Suicide blast in Pakistan kills over 40, injures 46

Pakistani Police Had Warned Army about a Raid

Death sentences for China rioters

Lahore HC dismisses anti-terror FIR against Hafiz Saeed

Honour killing girl 'wanted love'

Aceh outrage over Miss Indonesia

Arabs for Israel: meet the Egyptian woman who campaigns against Sharia

Muslims in U.S. feel unfairly implicated in the war on terror

Trying to sell antiques with Quran verses, four held

Christian Girl Attacked for saying she’s Pakistani

Kashmir Valley Muslims open doors to public to share culture

How one US Muslim sees her government's war on terrorism

California artist contemplates Islam's holy book

Pak bombs Taliban hideouts in South Waziristan; ground offensive 'imminent'

Next on terror hit list: Pak’s nuke installations

America may pay Afghan fighters to ditch Taliban

Huge fraud in Afghan vote: UN official

In Kashmir Valley asylum, long wait to go home

Israel, U S to hold key missile exercise amid nuclear row with Iran

Pakistan's Offensive, Afghanistan's Risk

Pakistan Rangers gets first officer from Sikh community

Afghan message to India: do not be deterred

Pak ISI station chief in Delhi dies of electrocution

GHQ attack reactions: Entire nation stands united with army against terrorists

Taliban attack on Pak GHQ was planned in South Waziristan: ISPR chief

LONDON: 'HQ attack signals terror threat is up'

Sudanese to hang over US killing

Iranians demand loan of treasure

Every month a couple of Hindu families (of the 2.44 lakh Hindus in Pakistan) leave the land where they and their parents had been born, to seek refuge, in India. Each one talks of feeling watched, being pushed further into their homes. They celebrate their festivals as quietly as possible or not at all. They pray behind closed doors and many have considered giving their children Muslim first names, except that even that might attract violence. Riding in public transportation is a fraught event because someone might decide that Hindus should sit with them. -- NISHA SUSAN

I’ve always thought that Islamic extremism was different. To me, the most persuasive theory is that some people are caught between modernity and tradition and as an escape have invented a make-believe purism, which permits killing in the name of holiness. Then came the Iraq war and the debate shifted. But over the past few weeks, I’ve been reminded that the problem has not gone away. There are still fanatics in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Gaza and South Lebanon, and even Denver. In some ways extremism is on the wane but in other ways the poisonous infection has not been addressed. -- By David A. Lehrer

By Firoze Bakht Ahmad

Tackling terror sincerely in Pak's own interest: India

A Dogged Taliban Chief Rebounds, Vexing U.S

Chicago Muslims cautiously support Obama Nobel win

Spirited women spread their wings

China says ready to protect nation after Al-Qaeda threat

Imams from Jordan for Pluralism and interfaith dialogue: seminal Saudi initiative

Smoking Burns One's Pocket Say Imams

30 arrests at anti-Islam protest in Birmingham

New Survey on Islam Calls into Question Population Figure Used by Obama

Muslim footballers agree to play gay team

Egypt detains 24 Muslim Brotherhood members

Violent incidents reported in Ingushetia, Dagestan and Chechnya

Shivaji’s confidential secretary was Maulana Haider Ali and the chief of his cannon division was Ibrahim Gardi. Rustom-e-Jamaan was his bodyguard.

As a matter of fact, Shivaji is popular amongst people, not because he was anti Muslim or worshipper of Cows and Brahmins, but because he reduced the taxation on the poor peasants. Shivaji adopted humane policy in all the aspects of his administration, which did not base itself on the religion. In the recruitment of his soldiers and officers for army and navy, religion was no criterion and more than one third of his army consisted of Muslims. The supreme command of his navy was with Siddi Sambal, and Muslim Siddis were in navy in large numbers. Interestingly his major battles were fought against the Rajput army lead by Raja Jaisingh, who was in the administration of Aurangzeb. When Shivaji was detained at Agra forte, of the two men on whom he relied for his eventual escape, one was a Muslim called Madari Mehtar. -- Ram Puniyani

