I am not in a mood to comment on the whole Sharia thing. The NWFP provincial assembly passed a Sharia law a few days ago. I found the following quote from the NWFP Law Minister to be really funny: “We will also make laws to persuade youngsters to obey their parents.” You can do that?
Category: Pakistan
Democracy: Pakistani Style
To all those who think General Pervez Musharraf has restored democratic government in Pakistan, here is his underling Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali: “Neither you nor I gave him the uniform. It was given to him by an organization and only that organization can decide about that.” So, only the army can decide whether the President… Continue reading Democracy: Pakistani Style
Mountains in Pakistan
I promised some time ago to write about interesting non-political stuff in Pakistan. This is the first post in that series. I hope that I can continue this series for some time. We’ll start with the mountains. The northern part of Pakistan is mountainous and there are three main mountain ranges there: Himalayas, Karakoram and… Continue reading Mountains in Pakistan
Shariah in NWFP
The religious parties government in the province of NWFP in Pakistan has introduced legislation to enforce shariah in the province. The NWFP government has decided to enforce Islamic Shariat in the province by introducing Enforcement of Shariat Act and Provincial Accountability Act in the provincial assembly. Speaking at a news conference here on Friday, the… Continue reading Shariah in NWFP
An Illegal Immigrant
From Dawn: US authorities kept a nephew of President Pervez Musharraf in detention for two weeks for a visa violation, US and Pakistani officials said on Saturday. Aamir Javed Musharraf was detained on Feb 19 and released on Friday on bail, they said. He will now have to appear before immigration judge who could order… Continue reading An Illegal Immigrant
Smallpox Vaccinations
Virginia Postrel says: Speaking of immigrants, I can’t help wondering whether the estimates of how many (or rather, how few) Americans have been vaccinated against smallpox fully account for the immigrant population. I’ve noticed quite a few vaccination scars on the upper arms of relatively young Vietnamese manicurists. Jay Manifold says vaccinations are good for… Continue reading Smallpox Vaccinations
Valentine’s Day and Extremists
I knew that religious conservatives in Pakistan did not like Valentine’ Day, but it was never a big deal. Most of the protests and shattering windows of shops and cars occurred on New Year’s eve. It seems like things have changed somewhat according to BBC: Conservative forces in the Middle East and South Asia have… Continue reading Valentine’s Day and Extremists
Maudoodi: According to Kepel
I have started reading Gilles Kepel’s book Jihad : The Trail of Political Islam”. It is an interesting book with a somewhat different viewpoint about political and militant Islam. Here are some excerpts about Maudoodi (for some background, read my earlier posts [1, 2]): By contrast with Egypt, where Nasser crushed the Muslim Brothers in… Continue reading Maudoodi: According to Kepel
Honor Killings: Miscellaneous Notes
I should probably add some thoughts to my previous post about honor killings. I should warn you however that this post will not have the moral clarity of the previous one; instead it will be a somewhat wishy-washy post. I wanted to post something about this topic immediately after Joe Katzman brought it to my… Continue reading Honor Killings: Miscellaneous Notes
Honor Killings
Joe Katzman of Winds of Change pointed me to a post by Adil Farooq (MuslimPundit) on their group weblog. Adil writes about the practice of honor killings of women in the Muslim world. In a remarkable book, Woman in the Muslim Unconscious, the Morroccan scholar Fatna Sabbah writes these daring words: “I would like to… Continue reading Honor Killings