A United States religious freedom watchdog other day asked the State Department to include Pakistan, Vietnam and Turkmenistan in its global blacklist of countries violating religious freedom. As reported by AFP, in its recommendation to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom also wanted Myanmar, China and North Korea to be kept in the department’s “countries of particular concern” blacklist, together with Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Eritrea and Uzbekistan.

The independent commission, established through the US law to monitor religious freedom across the globe, also kept Afghanistan and Bangladesh on its watch list, together with Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia and Nigeria. The 10-member panel was divided on whether to downgrade predominantly Muslim Iraq, where widespread persecution of Christians has been reported, from the watch list to blacklist states, saying it needed more time to make the decision.

The commission makes an annual recommendation to the State Department ahead of its compilation of its annual report on international religious freedom. The panel wanted Vietnam to be re-included in the department’s blacklist, saying the government continued to imprison and detain dozens of individuals advocating for religious freedom reforms in the communist-led state. Vietnam was removed from the list in November 2006.

In Pakistan, the commission said it did not see major improvements in religious freedom even though the country had gone through a democratic transition following landmark elections.
According to Commission, Pakistan should be blacklisted because of inadequate government response to sectarian violence against Shias, Ahmadis, Christians and Hindus. “Despite the dramatic events in Pakistan in the past year, the commission finds that all of the serious religious freedom concerns, including violence, on which it has previously reported, persist,” panel said.

The panel said concerns over Indonesia remained, citing communal violence and the government’s “inability or unwillingness to curb it” as well as what it called the forcible closures of places of worship of religious minorities. It also referred to the growing political power and influence of religious extremists “who harass and sometimes instigate violence” against moderate Muslim leaders and members of religious minorities.

“There are persistent fears that Indonesia’s commitment to secular governance, ethnic and religious pluralism, and a culture of tolerance will be eroded by some who promote extremist interpretations of Islam,” it said. While commission has made important observations and most are true, it has neglected the plight of “apostates” or ex-Muslims who are liable to kill and even if survive they are permanently subject to persecution by state and victimization by society. Hence, there right to live a normal life is denied but no one raise voice for them or have any care about them. US and International community must do something to safeguard the rights of these hapless people besides mere rhetoric or lectures to those people who are not ready to listen anything when its about rights of “others”.

Is it just a coincidence that people belongs to Muslim countries, do not treat women right or we can find the tree that produce such a bitter fruit. According to the Global Gender Gap (GGG) report, the planet’s ten-worst offenders are: Yemen, Chad, Pakistan, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Benin, Morocco, Turkey, Egypt and Oman. Of the ten, nine are Muslim-majority states. At the other end of the spectrum, the planet’s best countries for women to live in are: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, Philippines, Germany, Denmark, Ireland and Spain. Not even one of the top-ten is a Muslim-majority state.

GGG collected data from a total of 128 countries to develop a comprehensive, scientific index. The GGG Index is based on four different sub-indices — namely, economic participation, educational attainment, political empowerment and health — while each of the sub-indices has half a dozen components.

Under economic participation, five of the worst-offenders are: Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Oman and Bahrain. Under educational attainment, the worst-offenders are: Chad, Yemen, Benin and Pakistan. The best: Denmark, United Kingdom, Australia, France and Belgium. Under political empowerment the worst are: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt and Iran. The best: Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Spain.

For women, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan comes out as one the worst of countries to live in; there are only two other countries worse off than is Pakistan — Yemen and Chad. Under economic participation, Pakistan is ranked 126 out of 128. Educational attainment, 123 out of 128. Health, 121 out of 128. Political empowerment, 43 out of 128. Surprisingly, Pakistani women are worse off this year than they were last year.

Al Mamlakah al Arabiyah as Suudiyah, or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is ranked really low, too. Under economic participation, Saudi Arabia is ranked 127 out of 128. Educational attainment, 87 out of 128. Health, 60 out of 128. Political empowerment, 128 out of 128.

Al Jumhuriyah al Yamaniyah, or the Republic of Yemen is worse than both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Under economic participation, Yemen is ranked 128 out of 128. Educational attainment, 127 out of 128. Political empowerment, 127 out of 128.

Welcome to Pakistan 2008. Are we committing crime against humanity? Is this religion or just culture? God made or manmade? Next. Can you think of a Muslim-majority country that has risen to the height of glory? Could it be because we let half of our accumulated brainpower go to waste?

