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Of Serendipity and Starry Nights
Decembers are a poignant time of year, as we reflect on the receding shores of time, it is as if with each year one wave of our life disappears into the distant horizon. This December, my reflection...
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Mr. Cameron: Democratic or Dogmatic?
These have been troubling times for adherents of the Islamic faith with the rising tide of extremism along with an increasing number of Muslim scholars and clerics attempting to monopolise a...
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The uncanny chillness of the Charsadda attack
I remember singing along to an oft-recited Hindi poem as part of a 13-member peace delegation to India in the summer of 2001. One couplet always resonated with me deeply, reminiscing the loss of...
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Is Britain Dangerously Diverse?
Can Britain be said to have become dangerously diverse since it opened its shores to migrants, particularly from Commonwealth countries, following the end of the Second World War? That appears to be...
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Je Suis Humanity: Beyond Scriptural Heresy
As the gruesome scenes from Brussels emerged on Tuesday, they bore an uncanny resonance to feelings I brought home from my recent trip to Pakistan. Visiting the country I grew up in for the first time...
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Hijacking the Hijab – the Religious and Liberal Paradigms
As a consequence of this dogmatic approach to the hijab in certain Muslim-majority lands, we have heads turn at a woman in a burqa and not so much as a blink of an eye at a nun who adorns herself in...
View ArticleIn Memoriam: Mirza Qadir Ahmad
It was a summer afternoon in school on 14 April 1999 in Pakistan’s capital. I was a 16-year old GCE student, preparing to sit my exams that May. The school I attended was a small one, founded two years...
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The burka debacle has missed the vital point – the woman
Image courtesy: https://www.gamespot.com/forums/offtopic… Boris Johnson’s article in the Telegraph last week referring to burka-wearing women as “letterboxes” and “bank robbers” has sparked a fierce...
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Pakistan: blaspheming the divine
Image courtesy: The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/opini… For religious minorities living in Pakistan, life remains increasingly precarious. In the case of Ahmadi Muslims, a...
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Blasphemy – Pakistan’s insurmountable problem: stories from its perilous slopes
Shumaila Jaffery’s poignant piece on Aasia Bibi and Pakistan’s blasphemy laws for the BBC last week stirred within me an unexpected nostalgia. Its thoughtful narrative served as a reminder of many...
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