India and Pakistan: A merger of interests, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

India and Pakistan: A merger of interests

By Rajmohan Gandhi

January 01, 2010

Of course, they will kill me,’ one of the subcontinent’s most-influential Muslim leaders told me the other day. “But first they will flog me.” He was speaking of what would await persons like him if violent extremists took over. But the need to survive is compelling many in Pakistan to fight the jihadists.

The stupid talk of an Indian hand behind suicide attacks is not the real story from Pakistan. That Pakistanis as a society are quietly redrawing their list of friends and enemies.

Violent extremists disgracing Pakistan and Islam are now seen as the nation’s enemy number one as well as danger number one. Certainly the United States is not liked, and there is resentment at the pressure on Pakistanis to do more. Pakistanis think that the US and India should understand what Dawn recently called “the limitations of a sub-optimal state fighting a hydra-headed enemy”.

But the violent extremists who blast women, children and the elderly into body pieces that land in mosques and bazaars have firmly displaced the US from its position as the entity Pakistanis most detest.

This national sentiment — plain to anyone observing the Pakistani scene — is shared across political, sectarian and provincial divides, across the civilian/military divide, and by rich and poor alike. No stance adopted by the US or India attracts the level of popular revulsion that Pakistan’s violent jihadists have invited on their heads.

http://newageislam.com/india-and-pakistan--a-merger-of-interests/current-affairs/d/2330

Can India and Pakistan Fight Terror Together?, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Can India and Pakistan Fight Terror Together?

By Pervez Hoodbhoy

December, 15 2009

Inseparable by geography, Pakistan and India are Siamese twins that have emerged together from the womb of history. For better or for worse, their futures will always remain inextricably tied together.

Today, one of the two is in deep trouble. The ferocious militant fanaticism of Pathan tribals, once sequestered in the mountains of Waziristan and Swat, has migrated down into the plains and across the country. Every city of Pakistan has been attacked, some repeatedly and without respite. With threats, abductions, beheadings, and daily suicide bombings, extremists have drastically changed the way Pakistanis live.

Just a couple of months ago, Pakistanis had heaved a sigh of relief. A brief lull in terrorist attacks had followed the army's successful operation against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Swat, and the killing by an American drone of TTP's supremo, Baitullah Mehsud. Some hubris-filled "analysts" - who incessantly chatter on Pakistan's numerous private television channels - claimed that the TTP had been mortally wounded. But they were dead wrong.

Islamabad is now a city of fear as the TTP retaliates. Traffic crawls past concrete blocks placed across its roads as helmeted soldiers peer suspiciously from behind their machine-guns. Restaurants barely function, and markets are deserted. Still, the attackers appear unstoppable and, as in Peshawar, they have paralyzed the city. Some attacks are more spectacular than others, but even the outstanding ones are forgotten once the next one happens. Explosives inside a car blow up over a hundred shoppers in Peshawar's crowded Meena Bazaar; a suicide bomber detonates himself in the girls' cafeteria of the International Islamic University in Islamabad; three simultaneous attacks hit police institutes in Lahore; school children are shredded by ball bearings from a suicide bomber's exploding jacket in Kohat,...

http://newageislam.com/can-india-and-pakistan-fight-terror-together?/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/2251

Kolkata: The schools are Jewish, its students Muslim, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Kolkata: The schools are Jewish, its students Muslim

Attired in a modest salwar-kameez , hijab firmly in place, Shaista Fatima leaves her home in Kolkata's Rippon Street and heads for school. Friends Farida and Shehnaz Jahan join her on the way and the three demurely make their way through the conservative Muslim neighbourhood.

But once they hit Royd Street, their gait acquires a quick confidence. Once inside Jewish Girls School, they slip off both hijab and salwarkameez and slip on the skirt-and-blouse uniform just in time for assembly.

The idea of Muslim students in a Jewish school may be blasphemous anywhere else on the planet, but here in Kolkata, it's a reality. In fact, doors to the two Jewish schools in the city were opened to other communities, including Muslims, around the same time that Israel was carved out of Palestine six decades ago, triggering a bloody conflict that still rages today.