Dozens of Muslim workers at a factory in Karachi beat to death a Hindu colleague on Tuesday for alleged blasphemy. Jagdish Kumar, 25, was tortured and killed at the garments factory after a debate on religion became heated, police and hospital officials said.“About 1,500 workers at the factory in the Korangi industrial area beat to death the Hindu worker over [allegations of] blasphemy,” police superintendent Farrukh Bashir said. The mob was trying to burn the body when officers arrived and took it away, Bashir added.   

(      )fascism is running rampant. Another hapless soul has paid the price of the apathy of so-called global community toward the screaming humanity which has been made hostage of barbarians. Pity on political correctness withers its liberal or illiberal.   

WITH the induction of the elected government, there has been a lot of discussion about Pakistan’s role in the ‘war against terror’. Understandably, there is growing concern over the bloody backlash ordinary Pakistanis are being subjected to from terrorists reacting to government attacks on their sanctuaries.

Several members of the coalition government, as well as the new provincial chief minister of the NWFP, have suggested they will negotiate with the militants to end violence in Pakistan. Given the plethora of Islamic groups currently waging jihad against their own people, it is not clear whom they will talk to, but even assuming they find interlocutors there is the larger problem of agreeing on a common agenda.

Normally, conflicts are about land and resources. Both can be negotiated. Civil wars over autonomy and independence have been successfully resolved. But ideological battles are usually fought until the bitter end. The motivation here is the conviction that one particular utopian vision is superior to all other systems, and thus confers upon its followers the right to impose it on the rest of the world, with brute force if necessary.

This frightening close-mindedness was best illustrated in an article by Pervez Hoodhboy appeared in a sction of press last last month. The writer described a recruitment film produced for Al Qaeda in which the leader says something to a member of a group of masked men in a foreign language, pointing towards a high rock nearby. Without a word, the man climbs up and then leaps off, shouting ‘Allah-o-Akbar!’ His companions gather around his dead, broken body and quickly bury it in a shallow grave. They then march over the grave, again shouting ‘Allah-o-Akbar!’

How do we negotiate with such people? Where is the common ground to build on? At best, they might agree to a temporary truce, as they have done in the past. But they use such respites to strengthen their position, while awaiting another opportunity to attack.

Even supposing they give credible guarantees to reassure the government that they will not attack targets within Pakistan if troops are withdrawn from the tribal areas, what is to stop them from attacking targets in Afghanistan? Many Pakistanis argue that what the Taliban do across the border is not our business, and we should let NATO and American forces take care of the Taliban threat.

The problem with this argument is that if we allow our territory to be used as a safe haven and a springboard for attacks on our neighbor, then under international law western forces can exercise the right of hot pursuit and attack targets on our soil. Then there are UN Security Council resolutions forbidding governments from helping the Taliban in any way.

But even more important is the stated aim of the Pakistani Taliban and their various offshoots. They have repeatedly said that after western forces have been expelled from Afghanistan, and the Taliban’s version of Islamic law imposed there, they will turn their attention to Pakistan

Al Qaeda and its many supporters are aiming to create a no-go space along the tribal belt from where they can operate without let or hindrance, as they did in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime before 9/11. To this end, they will do anything to destabilize Pakistan, and force its leaders to bend to their will. And if it takes thousands of innocent Pakistani lives to achieve their goal, they are totally indifferent to the human cost.

People who happily send their friends and comrades to their deaths on suicide missions are unlikely to care about strangers, even if they are fellow Muslims (For them Kafirs have no right to exist and for that matter no right at all but when they can not find a kafir to kill they become cannibals, may be due to urge of seeing human blood). Another thing people often forget is that the terrorist attacks in Pakistan did not begin with the post-9/11 western presence in Afghanistan. Outfits like the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi came into being during Zia’s lifetime, and have been creating havoc in Pakistan ever since. Governments have used such militias to further their agendas in Kashmir and Afghanistan, and now find the killers are out of control.

Clearly, then, if Pakistan is to survive this menace has to be eliminated. The problem is that many Pakistanis see the terrorists as fellow citizens with a legitimate cause. This is a view that unites the religious right with the radical left, such as it is. The fact is that the virulent anti-American sentiment that informs much of our political debate distorts our view of national self-interest. Far too many intelligent, educated Pakistanis feel that just because the Americans are against the Taliban and their supporters within Pakistan, we should take the opposite position.

