Lies about Fidel
The death of Fidel Castro, for those of us living in the belly of the beast, has meant being forced to endure non-stop lies and hypocrisy from the mass media…
Works in progress
Is there some strange or symbiotic relationship between Operation Zarb-e-Azb and incidents of honour killing? In other words, would the success of an operation against terrorism and violent extremism be…
On belonging
Here’s the core of Sebastian Junger’s explosive analysis of why the United States has become a sick country (that’s my term, I confess, not Junger’s): “Today’s veterans often come home…
The ‘third phase’ of human civilisation
Human civilization has entered into its third and hitherto highest phase after surviving through most thorny first phase and criss-crossing through second phase. Human civilisation started its journey with mainly…
Saudi Arabia-Iran spat: Challenges to Pakistan’s mediatory role
Can Pakistan play a meaningful mediatory role in ironing out Arab-Iranian rift? For a country to undertake a mediatory mission it must have strong credentials with effective diplomacy, robust economy…
Fahrenheit 451
That’s the temperature at which paper auto-ignites, and is also the title of Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel about a future America where books are burned by the state. However, I…
On the wrong side of history
The threat to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf sheikhdoms is not from Iran. It is from the Islamic State or Daesh. The conflict tearing the Islamic centre apart is not…
No questions asked
The quest for knowledge and exploration of the universe is one of the most powerful commands of Allah Almighty. The Holy Quran emphasises contemplation of the creation of the heavens…
Violence and vilification
It is a strange irony of history that in the age of communication revolution dialogue has been replaced by monologue and the vilest in society have become representative of the…
Barbarism and us
At the height of the First World War the German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg exclaimed that humanity would soon be confronted with a stark choice — it could save itself by…
