60 Years of Pakistan
Booming India key to global economic growth
That blissful dawn, those ringing headlines
Revolutionary who kept death at bay till Aug 15, 1947
Sixty years of freedom, one hundred fifty years of struggle
Islam and inter-faith engagement
Shame on you hoodlums!
Indonesia to use its dormant Islamic voice
Illiterate landless Muslims: the three levels of vulnerability
By Kashif-ul-huda, TwoCircles.net
A commission constituted by the UPA government suggests that Muslims in India face vulnerability in employment sector due to low level of education, having no land and being Muslim.
India-Gulf ties: gulf between aspirations and achievements
Mumbai riots of 1992-93: Letting sleeping dogs lie
Let not this behavior go unaccounted
Attack on Taslima Nasreen : Most reprehensible
Emergency in Pakistan: Returning from the brink
Interview with Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, Shia scholar
By Yoginder Sikand
Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, a leading Shia Muslim scholar, is the Vice-President of the All-India Muslim Personal law Board (AIMPLB). He has a Ph.D. in Arabic from Lucknow University and runs a chain of schools and colleges in Uttar Pradesh. In this interview with Yoginder Sikand, he talks about his vision for the Muslims of India and reflects on crucial international developments.
Jihad, crusades and tolerance: a Christian scholars view
Gujarat plans to implement controversial Religious Freedom Act
Time to Ponder over Hindu-Muslim relations
Maulanas in the News
Who Are the guilty of 1992-93 Communal Riots in Mumbai?
Baghdad diary: Life after Saddam Hussein
Turkey’s post-election outlook
Turkey: a maturing democracy
The RSS stranglehold on the BJP
Palestine now
Early elections in Palestine is a necessity
India should take seismic protection more seriously
NRIs in US, wake up and smell the curry!
Trend-Setting in Islamic Publishing: Good News from Goodword
Manmohan Singh held his ground on nuclear deal
India’s Regional Politics Remain Immature
The limits of Pakistan-US counter-terror cooperation
Muslim quotas in AP
Fondly remembering the ‘people’s president’
Pakistani nukes and global hazards
Jet-Sahara deal: heralding new phase in Indian civil aviation industry
Rise of the Hindu Taliban?
Does crime imitate art? The pathology of a campus massacre
Behind facade, Bangladesh treading on Pakistan’s path
Bachchans push India to a regressive low
Food, fuel, water and alternate energy sources
Muslims should come out of their minority mindset
NRI marriages through Bollywood lens
Machiavellian method behind BJP’s manoeuvres
Rehab visits – the name of the new fame game
BJP’S anti-Muslimism
Making the Right Electoral Choice in UP
Judicial Absurdity: Recent Ruling on Muslims in UP
The vicious circle at Aligarh Muslim University
Minority judgement
SAARC: Hype, reality and a little matter of visas
Woes of Indian Muslims: vast resources but to no avail
War in Iran, a gold mine in the making
Rise of Fascist forces in India
Turkey’s post-election outlook
Turkey: a maturing democracy
A Madrasa with a Difference
By Yoginder Sikand
Contrary to how the media generally portrays them, madrasas in India are not entirely opposed to reform. Indeed, the winds of change are being felt even in the portals of the more conservative madrasas, such as the vast network of Deobandi seminaries spread across the country. One such instance is the recently-established Jamia ul-Umoor, in New Delhi's Muslim-dominated Abul Fazl locality.
India should take seismic protection more seriously
India's growing economic might is making many countries look at it with a sense of envy. This newfound economic prosperity has also left India more vulnerable and susceptible to natural calamities. It is imperative that we start following the global best practices and stop living in a sense of denial.
Kashmir’s Largest Madrasa: Dar ul-Uloom Raheemiyyah
NRIs in US, wake up and smell the curry!
By Kul Bhushan, IANS
Highly educated and rich, non-resident Indians in the United States are waking up to their clout - and also their flaws. When Indian Americans donate millions of dollars at the presidential hopefuls' fund-raising events, they also think about the returns on their 'investment'. Do they have adequate influence in the American establishment in line with their contributions?
