The War within Islam *Sunday, Apr 26 2009* 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> 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 Sharia Laws *Yemen: Mother executed with her children’s approval <http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1356>* *Fouad Dahaba*, an MP and Islamic speaker, said that he was willing to intervene to help for conciliation. He stressed that, although the concept of claiming execution is present in Islam, pardon is urged. “*The Holy Quran * says, ‘*The recompense for an injury is an injury equal thereto (in degree): but if a person forgives and makes reconciliation, his reward is due from Allah.” *Dahaba added that Yemeni society tends to make women responsible for all the mistakes in the country: “Calling for death to women when men are pardoned is an indication of foolish traditions.” Barman said there is gender-based discrimination when it comes to dispensing the death penalty in Yemen. He cited a number of cases in which the family forced the children to ask for their mother’s death, when the total opposite would have happened, had it come to the father. Tribal pressure in seeking the death penalty for women can limit the chances of pardon. Barman added: “I am sure that, if Aisha were the father, she would have been pardoned.” -- *Kawkab Al-Thaibani* More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1356> 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> Islam and Pluralism *India: The ghettoisation of Muslims - the death of our composite culture? <http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1355>* Who is responsible for this growing ghettoisation of the Muslim population? Undoubtedly civil society is to blame. The Bhagalpur riots of 1989 were responsible for the migration of rural Muslims in north India and the demolition of the Babri masjid on December 6, 1992 and the resultant backlash all over the country were the last nail in the coffin of Hindu-Muslim neighbourhoods. In contrast, there are fewer incidents of non-Muslims, particularly Hindu families, living in Muslim-dominated areas that have faced a similar situation during communal riots. The question to ask is: Does this represent the death of our hitherto composite culture, with its liberal, tolerant and understanding outlook? Or can we still do something to save it? What can be done to set the clock back and foster secularism? It will take a lot of courage and will to figure out the answers but that is the only way Indian democracy can survive. -- *Ather Farouqui* More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1355> -- Syed M. 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