It's a study in contrast really. Palestinian mothers let their children join the uprising or intifada against Israeli occupation even as Muslim mothers in Kolkata send their wards to schools run by Jews. The former is about death - it's an honour if the child kills a Jew and brings martyrdom if he is killed in the attempt. The latter is about the hope of a better future.

For most middle-class Muslims in Kolkata, getting their children into a good English medium school is a dream. "Either the fees are too high or kids are refused admission because the parents aren't educated enough," says M H Iqbal, whose daughters Zeb and Uzma go to the Jewish Girls School. "The two Jewish schools, on the other hand, are affordable and encourage children from humble backgrounds. For people like me, it means a decent education for my daughters that will open up a world of opportunity."

http://newageislam.com/kolkata--the-schools-are-jewish,-its-students-muslim/islamic-world-news/d/1842

Senegal’s Quranic schools: a horror story, Islamic Society, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Society

Senegal’s Quranic schools: a horror story

Associated Press

August 18, 2008

But what is most significant is that the boy’s father — a poor farmer who sold part of his harvest to pay for the bus fare to the hospital — filed the charges against the teacher himself. In doing so, this man with cracked lips and bloodshot eyes braved the wrath of his entire village, including his own father, who considers all teachers in Senegal’s Islamic schools to be holy.

In hundreds of these schools in the mostly Muslim West African country, children are made to beg in the streets and are beaten if they don’t bring back enough money. One 10-year-old was beaten to death with his hands tied behind his back and his mouth stuffed with rocks. Despite laws passed to protect children, the courts have convicted only a handful of Quranic teachers and quickly cave in the face of powerful clerics.

The biggest obstacle to justice is the families themselves, who are unwilling to speak out against the teachers. Government officials say they cannot think of another case where the family has brought charges.

http://newageislam.com/senegal%E2%80%99s-quranic-schools--a-horror-story/islamic-society/d/589

Pakistan: Efforts to save children from militancy stressed, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Pakistan: Efforts to save children from militancy stressed

The organisation held a discussion on the issue of the use of children in militancy here on Wednesday in which regional experts, civil society members and journalists covering the war on terror participated.The discussion dissected one of the dangerous trends taking roots in the poverty-stricken Pakistan in general and its most vulnerable tribal areas and Balochistan province in particular.Sparc’s National Manager Promotion Fazila Gulrez gave a presentation on the emerging trend of child militancy and gave an overview of the rapid assessment carried out in Karak, Landi Kotal and Khyber Agency, the conflict-torn areas where children are rapidly falling into the hands of extremists and are being used as suicide bombers or militants.Sparc’s Executive Director Qindeel Shujaat said despite spending a bigger chunk of the national budget on defence-related spending, Pakistan was unable to provide security to its people and save children from falling prey to militancy and conflicts of all sorts.He said the videos showing children, recruited by various militant groups, chopping heads of people were a grim picture of where Pakistan was heading as a society and nation. He said it was ominous and what one could expect was just the worst to follow.

http://newageislam.com/pakistan--efforts-to-save-children-from-militancy-stressed/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/651

Muslims want modern syllabus, Islamic Society, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Society

Muslims want modern syllabus

By Mohd Shakaib

In Moradabad district, it was found that 42.35 per cent of the parents of those studying in madarsas and Government schools were illiterate, 12.94 per cent had only secondary education and 1.76 per cent were madarsa graduates. Of the 170 parents interviewed, only four per cent were Government employees, 10.58 per cent were unemployed, 15.85 per cent worked on daily wages, 42.35 per cent were engaged in small income generation activities and 27.64 per cent were artisans.

Of the 1,049 children of these parents, 66.71 per cent were studying in madarsas and maktabs and 33.28 per cent in Government schools. The profile of these children and their parents were found to be the same in Barabanki and Sidharthnagar districts. In Barabanki, 16 madarsas were surveyed that included state-funded and private ones. Of the 1,168 children, 77.3 per cent were studying in madarsas and 22.7 per cent in Government schools.

http://newageislam.com/muslims-want-modern-syllabus-/islamic-society/d/90