Taliban: Pakistan’s incubus, world’s scourge
President Pratiba Patil has a formidable task ahead
Trend-Setting in Islamic Publishing: Good News from Goodword
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Established in 1996, Delhi-based Goodword Books has emerged as one of India's leading Islamic publishing houses. Founded by Saniyasnain Khan, son of the well-known Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, it has brought out more than 400 titles so far, in Urdu, English and Hindi.
Manmohan Singh held his ground on nuclear deal
Considering that the Manmohan Singh government has generally been seen to be bullied by the Left into retreating on various issues such as the presidential and vice-presidential candidates, economic reforms and so on, it is worth noting that the prime minister has been able to consistently hold his ground on the India-US nuclear deal.
India’s Regional Politics Remain Immature
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The jubilation for the victory of India?s first women president Prathibha Patil seems to have drowned one of the ugliest episodes of the Indian democracy. Tamil Nadu?s main opposition party the AIADMK and its ally the MDMK defied its own whip and voted for Bhrion Singh Shekhawat, an independent candidate backed by the National Democratic Alliance in the recently concluded presidential election.
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The limits of Pakistan-US counter-terror cooperation
In Pakistan insecurity and concern about a US attack is catching on. The only logical and plausible Pakistani response to such a possibility is for the government to publicly warn the US that all cooperation on anti-terrorism will immediate stop if the US violates international law and attacks Pakistani territory.
Muslim quotas in AP
By Aariz Mohammed
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It is the duty of the State to evolve criteria to identify ‘Backward Classes’ Irrespective of Caste, Religion, race, Sex and place of birth in accordance with the Philosophy of the Indian Constitutionalism.
Fondly remembering the ‘people’s president’
As the charges and countercharges flew thick and fast and the muck-raking intensified in the weeks before India elected a new president, one was left wondering if it was worth going through all the mud-slinging for the right of tenancy of a piece of real estate which is a relic of a colonial past the republic has left behind.
Pakistani nukes and global hazards
By Alexander Koldobsky, IANS
The word "nuclear" has a way of quickening people's pulse. The recent earthquake in Japan would have been just another earthquake, but the fact that it set off a fire at the world's most powerful nuclear reactor, which subsequently leaked radioactive material, grabbed the headlines.
Pakistan, which has recently experienced a metaphorical earthquake in the form of Islamist terror, would also barely merit a mention on the inside pages if it were not for that country's nuclear arsenal.
In the name of inspiration
Conventional warfare cannot combat terrorism
We have no hatred for Hindus or Indians: Ghulam Hasan Majrooh
Ghulam Hasan Majrooh is the Press Secretary of the All-Parties' Hurriyat Conference (Mirwaiz), a conglomerate of various political parties in Jammu and Kashmir supporting the right to Kashmir self-determination. He is also the General Secretary of the Ittihadul Muslimeen, a largely Shia political party, whose Chief Patron is the senior Kashmiri leader, Maulana Abbas Ansari. Muslims look in from the outside
Tata’s Rs.100,000 car: boon or bane for India?
By Bhamy V. Shenoy, IANS
It looks as though Tata's Rs.100,000 car will be a reality next year. It is now being praised all over the world as India's shining moment ushering in a new automobile era. When seen in the background of India's energy crisis, it shows India's total lack of preparedness and long-term planning failure.
Indian Muslims are not well served by their leaders
By Amulya Ganguli, IANS
It may be a coincidence, but both India and Pakistan have started talking in terms of reforming the traditional madrassa system of education. While Pakistan's initiative has understandably followed the tragic Lal Masjid episode, the Indian government's proposed measures are evidently the fallout of pressure from the Hindu communal outfits.
A case for Muslim quotas in AP
The heated debate on climate change
By Dmitry Zamolodchikov, IANS
Hurricanes in Russia, scorching heat waves in the US and snow in Argentina... The Earth is being assailed by all kinds of climatic anomalies - indisputable signs of global warming. Nobody knows for sure what is happening with the climate. Scientists continue to discuss the problem and are coming up with new explanations.
