Islam and Modern Times: Is There a Case For Reinterpretation? Thanks for writing this piece.
The bottom line is that no one should impose their interpretation on others. When one interpretation leads to violence against others, the state has to move in - the instigators and perpetrators must be charged, tried and punished in the regular criminal courts. There has to be zero tolerance for any kind of violence, even when committed in the name of religion or honour.

Islam and Modern Times: Is There a Case For Reinterpretation? Thanks for writing this piece.
The bottom line is that no one should impose their interpretation on others. When one interpretation leads to violence against others, the state has to move in - the instigators and perpetrators must be charged, tried and punished in the regular criminal courts. There has to be zero tolerance for any kind of violence, even when committed in the name of religion or honour.

Access Denied Really enjoyed this - offbeat, interesting, unexpected, and well written piece

This wonderful Doc… I appreciate the comments and feedback.

We are planning an event on Jan 8, 2010 to mark what students until a few years ago always commemorated as 'Martyrs Day'.

For updates, details and other material, please see http://www.drsarwar.wordpress.com.

There is also a Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=167411502891

Bring Back Jagannath Azad’s Pakistan Anthem Several people have asked for the complete verses of Azad's Pakistan anthem.
Please see my blog http://beenasarwar.wordpress.com where I have uploaded Zaheda Hina's beautiful obituary on Azad, written in 2004

Incidentally, I did not advocate 'replacing' the current anthem with Azad's poem - I suggested adding it to our repertoire.

Bring Back Jagannath Azad’s Pakistan Anthem Thanks to all those who have participated in this discussion in a civil manner.

Re the complete verses of Azad's anthem - I spoke to Dr Mubashir who drew my attention to a column by Zaheda Hina some months ago in which she wrote on this issue and also reproduced the entire anthem. He has sent me a copy that I will scan and post as soon as I receive it.

I want to share the link of a moving and powerful speech by Jagannath Azad that his son Chander K. Azad in Jammu sent me (in which he talks among other things of how he was forced to leave Pakistan):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TtMn5Kc0rg&feature=email

India-Pakistan: Empathy, grief in Pakistan for Mumbai mayhem Re: # 150 - "if the status quo remains, then a less diplomatic government will come to power"... on both sides. Which is why it's important not to weaken those who are currently there. We have to realise that we can't go to war. We have to find better ways to express our rage than threatening to annihilate each other.
Re: # 138 - My friend, "the distinction between the Army's dictatorship and Zadora’s democratic rule" is not just "stuff to discuss over tea". It is at the heart of the conflict we are facing in Pakistan. It is real, and it is dangerous. Our future lies in the civilian government eventually winning.

India-Pakistan: Empathy, grief in Pakistan for Mumbai mayhem Re: # 138 - I would hardly equate Zardari with Hitler who was himself behind the atrocities and aggression of the German State. The civilan government of Pakistan has inherited a massive problem. It is trying in its own bumbling way to deal with it because in this lies the survival not only of Pakistan but also of peace in the region and beyond. To sound the war drums is only to play into the hands of the terrorists who want nothing more than chaos and conflict.

India-Pakistan: Empathy, grief in Pakistan for Mumbai mayhem Let's step back from the anger and the nationist hype and distinguish the military establishment of Pakistan from the people. The elected civilian government that represents the people is ranged against the army and - as well as against the same terrorists that India accuses it of harbouring.

Here's a follow up piece:

INDIA/PAKISTAN:
Pleas For Sanity as Sabres Rattle Over Mumbai Mayhem

KARACHI, Dec 1 (IPS) - The pattern is all too familiar. Every time India and Pakistan head towards dialogue and detente, something explosive happens that pushes peace to the backburner and drags them back to the familiar old tense relationship, worsened by sabre-rattling war cries from both sides.
The relationship between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours has been marked by tentative ups and plunging downs, particularly over the past decade. This decade is also marked by increasingly vocal voices for peace on both sides of the border who openly criticise their countries’ political and security establishments.
The fallout from the Mumbai mayhem is no different, if all the more ominous for having taken place in the midst of the global ‘war on terror’ with its ‘us versus them’ rhetoric that has contributed to escalated violence around the world and pushed fence-sitters onto one or other side...

