By Anwaar Hussain

Robert Michael Gates, the 22nd United States Secretary of Defense, spoke at a press conference recently in Kabul.  “There is still much fighting ahead, and there will assuredly be more dark days….but there is reason to be hopeful that Afghan and coalition forces can rout the hardest elements of the Taliban and establish security for the rest of the population.” he said.

‘Rout’, he said. What then, someone should have asked.

Robert Michael Gates needs to go to a game of Buzkashi in Afghanistan.

A time-honored game of the steppe people in Central Asian region, Buzkashi is a wild sport. Skilled riders attempt to grab the carcass of a headless goat or calf from the ground while riding a horse at full gallop. The aim is to get clear of other players and throw it across a goal line or into a target circle.

From Scythians, Bactrians and Aryans to the later Arachosians, many civilizations of the yore have played the game of Buzkashi for countless centuries over the region with Afghanistan being the prized carcass. In time, from Median and Persian Empires to Alexander the Great, the Seleucids, the Indo-Greeks, the Indians, the Turks and the Mongols, a host of other people appeared on the horizons to join the game on one side or the other.  No sooner would one team exit when another would join the activity. Called the Great Game in recent times, the blood sport was continued with old fervor by the British, the Soviets, and most recently by the United States and their allies. Continue Reading »

By Anwaar Hussain

Way up on the shadowy ladder in the dark world of spooks comes the name of Mossad.

Responsible mainly for intelligence collection and covert operations, including paramilitary activities, it is one of the three institutions in the Israeli Intelligence Community. The other two are known as Aman and Shin Bet  tasked for military intelligence and internal security respectively. Together, these three agencies are responsible for a long string of covert operations including assassinations of opponents, spying on friends and foes alike and tracking down and killing the Nazis of the yore.

On January 19, 2010, life was snuffed out of one Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in his hotel room in Dubai. Traveling without bodyguards, he was en route to Bangkok. Allegedly, Mossad was on his spoor from Damascus, tracking him finally to his hotel room in Dubai. A team of at least 27 suspects, carrying fake or fraudulently obtained passports from various nations, seven of which assumed the names of Israeli dual citizens, worked in tandem to carry out the hit. So professional was the hit that for days Mabhouh’s death was ascribed to natural causes.

According to a detailed report in The Daily Mail on Sunday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had personally congratulated members of the Mossad team that allegedly killed Mabhouh ahead of their departure to Dubai.  Continue Reading »

By Kamran Shafi

“PAKISTAN is the most happening place in the world where there is never a dull moment.” So pronounced the Commando to a “packed audience” at Chatham House in London, to much laughter and mirth.

‘Happening place’ did the man call our poor and bleeding country that is reeling under the onslaught of murderous yahoos who do as they will, wherever they will?

Pakistan is a ‘happening place’ when a women’s bazaar in Peshawar is attacked and over 100 defenceless women and children are blown away to kingdom come? Or when Lahore’s Moon Market is wantonly attacked and over 60 innocents, again mainly women and children, die needlessly and cruelly? Or when an army mosque in the heart of Rawalpindi cantonment is assaulted by people who knew what they were doing, and who identified the children of senior army officers and then brutally killed them? Or and indeed, when a bus full of junior ISI functionaries, clerks and the like is blown up, again in Rawalpindi cantonment? Continue Reading »

By Ayaz Amir

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 any kind of iron curtain and, the notoriety of our intelligence services notwithstanding, we do not have anything like the East German Stasi prying into every aspect of national life. We have one of the freest media in the Islamic world. Our kind of talk shows would not be permitted in most Muslim countries.

While we should count our blessings we should not forget that in the social sense this is a very repressed society.

The pity of it is that it wasn’t always like this. Once upon a time mosque and tavern stood side by side (in a metaphorical sense of course) and even as they did, no one said Islam was in danger. How distant that time seems.

We were Muslims in 1947; we are Muslims now. There is a difference, however. Today we wear our religion on our sleeves and shout it from the housetops. Continue Reading »

By Anwaar Hussain

The text books that are taught to Pakistani children recount exploits of numerous past Muslim heroes in them. Standing tall amongst these heroes is one Arab by the name of Muhammad bin Qasim, born on 31 December 695 in the city of Taif in modern day Saudi Arabia.

Following are just some of the tokens of Pakistanis’ veneration for their hero.

He is sometimes called “the first Pakistani”. Port Qasim, Pakistan’s second major port is named in his honor. PNS Qasim is the name of a Pakistani Naval ship. Pakistan Army Aviation’s home base is called Qasim Base. Qasim is a fairly common first name for Pakistani male children. The day of Yom-e-Babul Islam is observed each year in Pakistan in memory of Muhammad bin Qasim.

Now let us see what we are told about this hero and what we are not. Continue Reading »

By Irfan Husain

Consider this demographic projection for the UK, and ponder its implications for a moment: within five years, the majority of babies will be born to unmarried parents.

However, before you put this down to yet another example of Western immorality, just remember that all these babies will have the same legal rights as those born to married couples.

This trend is part of the wider decline of marriage as an institution. According to a recent study, the figures for people getting married in Britain is at its lowest ever since these statistics began to be compiled nearly 150 years ago.

In 2008, only 21.8 per thousand adult men of marriageable age actually took the vow. At 19.6, the figure for women was even lower. And the average age for men getting married for the first time was 32, and for women it was nearly 30.

These figures reveal not so much disillusionment with the institution of marriage, as much as they do a widespread rejection of religion. Continue Reading »

By Anas Abbas

Aafia Siddiqui was finally convicted on 4th February 2010 for trying to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan.  She is now expected to face a maximum of 60 years in prison.

Below is a study that will analyze some important questions that are related to Aafia Siddiqui’s case.  The questions are:

What happened to Aafia and her children in 2003?

Why is this case so extraordinarily popular in Pakistan?

Why are the majority of Pakistanis so adamant about Aafia’s integrity?

Why has Pakistani media been creating a mass hysteria from this case?

Why is Aafia popularly known as “Sister” and “Daughter” in Pakistan?

Why is this case being exploited by Pakistani political parties such as PTI and JI for political rivalries against their opponents?

Why Pakistani government paid a hefty sum of $2 million to hire one of the best law firms, Dawn M. Cardi & Associate, to represent this case?

Why have people (including Aafia herself) been dragging Israel into this case and calling the ruling of U.S. court as partisan and Zionist influenced? Continue Reading »