Here's the conventional view.
Britain cuts off its nose to spite Russia’s face
A Russian view: European arms accord a non-starter
By Pyotr Romanov
President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree suspending Russia's obligations in the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE) and related international agreements. It will withdraw from the CFE 150 days after the signatory countries receive the official notifications, which are most likely already on their way.
In support of Dr. Haneef
Dr. Mohammad Haneef is innocent. Not enough evidence is out there to suggest he was in anyway involved with people who were arrested in UK for failed terrorist plan. But in the new jungle law of post-9/11 world, you are guilty until proven innocent. Case of Dr. Haneef is most extreme. Even Australian Court did not think that there is any evidence to link him to any terrorist or their activities and therefore granted him bail.Terrorism and educated youth
Mayawati: Now the bad news
Extremist Islamic mobilisation in India must be countered
A high degree of sentimentality and sensationalism has characterised much of the reaction, both in the media and among experts, to the involvement of a group of educated Indian professionals, including at least one engineer and one doctor, in the failed bombings in Glasgow and London.
Replacing Delhi’s killer Blueline buses not the answer
The Delhi High Court has issued notice to the Delhi government, asking it why the notorious privately run Blueline buses, which have caused at least 60 deaths this year, should not be replaced by safer buses. But can a new fleet be "safer" if indiscipline continues to grow on the roads?
Indian Muslim media of 2006
A review of English publications
By Kashif-ul-huda
While going through Milli Gazette, I came across a sher by Akbar Allahabadi
Lal Masjid and Golden Temple – comparisons are inevitable
Lal Masjid, Islamabad, 2007; Golden Temple, Amritsar, 1984 - Some of the similarities between the confrontation in the Lal Masjid and the 1984 clash between Sikh extremists and the Indian authorities are obvious.
When terror probes and racial profiling go hand in hand
Mohammed Asif Ali, the second Indian doctor detained in Australia in connection with the UK terror plots, was released Wednesday without charge and declared innocent. Never mind the ordeal he underwent for three punishing days and the widespread negative publicity that led him to seriously consider quitting his post at Queensland's Gold Coast hospital.
Practical measures for the socio-cultural empowerment of Indian Muslims
Epidemic fever in Kerala: fact, fiction or phobia?
Since the 1980s, Kerala has had a series of outbreaks of new diseases -- leptospirosis, dengue, Japanese encephalitis (JE) and chikungunya. Each time the government was caught unawares and the health system was unprepared.
Knighthood for Salman Rushdie and Muslims
Muslims need to self evaluate
By Mir Hasan Ali
A loud explosion…gasps of fright amid shock…followed by the growing sound of ambulance sirens.
It has happened yet again.
Presidential polls – more about politics than the candidate
One does not remember a presidential election in India where the role of political parties has been so blatantly exposed to the public eye. The scrutiny of a candidate's credentials by the media is unprecedented. Public interest has also been fuelled by the hurdles faced by the Congress in carrying out an election process announced as having been won in advance.
Terrorist test
A July 2, 2007 editorial of Malaysia's New Straits Times newspaper
The two thwarted car bomb plots in central London and the Jeep which crashed and burst into flames at Glasgow airport may or may not have been deliberately timed to provide a baptism of fire to the premiership of Gordon Brown.
Search for a Gujarati
IPI pipeline – a pipedream for the time being
The much-hyped Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project has again hit roadblocks and doubts are surfacing if it will ever become a reality. Despite reassuring words by India's Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, Iran's insistence on revising gas fees every three years has created worries for the partner countries.
Awake, it’s no Satan, it’s just Salman
Bigots baying for the blood of celebrity novelist and freshly knighted Sir Salman Rushdie, from Iran to Pakistan to Malaysia to Srinagar, are back in business, albeit with a slightly farcical hiss. However, this time round their rage has turned not such much on the "apostate" novelist but on the not-so-great Britain they have come to see as the blood brother of the almighty America in stigmatising and attacking Muslims.