By Dr. Khawaja Ikram

Please recall that in the heydays of Islam, a Muslim from Baghdad, Bokhara, Cairo, Damascus, Samarkand and elsewhere learnt his theology in the same madrasa (educational institution, literally) where he was also taught science and mathematics, logic, philosophy and mysticism, music, literature and architecture. You adore Imam Ghazali; consider his to be among the most respected names in the field of Islamic theology. But do you teach in your madarsas what Imam Ghazali did: “He who has never doubted is not a true believer”, or that every ayat (verse) of the Quran can be interpreted in 60,000 ways? Do you tell them ever that this highly learned Imam believed that Allah has prescribed two basic texts for the ummah: one, the Quran, the other is His “open book”, otherwise known as the Universe/ Cosmos. And that the Quran itself repeatedly asserts that to even begin to fathom Divine Intent, in addition to imaan (faith) you need aql (intellect) and ilm (reasoning). A rounded education for the 4 per cent is critical, for it is they from whom the 96 per cent learn their Islam. Because of the compartmentalised, fragmented, insular and sectarian nature of his education, the Maulvi Sahib’s ignorance of the world he inhabits is tragic — and the Mr Muslim’s knowledge of Islam pathetic. -- Javed Anand

By Dr. Israr Ahmad

Iraq will be an Islamic democracy, which is an oxymoron. Democratic government is illegal in Islam. How many Christian American boys died to establish an Islamic government in Iraq? Now we are told that 40,000 additional troops are needed for the “war on terror” in Afghanistan. There is no freedom of religion in Afghanistan, no rights of the individual, no rights for women, and Islam is the established religion. The President must be a Muslim. Peace in Afghanistan will result in the continued establishment of an Islamic Republic ruled by a nation of Islamic Clerics (Judges). In Muslim majority nations, such as Saudi Arabia, non-Muslims are regarded as Dhimmis, second-class people whose testimony in court does not count as much as that of a Muslim and who must pay extra taxes. Forget equal treatment under the law, and don’t even ask how they treat Dhimmi women. -- Coach Dave Daubenmire

By Agha Masood Hussain

Pakistan Retakes Army Headquarters; Hostages Freed

Islamabad: Terrorists back to haunt people

Taliban planning to carry out more suicide attacks

Foreign fighters pour into Afghanistan to bolster the Taliban insurgency

Racing Time and Taliban to Rebuild in Pakistan

A Family’s Journey and a Girl’s Dream

759 people converted to Islam Malaysia this year

Jammu & Kashmir: 4 militants killed preventing infiltration

Iran to enrich uranium itself if third-party deal fails

ISI behind attack on Indian embassy: Afghan envoy to US

Alcohol banned in Iraq holy Shiite city of Najaf

Iraqis rally to protest government

Ma'an: Fatah, Hamas to sign agreement in four days

Israel lifts ban on al-Aqsa Mosque compound

Pakistani troops rescue hostages after militants attack military HQ

Afghan vote fraud 'significant': UN special rep

Hospital mix-up shatters Makkah woman’s life

Jerusalem flashpoint site reopens to all Muslim worshippers

Victim’s parents hang young Iranian killer

Compiled by Aman Quadri

Nathan Gardels: For those of us who have not had the opportunity to read your book "Right of Return," which imagines Israel in 2024, what is the picture you paint?

I describe an Israel that is basically the area of larger Tel Aviv, with the northern part of the Negev, including Dimona. The North is gone, the South is gone, Jerusalem is gone. The country fell apart because of external pressure -- continuous rocket bombardments -- that caused families to leave, and because of internal erosion: The Israeli Arabs and the ultra-Orthodox Jews moved away from the secular Jewish heart of the nation. Those with a criminal record, those who are old, and another group fascinated to be part of an apocalypse, and those who just want to stay and defend the country no matter what happens, were left behind. -- Dutch Novelist and Filmmaker Leon de Winter

Belief: Iran is like North Korea in having an active nuclear weapons program, and is the same sort of threat to the world.

Actuality: Iran has a nuclear enrichment site at Natanz near Isfahan where it says it is trying to produce fuel for future civilian nuclear reactors to generate electricity. All Iranian leaders deny that this site is for weapons production, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly inspected it and found no weapons program. Iran is not being completely transparent, generating some doubts, but all the evidence the IAEA and the CIA can gather points to there not being a weapons program. The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate by 16 US intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the Defence Intelligence Agency, assessed with fair confidence that Iran has no nuclear weapons research program. -- Juan Cole