Following the reprehensible attack on Christian homes in Lahore, a spine-chilling, grotesque image of an arsonist cheering over the burning flames went viral. One wonders what sort of man thumps his chest over destroying innocent lives and how human beings can become capable of such naked, audacious sadism that seeks justification in a faith that [...]
When a friend from Bangladesh gifted me a jute bag with the Bangladesh flag motif painted on it, I asked her to explain the symbolism. She told me it stood for the rising sun over the green fields, reddened with the blood of liberation martyrs. After the terrible atrocities in 1971 in which many innocent [...]
Much ire has been unleashed against an awareness drive in Karachi that highlighted the concept of modesty in Islam using Quranic and Prophetic references on billboards and handbills, in the context of the February 14 celebrations. The rejection of the idea of singling out a day for the expression of amorous sentiment as odious to [...]
Arguably, love is the highest sentiment the human spirit is capable of. In essence, it is selfless, generous, liberating, sublime. It purges one of all that holds one down to the mundane and earthy. Kahlil Gibran famously writes: “Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it [...]
The jarring reports on human rights abuse in Kashmir- notably, of rape used as a weapon against an occupied people- have failed to elicit a response from the United Nations. When pressed for comments over a report on the presence of thousands of unmarked graves, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon apologized that he had ‘no [...]
Much has been written about the Theatre of the Absurd in Islamabad on the Ides of January. I wouldn’t dignify it with comment on the agenda, the proceedings, the success or the lack of it. But I am interested in examining how it could have happened, with the support of the many thousands who braved [...]
“You have to read these”, my friend compelled me, giving me a couple of yellowed, printed-long-ago sort of books. That gave me my first glimpse into the fascinating life and inspiring works of Maryam Jameelah. Born as Margaret Marcus into an American Jewish family who cared little for religion and were active believers in the [...]
Attacking a girl who expressed her will to educate herself and others like her is a crime most heinous is something every right-minded human being would assent to. There is, quite unsurprisingly therefore, an absolute consensus among Pakistanis and the rest of the world about the reprehensibility of the act_ and that certainly tells us [...]
That a thirteen-minute long tawdry inanity from a dubious manic character could trigger off an uproar both from the emotionally and psychologically volatile fundamentalist groups as well as from states and governments is something that needs talking about. Complex social trends are taking over, quite beyond taming- a plethora of forces, factors, ideas and ideologies [...]
I felt the freshness in the air; of the evening merging slowly into those blessed first moments of the first night of Ramadan. I felt the vigour in my step as I walked out the gate just after the pre-Ramadan study circle in my neighbourhood had finished. We had studied a collection of Hadith on [...]