Awake, it’s no Satan, it’s just Salman
Bigots baying for the blood of celebrity novelist and freshly knighted Sir Salman Rushdie, from Iran to Pakistan to Malaysia to Srinagar, are back in business, albeit with a slightly farcical hiss. However, this time round their rage has turned not such much on the "apostate" novelist but on the not-so-great Britain they have come to see as the blood brother of the almighty America in stigmatising and attacking Muslims.
Do we have a new energy Cold War?
Ever since Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a pipeline deal in May this year with the presidents of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to transport their gas through Russia to Europe, there has been a cacophony on the new energy Cold War. Is this really an energy war? And is it even new? How is India placed to play its role in this energy war?
Comparing corporate czars and rich politicians
When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warned against high corporate salaries, he didn't seem to have taken into account the fact that there were wealthy people not only in the business world but also in the political establishment.
Is IAF’s long wait for combat jets over?
Seeds of extremism is in communal riots: Sayeed Khan
Report: South Indian Muslim Convention, Kochi, Kerala
A president should be someone with a vision for India
India is in the thick of electing a new president and the time could not be more opportune to reflect on the qualities we must look for in the new leader even though the office is more symbolic than executive. It is disheartening to notice that the entire debate on the presidential election ends up focusing on the superfluous, the partisan and the non-essential.
NRI trust assists ‘poorest of the poor’
A London-based NRI founded a decade ago a trust that assists 3,610 widows and their children in Indian states and more in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Kenya and South Africa. To draw attention to their plight, the Loomba Trust worked to have June 23 declared as the International Day for Widows in 2005 by the wife of Tony Blair and a year later by the UN Secretary General at the first Diwali dinner at the UN by the trust.
Gilgit Baltistan: A saga of Pakistani colonisation
Gilgit-Baltistan, also called Federally Administered Northern Areas, was once a part of Jammu and Kashmir. But since 1947, when India and Pakistan achieved independence, the unfortunate territory is facing the wrath of colonisation.
30 days in Afghanistan: arrival
Engineer by degree, writer by chance, Muslim by birth and filmmaker by passion, JSG is in Afghanistan for 30 days. He will be taking advantage of his stay there to observe, reflect and write about it. TwoCircles.net will be publishing his posts from Aghanistan.
Violence No Answer
By Mohammad Yousuf Naqash
Armed offensive conflict is not the answer to the problems confronting the world. Islamic principles show us the right path in this regard. As a matter of fact, Islam totally rejects extremism in whatsoever form and manifestation. We need to make a difference and draw a clear line between right and wrong and choose between the Islamic and the non-Islamic. Masked faces with double standards within our community have to be identified, exposed and isolated so as to help stop misinterpretation and misrepresentation of Islam.
Rickshaw ban: a bane or boon?
To a person like me who has spent the major portion of his life in the vintage streets and lanes of Shahjahanabad, or the Mughal-built Old Delhi, riding on horse carts and rickshaws, the blanket ban on cycle rickshaws by the Delhi High Court has come as a shock. I feel that courts that otherwise are doing yeomen service to the cause of justice at times pass orders that are not people-friendly.
Who says Hindus are not victims of communalism?
Statistics say that Hindus account for more than half the number of sufferers of communal strife. This means their "victimisation" is a reality. But the question is, who victimises them? Religious minorities? Hindutva groups?
Presidential poll: messier than ever
If the presidential race has become messier than any previous contest, the reason is the petty antics of the Indian political class.
Popularising Quranic education Kerala’s unique way
NRIs, save Mother Ganga to save yourself
Tens of thousands of Hindus come to India from many corners of the globe every year solely for Mother Ganga. Some come to submerge the ashes of their beloved in the holy river for salvation. In a few weeks, hundreds of NRIs will visit the river goddess to perform annual 'shraddhs', or prayers for the departed souls of their loves ones. Most devout Hindus visit the river to take a holy dip to wash away their sins.
