I am a Muslim, a very proud Muslim, in fact. I practise my religion. But I keep it to myself. I believe in it wholeheartedly but I do not thrust it on other people. I pray five times a day but I don’t go around exhibiting it. I fast all 30 days of the Ramadan, of which others wouldn’t have the slightest inkling. I believe in beliefs. My beliefs are personal. So are yours....

A partitioned Afghanistan may not be the best outcome. Yet it will be far better than an Afghanistan that dissolves into chaos. And infinitely better than one in which the medieval Taliban returns to power and begins a fresh pogrom. With a partitioned Afghanistan, Pakistani generals, instead of waging proxy war against India and sponsoring Afghan Pashtun militant groups, will be compelled to focus on fending off a potent threat to Pakistan's unity....

The last full year Atal Behari Vajpayee was in power, 2003, as many Indians were killed in terrorist incidents (3,702) as the total for the last three years under Manmohan Singh. How many times have you heard that said before? This is even more remarkable when we learn that the figures under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) excluded all Maoist violence because that wasn’t compiled under “terrorism” till 2004, when Singh came to power....

In my opinion, the present violent strifes and disturbances in Pakistan are the logical and inevitable result of creating a theocratic state in this subcontinent and, hence, the only solution is the reunification of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh under a strong, secular, modern minded government, which does not tolerate religious extremism and bigotry, whether Hindu or Muslim, and crushes it with an iron hand....

As a distraction mechanism again and again, as when the Ershad military junta instigated fake Ayodhya-retaliation communal riots to distract from the national protests against the military regime. There have been other moments throughout the last 4o+ years.The chess game continues, and we continue to allow Bengali Hindus to be collateral damage, again and again……..

While lamenting the present geo- political scenario of the region, Sardar Shaukat Ali Kashmiri said that due to state sponsorship of the extremist forces in Pakistan the constituency of peace and democracy was under constant threat. The different actors were trying to destabilise the whole region. Whenever both countries come together such forces become active and Pakistani military also aggravates the situation……

I was recently proposed to by a young man who was otherwise the perfect eligible bachelor and quite the gentleman. He had been educated at a prestigious business school, with a job in Malaysia, and I was not expecting to hear him use phrases such as “anyways” and “sux”. It took a lot of effort on my part to convince myself that I was not being courted by a teenager still in high school. I constantly found myself mentally correcting his grammar and ultimately I realised that pursuing marriage with him would be nothing but a disaster....

The biggest untruth of partition of India was the division in the name of religion. The fact is that it was impossible for two people who have lived side by side for centuries to be divided by the thin line of religion as interdependency on our work and culture was the most important aspect of Hindu-Muslim relations in India. Even, the founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who was a staunch secularist and who Sarojini Naidu once described as Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, always felt that the issue of Pakistan was not religious but political....

It is Halal to rape female protestors. You might think that this fatwa was issued by some Talibani or Al Qaida leader out to suppress any voice that criticises them, right? Wrong. The fatwa was issued by an Egyptian Salafist cleric Ahmad Mahmoud Abdullah, ironically known as “Abu Islam” who owns a TV channel Ummah. He had issued the fatwa to silence the female protestors who were against the policies of the Morsi government....

....is music really un-Islamic? He said that if women indulge in indecent, immoral acts such as singing, it would be a step toward their destruction. Is it really that simple in Islam? Of course it isn’t. The music of the Sufi mystics, meanwhile, has been around for centuries, and many celebrated musicians have sung their Ghazals and Quawalis. Whether classical or pop, there is good reason to let people get acquainted with music....

The Pakistan media has not given much coverage to the signing off of the agreement between the two countries. And those who covered it presented only the brighter side of the project. The media only highlighted the benefits Pakistan will gain from the port but did not give much coverage to the apprehensions and complaints of the people of Balochistan in which the port is located. ...

Nasheed, an Amnesty prisoner of conscience who spent several years in jail for dissent, has said the prosecution is politically motivated. The purpose, he says, is to ensure he cannot run in the presidential elections scheduled for 7 September. Any sentence will disqualify him from the race. If Nasheed is prevented from running, there will be unrest like the country has never before seen. He is loved by many, more than he is loathed by coup-makers and their supporters....

....Babri Masjid was demolished as 3,000-4,000 men in uniform watched. His reply was a chilling recall of another fateful Sunday 21 years ago: “The video cassette recording by the Intelligence Bureau clearly documents that not more than 3,000-4,000 ‘Kar Sevaks’ were within close proximity of the mosque. In such a scenario, could no effective action have been taken? The reason why no action was taken lies elsewhere. The same cassette shows policemen rejoicing, with their hands held high in victory,....

The spurt in Jamaat violence became particularly noticeable after a rightwing cleric, Abul Kalam Azad, also known as Bachchu Razakar, was condemned to death by the ICT. Azad, who had, for years, compared Islamic programmes on television channels in Bangladesh, mysteriously fled the country before he could be taken into custody last year. He is reported to have found sanctuary in Pakistan....

“I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen.”  Dr. Qadri has pledged allegiance to Queen Elizabeth and her heirs, many a founding fathers and mothers of Pakistan had pledged similar allegiances to Queen’s father and grandfather. Did we ever question the loyalty of those who served the British Raj before they served the land of the pure?....