|
Politics
|
|
 By Sami Zubaida
Democracies are about more than elections and majorities: they require genuine separation of powers, autonomous institutions and associations, all regulated by the rule of law. The current Turkish situation is the product of social and institutional patterns, now in question, in which multiple centres of institutional power confronted and checked one another, unlike the centralised and personalised regimes of much of the Arab world.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
By Rumbold
Professor Steve Jones, a highly respected geneticist, has warned about the dangers of inbreeding. Using Bradford as an example, he pointed out that 75% of Pakistanis in Bradford marry their cousins.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Politics
|
|
 By Matt Boyes
Speaking at the Hay-on-Wye festival earlier this week, David Miliband didn’t just raise questions about the direction of the Labour Party under his brother’s leadership. He also touched on a much wider issue.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Arts
|
|
By MYH
ReFocus is a campaign by the Muslim Youth Helpline providing young people with the opportunity to explore and express their identity through photography. The campaign gathered together a group of 15-20 year olds from a variety of different faiths and backgrounds from Islington in London. The young people of Muslim, Buddhist, Christian and Atheist beliefs were trained in the art of photography through a series of workshops by professional photographers developing their creative camera skills. The participants will now be given a platform to showcase their work at an exhibition at the Seven Dials Club in Covent Garden this Saturday 4th June at 4pm.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Politics
|
|
 By Dominic Browne
The Big Society has a big problem, according to an Ipsos MORI poll last month, 91 per cent of adults don’t want to be involved. The government could turn to the voluntary sector but they have already cut their funding forcing them into making redundancies. So where else can they find willing and able community workers outside the public sector? Answer: religious groups however that brings difficult questions in itself.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Politics
|
|
 By Ahsan Butt
Four days ago, Saleem Shahzad, a journalist working for the Asia Times, penned this report on the extent of al-Qaeda’s infiltration in the Navy at lower levels, and how the attack on PNS-Mehran tied into an investigation of the same. At the top of the story, we read that “this is the first article in a two-part report”. How wrong he was. Two days ago, Saleem Shahzad disappeared. Today, he re-appeared, dead.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Politics
|
|
 By Ruth Grove-White
Explosive media coverage about an apparent ongoing ‘amnesty’ of asylum seekers with long-standing applications is largely missing the point. The furore is based on the recent report of the Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC) into the work of the UK Border Agency (UKBA). Among other issues, the report reviews UKBA progress in clearing the backlog of up to 450,000 unresolved asylum applications, many which have been gathering dust in UKBA offices since the late 1990s.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Politics and Policy
|
|
 By Agencies
A US drone attack that killed nine militants in South Waziristan targeted and killed top al Qaeda commander and chief of the Harkatul Jihad al-Islami (HJI) Ilyas Kashmiri, local officials said Saturday. Moreover, an HJI spokesman confirmed that Kashmiri had been killed, DawnNews reported.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Politics
|
|
 By Kalsoom
On Sunday, Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad went missing in Islamabad. Yesterday, news agencies reported that Shahzad’s body was found about 93 miles southeast of the capital, in Sira-e-Alamgir. In the aftermath of this tragic and shocking death, the question, Who killed Saleem Shahzad? continues to echo in the halls of the blogosphere and news outlets. While nothing is certain, many fingers are squarely pointed at the ISI.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Politics
|
|
 By Mehmudah Rehman
In recent times, the Middle East region has been in the news pretty regularly, but perhaps, no reason for making the headlines has been as bizarre as this one: A woman was arrested because she decided to drive a car on the streets of Saudi Arabia, and then posted a video of herself driving. On the 23rd of May, the Associated Press reported that “Saudi authorities have re-arrested an activist who defied a ban on female drivers in the conservative kingdom.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Politics
|
|
 By Randeep Purewall
In April 1998, just after India conducted its nuclear tests, the then Minister of Defence, George Fernandes referred to China as India’s “potential threat number one.” Years earlier in a personal letter, Nehru wrote of China as India’s “foe or adversary for a considerable time to come.” Nehru exhorted India to concentrate on buildings its defence “to meet the Chinese menace.”
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Politics
|
|
 By Sunder Katwala
Seldom can any electorate have been offered a less attractive electoral choice than Sepp Blatter versus Mohammed Bin Hammam for the FIFA Presidency. That would have been like Nixon versus Nixon in a post-Watergate election in the United States. Yet Sepp Blatter has surpassed even that scenario. The election is off and the FIFA President plans to steam on, to be re-elected, unopposed, for a third term - whatever the cost to FIFA’s tattered public reputation.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
By Nayha Kalia