Posts Tagged ‘Sharia’

Dear Pakistani brothers and sisters, Muslims and non-Muslims, mullahs and humans, Notwithstanding my name, I am not a religious Molvi. I am a half-mullah, half-proxy and remain available for the service of both (mullah and military) as and when needed. However, today, I couldn't stop myself from being honest (for a change) after seeing the [...]

Related articles: Ramond-Diyat: Raymond Davis, Blood Money and ISI’s Shariat LUBP Archive on Raymond Davis Our Confused mullahs and right wingers Yes it was all over the retail news channels of Pakistan. Everybody had their own take on it. The lawyer of the deceased had his version. Here is a little of what I understood of this [...]

  The political and social aspects of Islam in Pakistan can be seen as existing in and emerging from three distinct clusters of thought. These clusters represent the three variations of political and social Islam that have evolved in this country: i.e. modern, popular and conservative. The modern aspect of Islamic thought in [...]

In an article published in the January 2009 edition of Newsline, prominent Pakistani academic, scientist and social activist Pervez Hoodbhoy outlined the root causes of religious extremism in Pakistan and while doing so pointed out towards deliberate attempts of imposing an Arab culture upon the pluralistic South Asian traditions upheld by the [...]

NFP asks if minorities will ever be treated well enough to not feel like misfits. — File photo Some days ago, while waiting in my car for a traffic signal to turn green, a young kid nonchalantly stuck a flyer under one of the car’s wipers. Usually I throw away such pieces of paper, but this time I decided to take a look at it. It was a [...]

Whether you like it or not, the notion of blasphemy, or of ‘defamation of religion’, creates a hierarchy of beliefs which is simply incompatible with the plurality of the world, and the very right to hold a belief The Minister for Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, recently announced the revision of the Blasphemy Law. For anyone remotely familiar [...]

Biography Dr Farhat Hashmi, daughter of the (late) scholar Abdur Rehman Hashmi, is a mother of four, and comes from the Indo-pak subcontinent. She received her Ph.D. in Hadith Sciences from the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Al-Huda International Welfare Foundation, established in 1994, is the brainchild of Dr Farhat and her husband, Dr [...]

For Libertarians, religious freedom is an inseparable part of this natural personal freedom that the Constitution of 1973 so purposefully protects. Protecting religious freedom as a fundamental right is not only morally, spiritually, and intellectually of greater merit but is also socially harmonious Secularism is an old song that keeps [...]

The active emergence of a revamped PML-N supplemented by an alarmist new electronic media can be detected as a more vocal arrival of the New Right in Pakistan. The rightward march By Nadeem F. Paracha Saturday, 27 Feb, 2010 It was called the ‘New Left.’ Emerging in Britain in the 1950s, the New Left was the left’s disparaging [...]

The misery on our faces Times may be hard but why add to the sum of national misery? Some of our afflictions, like the economic downturn and the war raging along the Afghan frontier, may be beyond anyone's control. But some are entirely self-created. We are not a police state in the political sense of the term. This is not a country behind [...]

Contributed by: Sajjad Hussain The Hizbu ut-Tahrir's strategy can be divided into four stages: 1. Ideology 2. Development of a “rigid theological” personality 3. Progression toward a theo-political state 4. March towards the “whole earth” Ideology: The theme and nucleolus of this organization is the following Quranic verse: [...]

Thanks: Raza Rumi and Marvi Sirmed This is a historic speech and a document that posterity will re-examine because of its ever increasing influence on the amalgamation of religion and politics in Pakistan. Seldom has one piece of legislation caused so much trepidation. Here is the text of the address of Sris Chandra Chattopadhya in Pakistan's [...]

The Ulema, Deoband and the (Many) Talibans By : S Akbar Zaidi Historical scholarship tends to see a continuity in the Ulema of south Asia – from the Deoband seminary in the 19th century down to the Taliban of Afghanistan and north Pakistan today. Such an assessment unfortunately ignores the discontinuities and breaks that have taken place [...]

Thanks: Hamza Alavi Internet Archive Religious fundamentalism has become a powerful and dangerous force in Pakistan, due mainly to the opportunism of successive political leadership that has pandered to it. Militant sectarian religious groups and parties, led by half-educated and bigoted mullahs,many of them armed to the teeth, are holding our [...]

The US attempts to broker a deal with the Taliban have neither surprised nor upset Afghan women. The Afghan woman is not like naive liberals across the world who are deeply frustrated over this US betrayal. The liberals had pinned their hopes on the US to rid Af-Pak of the Taliban. Hence, they are most upset and surprised at US endeavours to woo [...]

We must educate ourselves about what the Taliban represent. Here are some of the laws issued by the Taliban government in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. The Talibanic Laws 1996-2001 1.      "A denier of veil is an infidel and an unveiled woman is lewd. Conditions of wearing veil": 2.      The veil must cover the whole body. 3.     [...]

ذہنی عدم بلوغت اور منافقت ۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ افسوس کہ من حیث القوم ہم ابھی تک بالغ نظر کہلانے کے حقدار نہیں ہیں ۔ ہماری ذہنی سطح اس حد سے اوپر تو اٹھ ہی [...]

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Thursday announced a full-scale military operation to wipe out the Taliban from the insurgency-hit areas.In a televised address to the nation, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that after deliberations and discussions with all stakeholders, the government had decided to call in the [...]

