Islam, Women and Feminism *The Burqa: Don’t ban it, question it <http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1510>*
Above all, to question the veil, Muslims must challenge what the US-based academic of Hyderabad origin, Muqtadar Khan, calls the “epistemological hijab”, the curtain that the male Muslim clergy has kept between Islamic scripture and women. Muslims engaged in ripping apart this epistemological curtain can see that during the lifetime of the Prophet and for a while thereafter, the Muslim woman was acknowledged as an autonomous human being. She was considered a person in her own right, not just a mother, sister, wife or daughter. Over fourteen centuries ago, it was both an obligation and a right of Muslim women to participate actively in the religious, economic, social and political life of the community. The clergy must explain how it happened that the female sex subsequently got pushed out of the common public space. The “pious burqa” is but a manifestation of this subversion of early Islam. -- *Javed Anand * More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1510> Islam and the West *The Burqa Debate: understanding the backdrop <http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1509>* France has also been a pioneer of sorts when it comes to the feminist movement of the world. Feminism was conceived and practiced first in France and has been a source of inspiration all over the world. France is also known for its outspoken feminine sexuality which might sometimes be beyond the comprehension of the eastern mind-set. Catherine Breillat, for instance, is a movie-maker whose films have created ripples worldwide on this issue but even their concept couldn’t have been imagined in Asian or Middle Eastern societies. French society is a developed society today but it has sacrificed a lot in reaching where it has. Sarkozy’s remark can be viewed as a result of a compelling pressure of French ethos and its history as Burqa is the symbol of the regressive civilization of medieval ages which is gaining currency in French society amongst immigrant Muslims. To any French national who knows the history of his liberal culture that set women free from medieval bonds, this might seem like an imminent threat to his society’s value system. But we should also try to understand the psychology of the Muslims world over who are under constant attack from Western Media and who are facing military aggression as well. Muslims are suffering from a loss of identity especially in the western world. -- *Shamshad Elahee Ansari* More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1509> War on Terror *Why Pakistan is poised for collapse, explains David Kilcullen <http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1508>* Why is an Aussie anthropologist coaching American generals on how to win wars? *David Kilcullen*, an Australian army reservist and top adviser to *Gen. David H. Petraeus* during the troop surge in Iraq, has spent years studying insurgencies in countries from Indonesia to Afghanistan, distinguishing hard-core terrorists from "accidental guerrillas" -- and his theories are revolutionizing military thinking throughout the West. Kilcullen spoke with Outlook's *Carlos Lozada* on why Pakistan is poised for collapse, whether catching Osama bin Laden is really a good idea and how the Enlightenment and Lawrence of Arabia helped Washington shift course in Iraq. Excerpts: *David Kilcullen*: Pakistan is 173 million people, 100 nuclear weapons, an army bigger than the U.S. Army, and al-Qaeda headquarters sitting right there in the two-thirds of the country that the government doesn't control. The Pakistani military and police and intelligence service don't follow the civilian government; they are essentially a rogue state within a state. We're now reaching the point where within one to six months we could see the collapse of the Pakistani state, also because of the global financial crisis, which just exacerbates all these problems. . . . The collapse of Pakistan, al-Qaeda acquiring nuclear weapons, an extremist takeover -- that would dwarf everything we've seen in the war on terror today. 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