homistan

An essay by Professor Emeritus C.M. Naim, University of Chicago. A messenger brought me some news. It began: Darul Uloom Deoband, the self-appointed guardian for Indian Muslims, in a Talibanesque fatwa that reeked of tribal patriarchy, has decreed that it is “haram” and illegal according to the Sharia for a family to accept a woman’s [...]

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Pakistan’s originary myth is tied to a spectacular episode – I have written about this here and here but, let me quote from a Social Studies Textbook for the sixth grade, used nationally in Pakistan: Before the dawn of Islam, the trade relations had been setup between India and the Arabs. The Muslims invaded the [...]

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I urge every reader to sign your name, begin at the beginning. To: Government of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani Senate Chairman Farooq Hamid Naek Speaker Fehmida Mirza Ambassador Hussain Haqqani Your Excellencies, The May 28th massacre of Ahmadis in Lahore is a tragic reminder of the state of siege [...]

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My piece, House on the Hill, June 13, 2010 in The Express Tribune about the illusion of safety which envelops the Sunni upper-middle-class. There is the majority, the people who live in this house. They are always Sunni Muslim — though they are quite capable of throwing this or that “Sunni” faction out in a [...]

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The most satisfying exposition I have seen of the average Hindu’s feeling about this exalted beast is a little essay composed by a candidate for a post in one of the public services, entitled simply “The Cow.” The fact that it was submitted in order to show the aspirants mastery of the English language, while [...]

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I want to share these two poems with you. One comes from a place far from the site of the massacre and the other from its very neighborhood; one comes from within and the other from without. They are the voices everyone in Pakistan should hear. I. Salma A writes: A Poem by Saqyb Zirvi1 [...]

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Letters to the Editor, The Daily Times, Saturday, June 05, 2010: Sir, Last January, a retired schoolteacher was killed in Ferozewala only because he was an Ahmedi. A reporter for your paper filed several brave reports, and stopped only when the four accused men were allowed by the authorities to simply walk away. I saved [...]

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There is some confusion among the twitterati about the “tangent” in regards to the column by Mosharraf Zaidi which anchors the second part of my post on Ahmadi legal history. So allow me to be frank here. Zaidi writes: Most Pakistanis, however, far and widely disconnected from what has come to represent “liberal” in Pakistan, [...]

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I. Who exactly is a Muslim? It shouldn’t surprise anyone that this is a question with a rather long history. Islam’s first split – the Shi’a/Sunni/Kharajite – was a split over leadership and community but the debates revolved around self-definition vs oppositional-definition. Many, if not all such schisms occurred as, participated in, or were reflected [...]

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This picture, posted by Zackintosh on his twitter feed, immediately arrested me. It was taken at/outside the Karachi Press Club, at a gathering meant to show solidarity of the Lahore massacre – sadly, a rather non-event. It was the hand-written white sign in the middle, held high. The gentleman holding up the sign seems mature, [...]

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Four young men ran through the streets of Gujranwala, Pakistan, trying to escape the mob rioters chasing them and reach the house of their friends. Their friends, two brothers, had already arranged to move all the women of their house and others to a nearby neighbor’s home for safety. The four men reached the house [...]

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Pakistan Penal Code 298, 298-A, 298-B, 298-C [pdf], updated by Anti-lslamic Activities of Quadiani Group, Lahori Group and Ahmadis (Prohibition and Punishment) Ordinance XX 1984. Paragraph 298-A: Use of derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of holy personages: Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo or insinuation, [...]

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Below are further thoughts from Prof. CM Naim. A recent NYT story commented on conspiracy theories in PK and a number of people got really upset. Yeah. Here are the front-page “explanations” in Pakistan’s two foremost Urdu newspapers: Nawa-i-Waqt and Jang. Both are published in several cities, and also have web editions. According to one [...]

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There is a mosque near my house in Berlin. I bike past it every time. I often stop at the light, and enjoy the minarets against the grey skies. There is a mosque in Lahore, too. Every attack, every atrocity, every massacre diminishes us all. This, I choose to lay at the feet of Mawdudi [...]

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The February 2002 issue of Seminar, Porous Borders/Divided Selves, on the Partition should be read immediately. I especially draw your attention to Santosh Kumar Ghose’s short story Hoina, the poems by Jibananda Das and Tasleema Nasreen, and the essay by Meghna Guha Thakurta, Uprooted and Divided. There is yet another phenomenon which distinguishes East Bengali [...]

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I want to thank Sonam for allowing CM to publish this (it is scheduled to appear in print in “Another Chicago Magazine”). His translation and his text is haunting. The original Kashmiri verse, by the refrain “chaav myaney daeni posh”, appears in T. N. Kaul’s “Gems of Kashmiri Literature: Anthology of Kashmiri Verse”, (New Delhi: [...]

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