While addressing a Hindu Samagam on the eve of Holi at Lal Parade ground in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat said that ‘Not Hindu ? You are not Indian.’ His logic is faulty and it is a blatant negation of Indian Constitution and disrespect to the secular fabric of India . It is to be

On Wednesday, 17th February 2010, the Catholic community begins the season of Lent- a time for fasting & abstinence, this is a time for reconciliation, a time to introspect our role as Ambassadors and Apostles of Lord Jesus Christ, not just in our homes and parishes but moreover in our society,

Deterrence is a subject studied feverishly in all academic and policy making forums of South Asia. Yet there remains a visible deficit in comprehension and practice of the concept. Few realise that the only tangible case in which deterrence as a stand alone worked was the Korean War; not against the

Studies show that poor educational attainment and professional underachievement are prevalent amongst young British Muslims. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, an independent development and social research charity, found that British Muslims are less upwardly mobile than their Hindu, Christian and Jew

Islam has been practiced in Bosnia for centuries. Freelance writer Claudia Mende asks Armina Omerika, an expert in Islamic studies at the University of Erfurt in Germany, whether the Bosnian Islamic tradition could serve as a model for the integration of Muslims in other European societies.
How has

A complex and rampant phenomenon in Egyptian society, sectarian violence has been infesting Egypt for a long time, spawned as a result of a host of economic, social and cultural woes.
There is a direct and undeniable link between the emergence of these tensions on the Egyptian political landscape a

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s recent visit to Turkey was a milestone in Lebanese-Turkish affairs.
For the first time, Hariri and a Lebanese delegation of eight ministers met with Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmet Davutoðlu, Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Turkish Prime Minister Tayy

From 25 to 27 January, Indonesia and the United States took steps to strengthen their socio-cultural ties by co-hosting their first bilateral interfaith dialogue in Jakarta.
The meeting was attended by a 20-member delegation from the United States, which included US government officials, bishops a

The recent discovery of attempted terrorist plots by Muslims in America has prompted overreaching accusations of radicalisation of an entire religious group. As a consequence, pressure is mounting on Muslim American leaders to engage in elusively defined counter radicalisation.
But rather than spe

Scholar and author Omid Safi is best known to many Muslim Americans as being at the forefront of the Progressive Muslims movement, which finds in Islamic spirituality a powerful voice for social justice and pluralism. In his latest book, Memories of Muhammad: Why the Prophet Matters (Harper Collins)

At long last, a series of conferences and engagements has given us tentative hope for the resolution of the 62-year-old Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan. If these efforts reach their goal, it could not only transform long-troubled relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, but als

It is a question many people ask themselves at the advent senior citizen hood, how to get a berth in heaven? I thought it would be better to look from a wider perspective. I recently had been to a National Consultation on Communal Violence Bill 2009,(CVB), in Delhi organized by ANHAD. The “CVB” is t

Hindi Zahra is the new face of a young generation of emancipated, cosmopolitan singers and songwriters from North Africa. Her album Handmade is due to be released in late February.
Born in Khouribga in southern Morocco, Zahra describes herself as an inveterate nomad: "From the time I was a small c

At an international conference on “Islam and the Media” organised by the Center for Media, Religion and Culture at the University of Colorado-Boulder in January, many of the participants, including myself, examined the negative stigma attached by the media to Islam and Muslims, especially after 9/11

The bipartisan Kerry-Lugar Bill, named after US Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar, provides a multi-year, super-sized economic aid programme to the people of Pakistan. This is the right approach to improve US-Pakistan relations. The majority of Pakistanis distrust the United States because they