Endorsing surrender —Abbas RashidEven before the ink has dried on the signed copy of the Nizam-e Adl Regulation 2009, the TNSM/Taliban leadership has seen it fit to clear up any confusion on the part of even the most optimistic among us.It turns out that from their perspective, the agreement obliges them not to display arms — there can be no [...]

Swat Taliban refuse to lay down arms ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Taliban will not lay down their arms in a northwestern valley as part of a deal that included the introduction of sharia law but will take their 'struggle' to new areas, a militant spokesman said on Wednesday.President Asif Ali Zardari, under (more...)

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Militants enjoy immunity from law: TNSM ISLAMABAD, April 14: The chief of Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi came up with an audacious interpretation of the Nizam-i-Adl regulation on Tuesday, asserting that the law would protect militants accused of brutal killings from prosecution. The assertion highlights the dilemma (more...)

Daily Times' Editorial: Getting parliament to endorse Swat lawsPresident Asif Ali Zardari has sent the Nizam-e Adl Regulation to parliament for a vote of endorsement before he signs it into law for Swat and its traditionally linked jurisdictions. The ANP is understandably miffed because the February 16 “peace agreement” was signed between Sufi [...]

President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday referred the draft Nizam-e-Adl Regulation, 2009 to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, advising him to table it before parliament for debate prior to its implementation. Meanwhile both TTP & TNSM have said that MPs opposing to the so-called Nizam-e-Adl Regulation, 2009 would be declared "non-Muslims" [...]

Many readings of Sharia By Ayesha SiddiqaFriday, 03 Apr, 2009 THE students of Jamia Hafsa want nizam-i-adl implemented in the entire country as a way out of the current crisis. They also want Taqi Usmani, their mufti, as chief (more...)

Daily Express, 22 March 2009 .. Ill-judged Saturday, March 21, 2009 We have never seen the detail of the agreement made between the government of NWFP and the TNSM, if indeed any such detail exists. For all the world knows it is nothing more than a sequence of sketched-out generalities and 'understandings' that can be [...]

HARDtalk: “If Fazlullah does not appear in court when summoned, he will be acting against shariat” —Sufi Muhammad, Leader of the TNSM * Keeping weapons is allowed in Islam* The military violated the ceasefire* No objection to a cantonment in Swat* Democracy is not allowed in IslamThe influential pro-Taliban cleric of Swat, Sufi Muhammad [...]

Swat: Civil judges must refrain from coming to the courts. Sufi Muhammad's orderSufi Muhammad urges people to cooperate with Qazi courtsSWAT, Mar 16 (APP): The Chief of Tehrik (more...)

Clutching at straws By Shaheen Sardar AliMonday, 09 Mar, 2009, Dawn THEY say the guns have fallen silent, there is a lull in the frenzied strafing. We hear no more schools will be torched, bombed and looted; the dreaded screeching ambulance sirens carrying the dead and dying will not haunt us anymore.Caravans of [...]

Can ANP afford to offer more sacrifices against a ruthless enemey (ISI-Taliban allaince)? (more...)

Terms of Surrender By Irfan HusainSaturday, 21 Feb, 2009 This is the second time the govt has surrendered to Maulana Sufi Mohammad; the first was under the last PPP administration in the (more...)

Implications of the Swat deal —Najmuddin A Shaikh It is a sad but almost foregone conclusion that this agreement will be no more effective than the ones concluded in the past, and that while there will be a welcome albeit temporary respite from the daily bloodletting in Swat, the strife will soon resumeLast week, I recommended that all power [...]

Ansar Abbasi's following op-ed needs a critical examination. Who are the Indian agents in Swat?Those who blew up girls and boys schools?Those who broadcast sectarian and violent sermons on FM Radio?Those who behead innocent men and women on flimsy charges?Those who impose their bigoted tribal and (more...)

Swat: doctrine of necessity (in its purest form) Islamabad diary Friday, February 20, 2009 by Ayaz Amir Those armchair warriors -- and there's no shortage of them out [...]

Maulana Sufi Muhammad of Tehreek-e Nifaz-e Shariat-e Muhammadi (TNSM) is now the hinge on which the peace of Swat revolves. He has committed himself to a number of things in his agreement with the NWFP government that he may not be finally able to deliver. If he vacillates, he breaks the accord; if he moves bravely forward, he runs the risk of [...]

Capitulation in Swat Thursday, February 19, 2009 Sayed G B Shah Bokhari The words in the preamble to the Adl Regulation that "All laws against Sharia will be abolished and Sharia will be enforced [...]

Raptus regaliter Hit and run Thursday, February 19, 2009 Shakir Husain Latin and Punjabi have a lot in common. For starters there are some choice words in both [...]

Ataul Haq Qasmi writes about a loyalist of PPP, Aslam Gurdaspuri and his resistance against dictatorship of General Zia ul Haq (more...)

Swat deal: an act of desperation?Wednesday, February 18, 2009Nasim ZehraThe writer is an Islamabad-based security analystGiven the circumstances that have prompted the government to enter into a peace deal with Maulvi Sufi Muhammad of the TNSM and to announce the enforcement of the Adl Regulation 2009 after peace has returned to Swat, it would be [...]

Sufi Muhammad-led Peace March kicks off in Swat Updated at: 1035 PST, Wednesday, February 18, 2009 SWAT: Tahrik-e-Nifaz Shariat Muhammadi (TNSM) Peace March led by its chief, Maulana Sufi Muhammad has kicked off [...]