Founding Editor: Daya Varma (1929-2015)
Editors: Vinod Mubayi (New York) and Raza Mir (New Jersey).
Editorial Board: Ram Puniyani and Irfan Engineer (Mumbai); Pervez Hoodbhoy (Islamabad); Dolores Chew (Montreal); Vamsi Vakulabharanam (Amherst); Ajay Bhardwaj (Vancouver).
Circulation/website: Feroz Mehdi (On behalf of Alternatives, Montreal).
AYODHYA VERDICT: A POLITICAL DECISION
Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi
Eighteen years after the 350-year old Babri Masjid was reduced to rubble by marauding Hindu zealots, the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court pronounced it’s much awaited verdict today.
APPEAL FOR PEACE
The Ramjanmabhoomi- Babri Masjid Title Suit verdict may be delivered soon. The Babri Masjid demolition has been a vexed issue which led to communal violence and tension for over two decades between the two communities.
NO GAMES IS A GOOD GAME—PERHAPS?
Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi
The fiasco surrounding the Commonwealth games scheduled to start on October 4 at New Delhi is obvious; consequences might not be all that bad.
COMMONWEALTH GAMES IN DELHI
Yaaminey Mubayi
The shame of hosting Commonwealth games.
COMMONWEALTH GAMES FIASCO EXPOSES INEFFICIENCY AND CORRUPTION IN THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT
Kaleem Kawaja
The shame of hosting Commonwealth games.
AYODHYA: IS A SOLUTION POSSIBLE?
K.N. Panikkar
It should be clear to everyone, most of all to the judges who ordered the judgment deferred, that if the issue has defied a solution for a hundred years, no miracle is likely in less than a week.
A LANDMARK VERDICT
Kuldip Nayar
It was a laudable judgment of the Supreme Court which upheld the right of Indian Muslims to inherit the property that their fathers and forefathers had left behind before migrating to Pakistan.
NEPAL MAOISTS TO BUILD A NEW POLITICAL MAINSTREAM
(Nepal News)
By withdrawing from the race to Prime Minister’s position, the Nepal Maoist leader Pushpa Dahal takes a step to resolve the political crisis in his country.
PAKISTAN’S UNIVERSITIES – FROM BOOM TO BUST
Pervez Hoodbhoy
Upset by drastic budget cuts imposed by the finance ministry, the vice-chancellors of 71 public sector universities are threatening to resign en-bloc. They rightly say that development projects are grounded, bills unpaid, and some buildings only half-constructed. Paying teacher salaries is also at risk. But a cash-strapped government retorts that its number-one priority is dealing with the flood devastation. It says it cannot afford the inflated budgets of previous years.
ISLAMIC IDENTITY IN SECULAR INDIA
Asghar Ali Engineer
Democratic polity in a multi-religious, multi-caste and multi-cultural country is based, more often than not, on identities. It is of course very complex issue which needs discussion and proper analysis. In any polity based on votes identity plays an important role. Identity can be divided into pre-mordial and acquired. Acquired identity is always post-natal and does not generate powerful emotions as primordial one does. One chooses acquired identity but not identity by birth.
PROMOTING GENDER-JUST ISLAM: INSIGHTS FROM THE INDIAN CONTEXT
Yoginder Sikand
Whether the gender inequality among Muslims is integral to Islam or other factors has been much debated. Here the author tackles this important issue
LEGITIMISING FUNDAMENTALISM
K.N. Panikkar
A highly irrational act — of sacking the lecturer whose hand was brutally hacked — is sought to be imbued with legal respectability and given a communal character.
CORDOBA HOUSE, QURAN BURNING AND CLASH OF CIVILIZATION
Irfan Engineer
The proposed construction of a mosque-cum-community centre, ‘Cordoba House’, in Lower Manhattan in New York has generated a lot of controversy. The Centre is just a few blocks away from the Ground Zero. Rick A Lazio, a former Congressman from Long Island is making the project a focus of his candidacy for Governorship from the Republican Party. Lazio has alleged in his campaign addresses that the Cordoba House project is not only being insensitive but also being offensive to the victims of 9/11. Cordoba House project is led by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. Lazio has also been questioning the source of funds for the construction of the Cordoba House.
A STATEMENT ON DENIAL OF DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS TO KASHMIR PEOPLE
Joint Statement by Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace & Democracy on the denial of democratic right to protest and killings by the Indian security forces in Kashmir.
VERDICT ON SHOOTING DEATHS AT VIENNA SIKH TEMPLE
(Sent by Jai Birdi)
Vienna, Sep 28 (DPA) Six radical Sikh men received heavy prison sentences Tuesday in Vienna for their involvement in the killing of a senior Indian sect leader last year in Austria’s capital, media reported.
IS AHMADINEJAD EXPLOITING THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY’S ANXIETIES?
Kaleem Kawaja
Making bold controversial statements is one way of drawing attention and many leaders have used it. Kaleem Kawaja examines the legitimacy of the pronouncements of the Iranian President Ahmadinejad.
BOOK: MALEGAON TO AJMER, THE TRAIL OF TERROR
Author: Ram Puniyani
PRAYERS AND CANDLE LIGHT VIGILS
For Communal Harmony in the Country and Just Peace in Jammu & Kashmir (October 2, 6 to 7 pm)
ACHA PEACE STARS OF 2010
Upon nomination by their colleagues and admirers, the Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA) has decided to honor Dr. Mohammad Arif, Jatin Desai, Ashfaq Fateh, Faisal Khan, Dilafrose Qazi and Awais Sheikh, all peace and harmony activists from India and Pakistan, with the ACHA Peace Star Award 2010.
OBITUARY: Allen Dale June 1919-2010
Alan Turing’s accomplishments in deciphering the German enigma and transmission of messages by the US army in Navajo language, which could not be interpreted by the Japanese, are credited with many successes of the Allied forces during World War II. Ed.
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