When Charlie Hebdo’s editor, Laurent Sourisseau, announced a few days ago that the he would no longer draw cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, I wondered how the self-proclaimed champions of “free speech” would react to this statement. In a couple of days time,Daniel Payne came out with a clamorous article, titled “If Charlie Hebdo Won’t Draw Muhammed, Who Will?”...
Originally published in The Daily Star I was born in Pakistan, a few months before the war which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh on December 16, 1971. And it was only after I moved to the US that I recognised the magnitude of human rights abuses the Pakistani army committed against their Bengali “brothers and sisters in faith.” So now, whenever I come across a Bengali in the...
Originally published in the Pak Tea House With the death of anti-Pakistan outlaw Hakimullah Mehsud, our right-wing anchors and politicians have begun howling foul and have termed his killing as ‘murder of peace’. As head of TTP, Mehsud had taken responsibility for (i) the attacks on Mehran naval base, (ii) the killing of Pakistan army officers and soldiers, and (iii)...
Originally Published in the Express Tribune Blog Though Malala survived the Taliban’s bullets last year, she is now again under attack in Pakistan by the very same ideology. They attacked her physically then, and now they are out to get her soul. Right-wing anchors and self-proclaimed intellectuals have taken to disrepute her book by claiming that it reeks of a...