Complete article at
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44915

The Marriott Bombing: ‘Pakistan’s 9/11’? Re: # 59
Mwaqar, thanks for the additional information. You correctly point out a lot of the factors behind the current situation, including the 'separate electorate'. However, one of the few things to Musharraf's credit is the restoration of the joint electorate. Hopefully, if the democratic process continues, many of the problems will sort themselves out.

Re: #60 _arjun24 - All I can say is that many of 'us pakis' are critical of our government policies and have long opposed the 'the plan to bleed india'. Neither do we want Kashmir falling in our lap - and I don't think many Ksshmiris want that either.

The Marriott Bombing: ‘Pakistan’s 9/11’? Re: # 42
Khyber, thanks for bringing up this point. The governor's point is echoed in the comment of a retired brigader I quoted in a piece for IPS the previous day:

[snip] The Marriott strike bears all the signatures of a ‘home-grown insurgency’, and was carried out "by the same people who attacked the FIA (Federal Investigation Agency) building in Lahore last year and killed Benazir", a retired army brigadier and defence analyst told IPS, asking not to be named. "The tribal agency people don’t have this kind of expertise, unless they have received outside help."

If this is the case, then clearly a convergence has taken place, or is taking place, between these different forces [end snip]

Full story at http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43963
For those who can't access it - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/beena-issues/message/995

Let's not, however, make it into an 'ethnic' issue as some people on this forum are doing - that will only serve to divide and weaken the fight against such violence.

The Marriott Bombing: ‘Pakistan’s 9/11’? Re: # 46
Thanks Ras. I actually made this point in the revised article I sent to Volkskrant the following day (the piece was published on Sept 23). This is the revised intro:

"Days after a suicide attacker rammed a truck laden with over 600 kg of high quality explosives into the high-security Marriott Hotel in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad many are still reeling with shock. It’s not that Pakistan is any stranger to bombings. Since the first suicide attack took place in 2002, the number of such attacks, and their casualties, has only risen.

"The first six months of this year alone have witnessed over sixty bomb blasts, about half of them suicide attacks. The year 2007 saw over fifty bomb blasts that took the heaviest toll of lives ever, including the over 150 who died after bomb blasts targeting the late former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s welcome procession of October 18 2007. The year ended with the attack that claimed some thirty lives and killed Bhutto herself as she exited an election rally on December 27.

"But it is the Marriott attack of September 20, 2008, striking as it did this heavily guarded building in the heart of Pakistan’s capital that is being termed “Pakistan’s 9/11�. "

Delhi Under Fright, Innocent Targeted Email from a reader in Delhi: "i was right there when the bomb blasts happened. i was in central park c.p and boom went the bomb. everywhere i saw bodies of women and children. what is becoming of the world? even the purpose of scaring the shit out of people that the so called terrorists are trying to do is going in vain because the very next day life goes back to completely normal! people have become numb. only those people are affected whose loved ones die in the blasts.
i am kind of shaken with the numbness."

The Prejudices Pakistan’s New President Faces Re: # 1 - Thanks Ras. I agree but it's not a question of expecting anything from AAZ. I was trying to unpack the reasons why he is so widely reviled.

See also 'Giving Democracy a Chance' IPS, Sept 1, 2008 (also on http://www.chowk.com/ilogs/edit/68651)

Why Zardari Should Be President! I am not a Zardari fan but I believe that we need to exercise some patience and restraint at this crucial juncture. Here's the link to a piece I wrote for IPS (also posted on my Chowk blog)
PAKISTAN: Giving Democracy a Chance - http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43742

Also see:
'Democracy, warts and all' By Saad Shafqat, http://www.dawn.com/2008/09/01/op.htm#1

'Why this fuss over Zardari?', by Farhatullah Babar
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=133670

There is no ‘honour’ in killing ‘Buried alive’ women were hit by blunt instruments - http://www.dawn.com/2008/09/04/top7.htm - the bodies of two victims have been found & exhumed. Apparently they were already dead when buried, and also they were not shot but hit with stones and sticks. But as stated in my article, these are details in the larger picture.