Great game: Polls in Pakistani Kashmir smooth way for epic China pipeline

For The Christian Science Monitor: Gilgit, Pakistani-controlled Gilgit-Baltistan — Pakistan’s disputed Gilgit-Baltistan region, located above India’s Kashmir Valley and the site of a bitter war between India and Pakistan in the late 1990s, is today ground zero for a pending China pipeline to the Indian Ocean – a $46 billion project that represents Pakistan’s largest-ever foreign investment. It was also the site of elections earlier this month that saw Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League take a majority in the 24-seat assembly. Pakistan says…Continue Reading “Great game: Polls in Pakistani Kashmir smooth way for epic China pipeline” →

Festering and forgotten, Pakistan’s other war burns on

For the Christian Science Monitor: Turbat, Balochistan: In Turbat’s main square, dozens of troops from the Frontier Corps spend their day nervously scanning traffic. One soldier, his machine gun resting on the bulge in his flak jacket, visits the square’s shopkeepers one by one, checking in with them. More than 55,000 troops are deployed in Balochistan, but this is a war most Pakistanis have no idea is occurring. An eight-year old insurgency – the fifth one in the province since Pakistan’s founding in 1947 ­– shows…Continue Reading “Festering and forgotten, Pakistan’s other war burns on” →

Pakistan’s Islamic seminaries pair science with the Quran

For the Christian Science Monitor: Anwarul Haq, a frail, bespectacled cleric, sits before a class of attentive students in Darul Uloom Haqqania, one of Pakistan’s many madrassas, or Islamic seminaries. His class of 1,400 students is the most senior of 4,000 enrollees at Darul Uloom, an hour’s drive from Peshawar. The students follow a 500-year-old curriculum adopted across South Asia. The oversized book used in Mr. Haq’s class, a collection of ahadith, or sayings attributed to the prophet Muhammad, is centuries old and written in…Continue Reading “Pakistan’s Islamic seminaries pair science with the Quran” →

Why a Pakistani reporter is suing the CIA for murder

For the Christian Science Monitor: Kareem Khan’s son and brother died in a US drone strike. His lawsuit has made waves in Pakistan and overseas, and he was recently detained for nine days. On Dec. 31, 2009, Kareem Khan, a journalist in Islamabad, got a call from a cousin in his hometown in Pakistan’s tribal belt. He was told to come quickly. He reached his village a few hours later to find locals gathered around the rubble of his house, the target of an American…Continue Reading “Why a Pakistani reporter is suing the CIA for murder” →

Islamic scholars in Pakistan push for hate speech ban

For the Christian Science Monitor: Pakistan’s top body of Islamic scholars is pushing for a crackdown on hate speech in an effort to curb intra-faith violence in the world’s second-largest Muslim country. Last month, 32 groups representing the major Islamic sects in Pakistan signed on to a code of conduct that prohibits hate speech against other sects, restricts the use of mosque loudspeakers, and bans incendiary literature and graffiti. The religious leaders are trying to combat a steady rise in sectarian disputes. In 2012, at…Continue Reading “Islamic scholars in Pakistan push for hate speech ban” →

Pakistan wants to talk to its Taliban, but doesn’t know what to say

For the Christian Science Monitor: Despite the Pakistani Taliban’s recent deadly attack on 10 foreign climbers, many Pakistanis still want to hold talks with the group to end a decade long conflict that has killed more than 50,000 people, mostly civilians. Pakistan has a broad consensus in favor of talking to the Taliban. A May 2013 Pew survey found only 35 percent support using the military against the Taliban, and 64 percent saw the US as more of an enemy than a partner. Anecdotal evidence…Continue Reading “Pakistan wants to talk to its Taliban, but doesn’t know what to say” →

Egypt's top religious authority: It's not anti-Islam to be anti-Morsi

For the Christian Science Monitor: As the Egyptian opposition’s demands for the resignation of President Mohamed Morsi and fresh elections gain momentum, the beleaguered president’s supporters are slamming the opposition as secular and hostile to Islam. In the deeply religious country, it is a serious criticism, and it has brought many Egyptians to Mr. Morsi’s side. But his opponents point to support from the leading voice of the Sunni establishment in Egypt. Earlier this month, Ashraf Abdel-Moniem, a conservative preacher and a vocal supporter of…Continue Reading “Egypt's top religious authority: It's not anti-Islam to be anti-Morsi” →