service (SMS) hotline was launched in New Delhi, India to provide round-the-clock free tuberculosis (TB) support service to TB patients. This SMS helpline is being managed by ex-TB patients.
Earlier on World Health Day (7 April 2009), a unique partnership was forged in a community

Tobacco is the only consumer product which is grown and available legally and is lethal for human beings. At the current rate, the number of smokers dying every year in the world is likely to reach (10 million) 1 crore by 2020.
In India tobacco kills 1 million (10 lakhs) people annually.
Tobacco d

When tragedy strikes children of underprivileged homes whom do they turn too? Victims of unfortunate circumstances they are forced to be deprived of the their basic right to survival.
Worse still their families have no answers to questions like where do poor families who cannot afford treatment see

The Islamic Republic of Iran is taking advantage of a lapse in American politics when President Obama is formulating his new Middle East policies to actualize its expansionist policies in the Middle East. Just a few days after the summit meeting of American president with the presidents of Afghanis

Pope Benedict's visit to the Middle East last week has accentuated the need to improve relations between Muslims and Christians at multiple levels. Despite sharing a common Abrahamic lineage, both faith communities have a chequered history of relations going back to the Crusades. While the Qur'an re

It is not only important to explain what Islam really is, but it is also important to make a distinction between what Islam involves, and what people have incorrectly associated with and attributed to it.
What is the relation between Islam and the actions of people that practice the Muslim faith? I

I wish I could talk with Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician who was responsible for the controversial 2008 film Fitna, for his scathing reaction to a speech by the Netherlands Ambassador for Indonesia Nikolaos van Dam at a graduation ceremony of Qur'anic Studies in Indonesia.
Van Dam's speech app

In response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Akhil Maharashtra Muslim Khatik Samaj, stating that there were Dalits within Muslim community who needed reservation and demanded inclusion in the SC list, the Supreme Court has issued notice to the Centre seeking its reply. Further, the jud

Kanshi Ram and Mayawati started their politics with “Tilak, Traju aur Talwar- inko maro jute char” (beat the Brahmins, Banias and Thakurs with shoes) and “Vote hamara raj tumhara nahin chalega” (we won’t allow you to rule us with our vote). Besides this, in order to attract Dalits (Scheduled Castes.

Maybe it is time to take a break from the usual self bashing and look at ourselves from a different angle. We have been taking plentiful stock of what we have been doing wrong. Maybe taking stock of what we are demonstrably capable of may lead us to a different starting point.
I can remember two