Related Posts

Kyrgyz revolution?

The BBC is reporting protests in Osh and Jalalabad in Kyrgyzstan in response to the recent election. Bishkek is brewing. I had put the rumblings going on there as flights of fancy. However, if Osh and Jalalabad are in fact under control of the opposition, this could be a very serious movement. The fact that the Bishkek rally was broken up relatively peacefully I think bodes well for the opposition.

Greg Mortenson and the Business of Redemption

Readers who may not know much about the political situation in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, still know, based on images they see on television, that the situation of women is disastrous. Three Cups of Tea reaffirmed that message, and provided a savior in the form of Mortenson. But what about women’s organizations in Pakistan and Afghanistan? Why are they not part of this picture of empowerment of women? These questions are not directly addressed in these kinds of discussions, because, by definition it seems, Afghan and Pakistani women are victims, and not actors in their own lives; they…

Mine’s bigger than yours

I saw this article on the murder of Shi’ah in Karachi a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t want to do another article on Muslim-on-Muslim violence; they weren’t anything new. Last night, I had a conversation with a friend and something occurred to me: Pakistan is a Muslim country, at least 99% of the population is Muslim. There are some Christians, and the Ahmadis (different post) were declared non-Muslim, otherwise the assumption is that everyone in Pakistan is a Muslim. The Ahmadiyya situation indicates that the Sunni majority could work to legally have the Shi’ah declared non-Muslim, like in Saudi…