And because we like our prejudices to be confirmed, far too many TV and newspaper commentators adopt this line. But although this viewpoint might be popular, it is intellectually and morally indefensible. We have all witnessed the havoc the Taliban visited upon Afghanistan when they were in power. Do we really wish this upon ourselves?

A man and a woman have been stoned to death by militants inPakistan’s north-west border region after an Islamic ‘qazi’ court found them guilty of adultery. A qazi court is an Islamic court, parallel to the Pakistani judicial system. This is the first incident of stoning carried out in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas on the border of Afghanistan. In the past, couples found guilty of adultery by militants or tribesmen were executed by firing squads.

The woman, identified as Shano, had allegedly eloped with Daulat Khan Malikdeenkhel on 15 March. Quoting Dr. Asad, a spokesman for the militants, Sources said that Shano was a married woman living in Peshawar’s Deen Bahar colony. He said a complaint had been received from her family that she had been abducted by Daulat Khan. But later it was reported that she had ran away with him.

He said that some members of the Taliban captured them when they were returning from Karachi. He said the qazi court found the couple guilty of adultery and sentenced them to death by stoning and the sentence was carried out on Monday in Khwaezai-Baezai, 40 kilometres west of the Mohmand Agency’s headquarters Ghalanai. The body of the woman was laid to rest in the same area by local people. The man’s body was taken to the hospital and handed over to his relatives.

Today, I would not condone or condemn anybody. I won’t talk about Geert Wilder either. I just want input of wiser people like you on a particular issue. Yes, I want an explanation or opinions about what’s the connection between several sorts of perversion and crime (Criminal instinct). According to my humble observation, every one of us is a sort of pervert by one way or other. But right now I want to cover gays and lesbians and their vulnerability to become a tool in the hands of thugs and religiously motivated crimes against humanity. I don’t want to generalize the things and that’s why I seek your opinions. As far as my personal opinion about this type of perversion is concerned, I would say that its matter of individual freedom. I have nothing against homosexuals at personal level but my observation dictates that in most of gruesome crimes against humanity, one or more gays have been part of the act and likewise I observe that the lesbian women have in-built sadism in them.

The criminal instincts of these sorts of perverts become more dangerous when they find conducive environment or persuasion to commit something horrible. In other words they are more vulnerable target for hate-mongers and the forces who wants to use violence to achieve their objectives.    

To establish my case, I would present some figures here.  In 2005, Pakistanis witnessed a total of four suicide attacks. In 2006, there were seven and in 2007 there were 56; more than one a week. In the first 11 weeks of 2008, there have been 17 suicide attacks; an annualized rate of 80. In 2005, casualties of terrorist violence in Pakistan numbered 648. In 2006 and 2007, casualties jumped to 1,471 and 3,599, respectively. In the first 10 weeks of 2008 casualties already stand at 1,064 with a daily average of 14 and an annualized rate of over 5,000. Why these people are killing innocent people? Is there a connection between suicide attacks and lack of education? Is there a correlation between suicide attacks and poverty? Is there a connection between suicide attacks and the followers of a particular faith?  

  I would like to present a report here compiled by Professor Robert Pape of University of Chicago. The report have detailed data on age, place of origin, residence, educational background, socioeconomic status and even dietary preferences of 462 individual suicide terrorists (who undertook suicide terrorism campaigns between 1980 and 2003). Here are some surprises. Question: Is there a correlation between poverty and suicide terrorism. Answer: No. Professor Pape has demonstrated that the poverty level of individual suicide terrorists was more or less the same as the rest of the population. Question: Is there a correlation between education and suicide terrorism. Answer: No. Professor Pape has, once again, demonstrated that the level of education of individual suicide terrorists was more or less the same as the rest of the population.     In conclusion–and contrary to the common held perception–suicide terrorism has little or nothing to do with the level of education. Additionally, suicide terrorism is certainly not rooted in poverty (as is often believed). According to Professor Alberto Abadie, of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, “There is no significant relationship between a country’s wealth and level of terrorism…..” Furthermore, individual psychology has almost nothing to do with suicide terrorism. Suicide terrorism is all about group dynamics. 

Dr Yusef Yadgari, an Afghan pathologist, has studied 110 suicide bombers in Afghanistan. Dr Yadgari has found that “80 percent of the attackers had some kind of physical or mental disability.” Though the Dr. Yadgari has not given the details of that physical and mental disability, it has been learned that most of these bombers were involved in homosexual activities before falling in the hands of hate-mongers. The homosexual aptitude among those guys may have been developed as a result of tightly segregated religious seminaries and they were told that doing something big (suicide attack on kafirs) would be only way out for their salvation.  

