Pakistan: The rape of young minds, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Pakistan: The rape of young minds

By Ghazi Salahuddin

Aug 02, 2009

When you look into the eyes of a growing boy, perhaps a teenager, what do you see? Ideally, of course, you should get a glimpse of hope and ambition and an impatience for becoming an adult. I am referring to eyes because I am reminded of that quote that "the eyes are the windows to the soul". And I have found that this quote is also attributed to a psychiatrist, Harry Stak Sullivan, who used it as a description of how some schizophrenics experience communication.
Anyhow, my point of reference here is the Pakistani youth. I have for long been interested in talking to them and there have been many formal interactions, in colleges and universities. One question, which has reverberated in these encounters is: what does it mean to be young in Pakistan at this time? Naturally, the intention is to persuade the young to carefully examine their own thoughts and feelings about the reality of their existence.
At the outset, I have identified a 'boy' though in the educational institutions where I have met the young, girls are often more numerous, with more resplendent eyes. I did so because I need to talk about boys I have never met. I have not looked into their eyes – and this, I confess, is my failing as a journalist. But if I do get an opportunity to look into their eyes, what would I decipher? A wilderness of some kind? An inferno of passion that would make you shudder?
Well, the frightening reality is that it would be difficult to locate any glimmer of hope and aspiration in the eyes of a majority of our young people. Considering the demographic dominance of the young in our population, this is a very disturbing situation. Every year, we have these multitudes of young people passing through their matric or intermediate or graduation exams and we know that the skills they have are inadequate and opportunities rather scarce and we also know that as young people they have their passions and a longing for the fulfilment of their dreams.

http://newageislam.com/pakistan--the-rape-of-young-minds----/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/1597

A tribute to the Prophet’s feminist leanings becomes the target of religious and academic outrage, Islam and the Media, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the Media

A tribute to the Prophet’s feminist leanings becomes the target of religious and academic outrage

The Jewel of Medina was written as a tribute to the Prophet’s feminist leanings but now it’s the target of religious and academic outrage

LA Times -Washington Post

Posted online: Monday, September 01, 2008

Jones and her novel, The Jewel of Medina, are subjects of debate from Egypt to Italy to Serbia, where 1,000 Serbian-language copies were printed before the publisher backed out, too. Ironically, Jones began with a pro-Islamic mind-set when she began writing in 2002. After the September 11 attacks, she began to research the status of women under Islam. And she came to a conclusion: the Prophet supported more rights for women than do many of his modern followers.

“I wanted to tell the story of the women around Muhammad, and to honour them and him as well,” Jones said who otherwise writes on environmental issues for the Bureau of National Affairs.

She started writing a fictionalized story of Aisha, a young and much-beloved wife of the prophet. In April 2007, Random House gave Jones a $100,000 contract for the book and a sequel. Jones gave Random House a list of people who might review the book or write blurbs for it. One suggested reviewer hit the alarm switch. Denise Spellberg, who teaches Middle Eastern studies at the University of Texas and has written about Aisha, said the book was inflammatory and problematic. Spellberg then contacted several Muslim Web sites and told them to oppose the book’s publication. Spellberg also wrote in a letter to the Wall Street Journal that the book was “provocative”.

http://newageislam.com/a-tribute-to-the-prophet%E2%80%99s-feminist-leanings-becomes-the-target-of-religious-and-academic-outrage/islam-and-the-media/d/687

WATCHING TV IN KABUL, Islamic Society, NewAgeISlam.com

Islamic Society

WATCHING TV IN KABUL

By Kristin Ohlson

New York Times Magazine,

July 20, 2008

While other foreigners remained cloistered in their compounds — some wistfully so, restricted by the rigid precautions of their employers — my new friends didn’t find Afghanistan intrinsically scary. They were dismayed by the increased wreckage, poverty and violence, but not afraid of the people. One night, when it seemed that every man in the city was on the dusty streets to shop the brightly lighted stalls, we had a flat tire. The tire blew out next to a stand selling watermelons, the hacked-open fruit red and glistening in the headlights. Crowds of curious men stopped to stare. I was certain we’d meet our death that night. My friends were just as certain that it was no big deal.

Later there were two terrible bombings, including one of a bus filled with young police recruits that killed at least 24 people. Some of the dead were civilians, but many were brave young men willing to defend the public order for the princely sum of about $70 per month. It was after that bombing that I decided to cut my visit short and made plans to go home.

http://newageislam.com/watching-tv-in-kabul/islamic-society/d/267