Free Speech

These thoughts were actually not my first on the London bombings today. However, they have recently come to me, and I want to document them. The delay in my posting was due to the fact that I was waiting to hear from/about friends and family in London. (shukrunlillah, everyone seems to be OK). It dawned on me, that as much as I talk about being Muslim and American, about the search for shared humanity, and today really brought home the point that even to me, subconsciously, there is a distinction – the internalization of being the “other?” – between a…

I have nothing against military dictatorships if they happen to be installed in one of the most unstable and fragile flashpoint countries in the world such as Pakistan. During his tenure as President of Pakistan. Pervez Musharraf has done and said the right things. He has been very critical of the extremist elements in Pakistani society and seems intent on seeing a modern and tolerant Pakistan take root. He is fighting an uphill battle against the MMA, while he tackles education reform, closes madrassas, and tries to reign in boombastic imams. He has had to deal with secretarian violence and…