Remembering Salmaan Taseer

Television screens around the world showed the nauseating spectacle of hundreds of lawyers feting a murderer, showering rose petals upon him, and pledging to defend him pro-bono.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Express Tribune
By Pervez Hoodbhoy | January 1, 2012

Governor Salmaan Taseer died at the hands of a religious fanatic on January 4 last year. Fearlessly championing a deeply unpopular cause, this brave man had sought to revisit the country’s blasphemy law which, as he saw it, was yet another means of intimidating Pakistan’s embattled religious minorities. This law — which is unique in having death as the minimum penalty — would have sent to the gallows an illiterate Christian peasant woman, Aasia Bibi, who stood accused by her Muslim neighbours after a noisy dispute. Taseer’s publicly-voiced concern for human life earned him 26 high-velocity bullets from one of his security guards, Malik Mumtaz Qadri. The other guards watched silently.

Free to pursue jihad: Banned JuD chief Saeed appreciates Pakistan’s unique freedoms

“Our rulers are trying to avert this war instead of taking counter measures against their conspiracies. They should not play with national solidarity and sovereignty. They should play a brave part in the defence of Islam and Pakistan.”

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Express Tribune
By Rana Tanveer | January 1, 2012

LAHORE: Pakistan is unmatched in terms of the freedom it allows for the pursuit of jihad and for the spread of Islam, said Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed on Sunday.

In a statement released in English, Saeed said that he did not believe in modern nationalism, but no other “territory” in the world matched Pakistan and it was a great blessing from Allah.

He said Pakistan’s defence “lies in the Kalima Tayyaba”. He said non-Muslims were conspiring against Pakistan both internally and externally. They could only be defeated by “acting upon the methodology of the state of Medina”.

“Islam is not only a set of a few prayers and teachings. Islam is a complete code of life. The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) has also taught us a strategy for the defence of countries, as he has taught us prayer, fasting and zakat … the state of Medina had to face the treason and conspiracies of the non-believers of Mecca.”

Pakistan: Banned outfits make Punjab home

...[L]ast year several banned organisations, like Sipah-i-Sahaba and Jamatud Dawa, were allowed to continue their activities. He said although these organisations were limited to the Punjab they could surprise and harm to the security establishment, which currently is patronising them.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Express Tribune
By Rana Tanveer | December 30, 2011

LAHORE: The city witnessed two explosions in 2011 which left 13 people dead and 112 injured. More than 250 were killed in 18 terrorist activities in 2010.

In the first incident, on January 25, at Ghora Chowk, Urdu Bazar, a suicide bomber killed 10 people and injured 85. The second incident, on February 3, a bombing, killed three people and injured 27 near Haider Sayeen shrine.

Shahbaz Taseer, son of late Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer and US citizen Warren Weinstein were kidnapped for ransom during the year.

Shahbaz was abducted from Gulberg on August 27, while Weinstein was picked up from his Model Town residence.

Security officials have claimed that Al Qaeda operatives are behind both abductions.

Belgium: Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth start New Year with prayers and community action

After Tahajud they set out to lend a hand to their local communities by volunteering to help clean up the city centers that were the scene of New Year festivities the night before. On this new year’s day 250 youth took part in this action across Belgium.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: Khuddam Belgium
By MKA Belgium | January 1, 2011

Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth in Belgium start New Year with prayers and community action following the true teachings of Islam.

Across 14 locations throughout Belgium, more than 250 Muslim Youth welcomed the new year by (Tahajjud) prayers in the early hours of dawn.

After the prayers they set out to lend a hand to their local communities by volunteering to help clean up the city centers that were the scene of New Year festivities the night before. On this new year’s day 250 youth took part in this action across Belgium.

Towns where action took place include Dilbeek, Eupen, Hasselt, Genk, Herk-de-Stad, Beringen, Sint Truiden, Nieuwerkerken, Lier, Antwerpen, Merksem, Turnhout, Kasterlee, and Hoogstraten.

Read original post here: Belgium: Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth start New Year with prayers and community action

Muslim Americans spread the message of peace in New York's Times Square on New Years Eve

Muslim Americans Celebrate New Years in Times Square - Muslim Americans spread the message of peace in New York's Times Square on New Years Eve.

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Source/Credit: CNN iReport
By Ahmad Chaudhry | January 1, 2011


Muslim Americans Celebrate New Years in Times Square

Read original post here: Muslim Americans spread the message of peace in New York's Times Square on New Years Eve.

The closing of the Pakistani mind

The only community that flourished were the terrorists that the politicians wanted to embrace and the military didn’t want to take on because of its seeming obsession with the endgame in Afghanistan. The nation’s dumbing down became almost an epidemic, propagated in large part by the anchors of the TV channels.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Express Tribune
By ET Editorial | December 31, 2011

A collection of the top Pakistan news that featured in 2011

The year 2011 must rank as one of the worst years in the nation’s life. It began with the killing of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer and ended with the most internecine of politics to topple the incumbent government before its term in office via the memogate affair. This happened in the midst of an ominous national consensus which seems to have rallied behind the military against the United States, while all economic indicators presaged doom for 2012.

Rage and excessive passion characterised the functioning of many key institutions, with the masses following their lead thanks to the dubious role played by a vastly expanding but increasingly cash-strapped media. Foreign affairs were most immoderately handled, with the army calling the shots and a divided community of politicians pushing each other to the point of no return. The Raymond Davis case was handled in a curiously unbalanced manner without regard to consequences, pledging qisas (hanging) but falling back on diyat (blood money).

Pakistan: All voices of tolerance silenced in 2011

Earlier this month, another Hindu girl was forcibly converted and her family is fighting the case. However, the father, Narayan Das, alleges that they are being “sidelined in the investigations” and “being threatened to withdraw the case”.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The News International
By Saher Baloch | December 31, 2011

Karachi: The year 2011 has seen the country lose key political figures to religious extremism and this has set an alarming trend for the years ahead, states the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in its year-ending report on minorities and the state of human rights in Pakistan.

This year was unlike any other that we have seen, says Zohra Yusuf. The nation witnessed the assassination of a sitting governor, who belonged to the ruling party, and the federal minister for minorities, both in the name of religion.

At the same time, former information minister Sherry Rehman was threatened with her life after she proposed amendments to the blasphemy law. Though the amendments were sensible and proposed to help the vulnerable in the country, Zohra says “it was appalling to see the prime minister withdrawing them and stating on national television that the party had nothing to do with it.” The message that it sent out to the people is one of helplessness, she adds. This inability to admit to the many perils of extremism has led to a number of killings and increased discrimination on many levels.

A Secret War in 120 Countries

From a force of about 37,000 in the early 1990s, Special Operations Command personnel have grown to almost 60,000, about a third of whom are career members of SOCOM; the rest have other military occupational specialties, but periodically cycle through the command.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: TomDispatch | The Huffington Post
By Nick Turse | August 4, 2011

The Pentagon’s New Power Elite
(from TomDispatch.)

Somewhere on this planet an American commando is carrying out a mission.  Now, say that 70 times and you’re done... for the day.  Without the knowledge of the American public, a secret force within the U.S. military is undertaking operations in a majority of the world’s countries.  This new Pentagon power elite is waging a global war whose size and scope has never been revealed, until now.

After a U.S. Navy SEAL put a bullet in Osama bin Laden’s chest and another in his head, one of the most secretive black-ops units in the American military suddenly found its mission in the public spotlight.  It was atypical.  While it’s well known that U.S. Special Operations forces are deployed in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, and it’s increasingly apparent that such units operate in murkier conflict zones like Yemen and Somalia, the full extent of their worldwide war has remained deeply in the shadows.