European Union report reflects Kashmiri aspirations
European parliamentarian Baroness Emma Nicholson's "Report on Kashmir: Present Situation and Future Prospects" has been much deliberated upon through countless press reports on its controversial findings. Strongly criticised for being "biased", the report, after a few amendments, finally saw its way through the European Parliament in Strasbourg and was stamped as "credible".
Indian strike – privatisation is the answer
Pratibha Patil: The advantages of being lightweight
A long-standing political trend was highlighted by the fact that when the lightweight Shivraj Patil proved to be a persona non grata for the Left as a presidential candidate, the Congress turned to the even more lightweight Pratibha Patil to be its - and the ruling United Progressive Alliance's - nominee for the post.
Stars, stripes and the crescent: the foundations
By Anis Hoda
Stars, stripes and the crescent: a series on American Muslims.
Ramu Gandhi: A solitary thinker in smug, noisy times
Not many get to choose the place they die in, but knowing Ramchandra Gandhi, one gets an eerie feeling that this peripatetic thinker would have wanted to breathe his last moments in a place that was his home and yet not his home for so many years, symbolising the eternal homelessness of the modern intellectual.
NRIs getting ready to celebrate ‘India@60’
'Life begins at 60' is coming true for India. Although 60 years is just a moment in time during the history of a country as ancient as India, 60 years after independence is a major landmark. And NRIs are gearing up to celebrate the event. Many NRI social welfare groups have set up special committees to hold the celebrations in different forms and styles.
Save the dolphin: Join the battle in Assam
All of us are familiar with its superb leap out of the water, immortalized in paintings and photographs, on film and digitized media, on banners, glass and stone sculptures and room decorations.
The future of India: caste wars or social harmony?
Is India on the verge of a major social and political change? Two contradictory events - one raising the spectre of caste wars and the other of caste reconciliation - have introduced dramatic new possibilities to the Indian scene.
Last hope for Bhutanese refugees in Nepal
How to tell Tamils they don’t belong to Sri Lanka?
Any government in any country can err. But some errors can turn out to be political blunders. Sri Lanka's startling move to throw out Tamils from numerous lodges in the capital Colombo falls in that category.
Saving the devoured monuments of a neglected history
Ignorance reigns supreme in each lane and bylane of the historic city of Delhi that was the hub of Urdu 'tehzeeb' (culture), the glorious memories of the five hundred years of Mughal ambience fading away slowly.
First click for NRI Investors
When an NRI wants to invest in India, what is his first step? Look for opportunities in India through different government bodies promised as 'a one-stop shop'. As if all the existing bodies to attract investment were not enough, the ministry for overseas Indians launched a new one last week - the Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre (OIFC).
Police and Minorities
Urdu as medium is endangering the Muslim student
As things are, India is forging ahead now, but its Muslim minority is still largely primitive and uneducated. It is the responsibility of Muslims more than anybody else to see to it that the community does not lose out on an enlightened education.
Stemming rot in criminal justice system: be tough, act fast
The latest scandal in the trial in what is known as the BMW hit-and-run case has once more brought to the forefront the issue of vitiated trials caused by prosecution-defence collusion provoking calls for reform of the criminal justice system. The issue however, is not one of lack of checks and balances within the system - but of diligent and deliberate application and enforcement of those checks and balances.
Mayawati holds the cards in presidential poll
Holding one of the keys of the presidential election due to her newly-gained strength on the Uttar Pradesh scene, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati is in a comfortable position to obtain favours and attention from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and more particularly from the Congress party.
Long march to a just solution to Bhutan refugee crisis
The Bhutanese refugee issue is in the news for all the wrong reasons. While there appears to be a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel for some refugees with announcements of third-country resettlement, recent incidents in the camps and on the India-Nepal border only reiterate the need for careful and sensitive handling.
Playing with caste fire: the Gujjar upsurge in Rajasthan
The poisonous seeds of caste-based reservations, which were sown in the 1990s, have begun to bear fruit.