Radical Islamism & Jihad *Militant Islam winning in Pakistan <http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1354>*
*Jinnah Must Be Turning In His Grave* M EANWHILE, two disquieting facts cry out for redress. The first relates to the lawyers and civil society movement which heroically defended the cause of the chief justice and Supreme Court for two years. Where are its articulate spokesmen and its agitated young cheerleaders today when the lawyers of Swat are being sidelined from their profession and the law and constitution and democracy and women and minority rights are being trampled upon by the TSNM and TTP? Indeed, where is the chief justice, Mr Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, whose suo motu actions in defence of law and liberty have given him a legendary status but who is now silent in the face of the Taliban threat to the very law and constitution that he has vowed to defend and uphold? The second, is the role of the Pakistan Army and the PML( N). After having created and nurtured the Taliban for so long, the Army has now blithely handed over the ownership of the war against the same Taliban to the civilian order of the day. It supported the Swat deal and stood by while the Taliban liquidated civilian officials and landlords allied to the ANP during their peaceful conquest of Swat and then Buner. But it swung into action unilaterally with helicopter gunships and jets when its own soldiers were attacked by the Taliban in violation of the same deal. -- *Najam Sethi* More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1354> Islamic Culture *An Indian's View of Iqbal, Jinnah and Pakistan <http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1353>* But what is the culture of Pakistan? Do Pakistanis own a tradition of music and dance that is separate from India’s? *Mehdi Hasan and Ghulam Ali* (who told me this on a flight to Bombay from Ahmedabad) enjoy performing in India because Pakistan’s middle-class is mostly illiterate about raag and taal. But this is our inheritance from the *Sam Ved* and from *Amir Khusro*. Why should it be disowned by Pakistanis? High culture is rooted in tradition, and that is the first thing the religious state attacks. There is no culture of north Indian classical dance, Kathak, in Pakistan. Dance in general is absent (though apparently it is quite popular with Mehsud’s men, presumably grooving to the rhythm of pop-popping Kalashnikovs) because physical expression tends to be sensual and therefore deemed un-Islamic. Culture does not directly resist extremism; it only makes extremism difficult to penetrate by diverting the mind. The only way to fight extremism is through reason, but South Asians are not particularly good at reason because we don’t understand its vocabulary. Culture softens us, not in a bad way, and makes us less suicidal, which is a state where pristine religion leads us through its demand of purity. -- *Aakar Patel* More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1353> The War within Islam *Islamic fundamentalism or moderation: The choice facing Muslims <http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1352>* Mr Allawi calmly and methodically deconstructs an Islamic revival which has failed to live up to its promise. Islamist movements and secular governments anxious to pay lip-service to Islam have, between them, failed spectacularly to anchor themselves in genuinely Islamic principles: principles which, for Mr Allawi, are as much about inner spirituality as outward religiosity. The results are everywhere to be seen. Autocratic governments abuse human rights, whether in Islamic Iran, Saudi Arabia and Sudan or in secular Egypt and Syria. Economies are corrupt and mal-administered, and their supposed ethical principles, such as Islamic banking, are a sham. There has been a profound loss of cultural creativity, apparent, for example, in the decay of the Islamic city and its time-honoured traditions of craftsmanship, piety and community. -- *The Economist* More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1352> Ijtihad, Rethinking Islam *In Islam, Scholars are building an intellectual fire <http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1351>* If the Islamic world is going to enjoy a revival, if fundamentalists are to be tamed, if women are to be employed more productively, then moderate interpretations of the Koran will have to gain ascendancy. There are signs of that, including a brand of “feminist Islam” that cites verses and traditions suggesting that the Prophet Muhammad favoured women’s rights. Professor Reynolds says that Muslim scholars have asked that conference papers be translated into Arabic so that they can get a broader hearing. If the great intellectual fires are reawakening within Islam, after centuries of torpor, then that will be the best weapon yet against extremism. -- *Nicholas D. Kristof* 2 Comments More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1351> Islam and Politics *India: Muslim strategy in present elections <http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1350>* The consistently secular voting behaviour of Indian Muslims since the first parliamentary election is perhaps the most significant and least acknowledged fact of our electoral politics. The reason is the superficial manner in which secular discourse is framed by our political elites, which often give it a populist spin at the cost of the substantive elements of secular practice. Consequently, the idea of secularism today resembles a shapeless hat, whose meaning for political parties changes depending on who wears it for what purposes, and in what manner. While its political significance in this election remains as strong for rival political elites as in the past, for Muslim voters secularism as campaign rhetoric emanating from the politics of fear is less appealing this time compared to the 1989, 1991 or 1996 elections. -- *Mujibur Rehman* More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1350> -- Syed M. 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