TV is trying to make the world a single image', Interview, NewAgeIslam.com

Interview

WHY I CRITICISE ISLAM?

TV is trying to make the world a single image'

5 Jan 2009, 0013 hrs IST

The idea of being someone who I could never be drew me into film-making. Experiencing life in different contexts provides one with a deeper understanding of life. It saves one from a narrow world view. Cinema is one thing that can change thoughts. We can reduce human pain somehow through cinema. The magic of cinema is something else.

You seem to be fascinated by Afghanistan?

‘Five in the Afternoon' was made in Afghanistan because that society needed someone to give an honest view about it. I chose Afghanistan for `Two-Legged Horse' because i was denied permission in Iran. `11 September' tried to present viewpoints of different people; but no Afghan director was represented. That nation was called terrorist but its views were not represented. I then decided to be the representative of Afghanistan in that film.

How do you see terrorism?

The term terrorist is a cliche. I call it violence. There is no difference between various forms of violence. Whether it is in the name of religion, political party, or for love, violence is the same. When we have different names for violence we are legitimising its existence. I associate groups like Taliban with ignorance, violence, and closing doors to others.

http://newageislam.com/why-i-criticise-islam?-/interview/d/1098

The War Within Islam: Talibanism vs the glorious faith of Rumi and Akbar, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

The War Within Islam: Talibanism vs the glorious faith of Rumi and Akbar

By K Subrahmanyam

28 Jan 2009, 0011 hrs IST,

As happened in the case of the Nazis and Japanese militarists there is an assumption of racial and ideological superiority by Islamist extremists. They believe that it is their manifest destiny to bring the entire world under the dominance of their version of Islam. And this version of Islam has nothing to do with the glorious Islam of Baghdad, Samarkand, Delhi and Agra or that was preached by Jalaluddin Rumi, Omar Khayyam, Amir Khusro and Akbar. Just as the Nazis perverted the term socialism and degraded it as National Socialism, the followers of al-Qaeda and Taliban have degraded Islam and are using a perverted cult to advance their ideology. Just as the Nazi and fascist ideologies had their followers and supporters all over Europe, there are supporters of the perverted Talibanised Islam in various Muslim countries.

The war is against this ideology and it's not going to be won unless there is de-Nazification as happened in Germany or the demilitarisation in Japan. While this could be carried out in Germany and Japan only after effective military occupation, similar exercises for al-Qaeda and Taliban have to be done without military occupation of Pakistan. Fortunately a much larger portion of the Pakistani middle class consider themselves victims of this perverted Islamist cult than there were anti-Nazis in Germany during the heyday of Adolf Hitler.

http://newageislam.com/the-war-within-islam--talibanism-vs-the-glorious-faith-of-rumi-and-akbar/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/1158

Will the US finally attack Pakistan?, Islam and the West, NewAgeISlam.com

Islam and the West

Will the US finally attack Pakistan?

By Moeed Pirrzada

18 July 2008

Karzai government has also suspended various bilateral meetings with Pakistan due in Dubai, Islamabad and Kabul within the next few weeks. Amidst this fury — shared in Kabul and New Delhi — no one is prepared to remember that even in the most third-rated of the Hollywood thrillers, the most obvious suspect is usually not the murderer; while in Bollywood, mostly the usual suspect is a part of the set-up of the real villains. But this is not a piece about overrated ISI, its equally dumb enemies and those who believe in its widely-exaggerated, almost magical powers, to operate without being caught — despite under continuous surveillance by the old friends and tutors in the CIA. Well, let me admit: this is a rather dull and dreary piece to analyse the real context of the US manoeuvring in Afghanistan. It is the election year in Washington, you know! And as expected both sides are drawing blood on the question of "National Security". Barack Obama had always asserted that Iraq was the 'wrong war' that diminished American security, damaged its standing in the world and ruined its economy and his punchline has always been that it affected America's performance in the 'good war' that is: Afghanistan.

http://newageislam.com/will-the-us-finally-attack-pakistan?/islam-and-the-west/d/253