As is always the case, a proper diagnosis of the ailment is the first step towards cure. We must, therefore, make a distinction between an ordinary extremist and a mentally or emotionally disturbed person who, to overcome his guilt, is ready to whatever he have been told. 72 virgins is a huge temptation but not enough to make someone ready to blow up himself into pieces and their must be some guilt factor working behind or may be sadistic approach is working here. Hence, the ideologically driven forces, which have extra-territorial objectives hunt for these perverts and often find them in abundance in religious schools. The next stage is to evoke a deep sense of guilt among them with blend of hatred toward “others” and finally show them a shortcut that leads to salvation.  I have presented the case which is of course highly debatable. In fact debate is what I want and I believe instead of violent demonstrations and rejectionism we can find the truth by debating on every issue intensely. 

Abdel Kareem Nabil, an Egyptian blogger and former student at Egypt’s Al-Azhar University have been convicted and sentenced to four years in prison on the pretext of blasphemy. He had raised some critical questions regarding crimes against humanity in historical context.

In a comment after the trial, The Egyptian foreign minister said that Egyptian society prohibits blasphemy against religion

The National American Coptic Assembly is saying that this comment from the Egyptian foreign minister is incorrect because there are many bloggers and authors who are attacking Christianity and Judaism in Egypt, such as the extremist Muslim blogger Abu Islam who calls Christians and Jews apes and pigs. In addition, he also calls on Muslims to kill them wherever and whenever they find them. Also, these ideas are included in the books of Muhammad Emara and many books are published by the ministry of Awkaaaf the highest Islamic authority in Egypt. Also, the Sheikh Zakolal El- Nagar is insulting Christianity and Judaism in the al-Ahram newspaper which considered the biggest newspaper in Egypt. But the Egyptian government never accuses any of those individuals of blasphemy against religion.

The National American Coptic Assembly is unhappy with the conditions of freedom of speech or expression in Egypt. Also, the assembly is asking the international community to pressure the Egyptian regime to release Abdel Kareem Nabil and give more rights to its citizen to express their opinions. At the end I would say Kareem is still lucky enough he’s being persecuted through (misuse of or discriminatory/oppressive) law. Had he been in Pakistan, some crazy mob would have been ripped him into pieces till now. Anyway international community should come forward to help Kareem Nabeel.

A major survey in the form of a book Who Speaks for Islam, saying it represents one billion Muslims around the world, has found that the majority favours democratic rights and representative government, rather than any of their radical alternatives. The poll, conducted over a period of five years, covering 35 countries and 50,000 respondents, found that most wanted freedom of speech and representation. At the same time however they wanted the sharia as their law.That’s where the rub is. What is not articulated is the fact that Muslims want “free and fair” elections to get rid of their rulers who can go on for decades before they leave power.
So far the experiment with democracy in Pakistan and Bangladesh is that it begins correctly but then tends to lean heavily in favour of an “Islamic longing” without a clear idea of governance. Islam is exploited by politicians and clergy alike to bring about a system that is not democratic at all.
Law-making is done without “scrutiny of reason” and laws made without rational justification then pervert society without being revoked. Non-Muslims and women suffer under the democracy Muslims want. They must realise that democracy is not just elections and the freedom of speech, pluralism, equality of citizens and diversity are some of prerequisites for a genuine democracy.

The town of Hangu in the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) was “shutter-down” on last day as Eid Miladun Nabi was celebrated by the local Muslim population. Why was the city dead? Because someone had started firing weapons in the streets to prevent the local Irani-origin community from observing Nauruz, an ancient Iranian festival that is a part of their culture in the Tribal Areas.

This year Eid Miladun Nabi coincided with Christian Good Friday, Hindu Holi and Parsi Nauruz (Other Irani also celebrate this ancient festival). As the media carried messages of goodwill to the minority communities, the bigots of Hangu maintained their old tradition of attacking this community on the occasion of Nauruz. This is a consequence of the decline of Pakistani culture under the spur of a narrow-minded faith. Those who wish to destroy Pakistani culture are armed and use violence. They also use religion to strengthen their cause. Standing up to them is the war that Pakistan will have to fight if it wants to survive.