I mean, really, how can EVERYTHING get cock-ed up by this Administration? A farce of a public trial and a lynching later, they managed to convert a bloody tyrant into a shaheed - it is downright pathetic. They should have thrown him back into that spider hole in which they found him along w/ some food. But, no. The video of the hanging - with the taunts, the thugs in leather and ski-mask, his last words of shahahda - is everywhere, fueling the narrative of a sunni martyr.
Jermaine has caused national controversy by openly praying his obligatory five time prayers live on national TV. However Channel Four the Broadcaster has censored any footage of the Former Jackson Five practicing his faith. Outraged muslims have begun to complain on grounds of fair representation as Shilpa Shetty was broadcast practicing Yoga, they are demanding an explanation from Channel four as to why Jermaine Praying has been censored. Complaints to Ofcom the body that adjudicates media complaints are set to flood in this monday. Jermaine has begun to attract many thousands of muslim votes.
Seeing as you're from Pakistan and already commenting on the pear-shaped-ness of the Northwestern Frontier, I figured I'd pose a question. How much further is Al Qaeda's control of Pakistan likely to spread beyond Waziristan?
Well, I wouldn't put it as al-Qaeda's control of Pakistan. Those tribal forces in Waziristan do not look kindly to outsiders - whether al-Qaeda or Army - and they may let them operate there but that could turn on a dime. As for the spread of al-Qaeda/Islamist tendencies outside the No Mans Land of Waziristan - the chances are slim unless the military allows it - Pakistan does function as a police state when it needs to.
Deborah Solomon's interview schtick for everybody is to be unproductively confrontational, but whenever Islam, Muslims, or especially Palestinians come up she gets real nasty. cf. her inteviews with the Saudi dude who tried to endow a Harvard chair in Islamic studies, the new female Episcopalian head bishop, and Mira Nair. (Nair gave as good as she got, or better, iirc). Not to mention telling chomsky he sounded like a "self-hating Jew"- I kid you not. ...thank you for all the good reads!
Thanks. Whenever I read news that touches on South Asia, I feel like a first year undergrad reading a post-structuralist article in a course reader. It's interesting, but I know that there's a ton of background that I don't have which I need to understand it properly.