A Whiff of Fresh Breeze from Tehran

The 6-hour “transit visit” of the Iranian President has produced more hope than hype in South Asia, compelling the West-Asian Capitals also to look beyond immediate requirements and strive for durable peace in the volatile region.
What h...

• Time to Strengthen Indo-Iranian Relations
  By ASIF AHMED

Shame of Cricket

Indecent cheerleaders imported from foreign countries are wasting their time and energy, writes SYED TAUSIEF AUSAF...

With Baum as Friend Shakespeare Needs No Enemies

By 2010, only 350 million people will be speaking English as their first language, while around two billion – a third of the world population, will be speaking the language as their second.
Where the sun never set, whether they like it or not,...

A Critique of Fitna 'Let's build confidence and trust'

In a letter sent via email to the Dutch Foreign Office on April 19, 2008, Medhat M. Awad of Saudi Arabia, expressed his thoughts on the publication of the slanderous film Fitna by the Dutch MP Geert Wilders. The Dutch Foreign Officer Buitenlandse Zak...

Are We a Functional Democracy?

Recently two incidents involving media persons have taken place. In both the cases, concerned media persons were harassed. Unfortunately the national media chose to black them out. In one incident, a documentary film maker Mr. Shubhradeep Chakravorth...

The Battle has Begun in All Earnestness

With three-phased Assembly poll in Karnataka due on May 10, 16 and 22, the race for the seat of power, Vidhana Soudha, has begun in all its earnestness. The BJP has released the first list of its candidates for the 136 of the 224-member Assembly. &nb...

Islamic Banking A Derivative of Islamic Economics

Islam has a particular worldview and value system and gives specific guidance and instructions encompassing almost all aspects of life, including economic life of man. The Islamic system of life is an organic whole. However, based on instructions and...

Meanwhile in Darfur

Tonnes and tonnes of newsprint and television footage have been devoted to the conflicts in Palestine and Iraq by the media in the Muslim world and rightly of course. But where’s our outrage when it comes to Darfur? wonders AIJAZ ZAKA SYED...

Islam, Muslims and Democracy-I

It is recurrently argued that Muslim countries are not democratic. This is based on the assumption that only the Western style democracies are the best form of government. The truth is that the Western style democracies are nothing but an instrument ...