Radical Islamism & Jihad *Sunday, 26 Jul 2009* Whither Pakistan? A Five Year Forecast<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1570>
*Religious extremism is devouring Pakistan* The clouds hanging over the future of Pakistan's state and society are getting darker. Collapse isn't impending, but there is a slow-burning fuse. While timescales cannot be mathematically forecast, the speed of societal decline has surprised many who have long warned that religious extremism is devouring Pakistan.Here is how it all went down the hill: The 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan devastated the Taliban. Many fighters were products of madrasas in Pakistan, and their trauma was partly shared by their erstwhile benefactors in the Pakistan military and intelligence. Recognizing that this force would remain important for maintaining Pakistani influence in Afghanistan--and keep the low-intensity war in Kashmir going--the army secretly welcomed them on Pakistani soil. Rebuilding and rearming was quick, especially as the United States tripped upin Afghanistan after a successful initial victory. -- *Pervez Hoodbhoy* More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1570> Books and Documents *The Function of Deen: From “Islam A Challenge to Religion” by Allama Ghulam Ahmad Parwez<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1571> * Obviously, Islam fulfils all the requirements of Deen. Islam, as Iqbal puts it, "is neither dogma, nor priesthood, nor ritual."8 It is much more than any of these or all of these. It is the vivid sense of God's directive force and unflinching working of His laws. It is absolute iman in God's wisdom and His purpose. It is hearty participation in the upward progressive trend and movement of life and the world viewed as the expression of God's creative force. Islam stands for life-fulfilment and rejects life-denial as unworthy of man. It commands us to face facts and not to shrink from them and take refuge in fantasy, and requires us to control and harness natural forces for achieving our ends. Asceticism, quietism and monasticism are all repugnant to Islam. Islam lays stress oil social life and on its value for man, and does not regard the body as an evil and as an impediment to "spiritual" progress. It wants man to respect the rights of the body as well as the rights of the self. For this reason, Islam does not approve of self-abnegation and self-mortification. There is nothing mysterious in it and it has no place for mysticism. It aims at the establishment of a social order based on permanent values in which all its members act as free agents striving for a higher and noble cause of making man’s abode on this earth more beautiful, and making him fit for further evolutionary stages of life. Islam, as a living force, will continue to play a vital role in the moral uplift and social, cultural and political unification of mankind. It will continue to make valuable contributions to the knowledge and culture of mankind. Above all, it will continue to enrich the "spiritual" 9 life of man and thus strengthen and elevate his self or his personality. -- *Allama Ghulam Ahmad Parwez* More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1571> Islamic Society *Muslims at Prayer -- 1<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1569> * More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1569> War on Terror *America, Give Pakistanis Books, not Guns<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1567> * *Unfortunately, the United States* has acted in ways that have often empowered the militants. We have lavished more than $11 billion on Pakistan since 9/11, mostly supporting the Pakistani Army. Yet that sum has bought Pakistan no security and us no good will.* *In that same poll, 59 percent of Pakistanis said that they share many of Al Qaeda’s attitudes toward the United States, and almost half of those said that they support Al Qaeda attacks on Americans.* *One reason is that America hasn’t stood up for its own values in Pakistan. Instead of supporting democracy, we cold-shouldered the lawyers’ movement, which was the best hope for democracy and civil society.* **-- **NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF* More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1567> Islam and the West *Israel steals Palestinian’s history too: 1948 no catastrophe, say Arab text books in Israel now<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1568> * Israel's education ministry has ordered the removal of the word nakba – Arabic for the "catastrophe" of the 1948 war – from a school textbook for young Arab children, it has been announced. The decision – which will alter books aimed at eight- and nine-year-old Arab pupils – will be seen as a blunt assertion by Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud-led government of Israel's historical narrative over the Palestinian one. -- *Ian Black*, Middle East editor, Guardian, London More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1568> Ijtihad, Rethinking Islam *Rethinking Islam: Need for ijtihad is paramount<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1566> * Serious rethinking within Islam is long overdue. Muslims have been comfortably relying, or rather falling back, on age-old interpretations for much too long. This is why we feel so painful in the contemporary world, so uncomfortable with modernity. Scholars and thinkers have been suggesting for well over a century that we need to make a serious attempt at Ijtihad, at reasoned struggle and rethinking, to reform Islam. At the beginning of the last century, Jamaluddin Afghani and Mohammad Abduh led the call for a new Ijtihad; and along the way many notable intellectuals, academics and sages have added to this plea - not least Mohammad Iqbal, Malik bin Nabbi and Abdul Qadir Audah. Yet, ijtihad is one thing Muslim societies have singularly failed to undertake. Why? -- *Ziauddin Sardar* 4 Comments More.<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1566> -- Syed.Asadullah --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Dear Friends Check your inbox daily + delete your junk emails & keep your inbox empty! 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