Thanks to Suneel who alerted me to this interview with prolific author, broadcaster and columnist Tarek Fateh (also author of “Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State”)…
Two short excerpts:
How do you distinguish between an Islamist and a Muslim?
An Islamist is someone who believes in invoking Islam for a political agenda. A Muslim, on the other hand, uses Islam as a moral compass for his betterment and the betterment of his family. An Islamist is also a Muslim but a Muslim is not an Islamist.
India’s first …

Fellow blogger Varnam recently wrote two�posts on how learning Sanskrit is now considered to be a “communal” activity and something that might put you at odds with the “secular” brigade.
In the first one, he pointed out:
Usually you see the word saffronization associated with the Hindutva folks, not Sanskritization…the revival (of this word)�is with mischievous intent. Now the name of a language has become a synonym for communal politics.
In fact this attempt to brand Sanskrit as a non-secular entity happened once before, believe it or not – by the Central Board …

Came across this news-report yesterday and wondered whether there is now sufficient�evidence to�declare Pakistan a state-sponsor of terrorism?�
…Elements of Pakistan’s ISI and its paramilitaries are actively backing Taliban insurgents and if their sanctuaries in the country are not eliminated, the efforts of the US and its allies to stabilise and rebuild Afghanistan will be in jeopardy, a leading US think-tank has warned.
The study by Rand Corporation, funded by the US Department of Defence, finds that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate and Frontier Corps have failed to root out Afghan insurgent groups…in …

I don�t know how many of you came across this story of a graduate from Deoband making it through the UPSC Civil Services Examinations
The story is good and inspiring but the odd thing is the way in which it has been reported.� Note the differences (in blue) and enjoy (emphasis mine):
From: Madrasa student cracks civils�by Mateen Hafeez | TNN
Mumbai: At a time when eyebrows are being raised about education standards in madrasas, a maulana from the Darul-Uloom-Deoband in Uttar Pradesh has passed the country’s most elite examination, the civil services …

Yesterday, I was alerted to this news-report from earlier this week in which�Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad�was�quoted as saying:
the state of Israel will cease to exist with or without the involvement of his country.
‘This will happen whether we are involved in it or not,’ the Iranian leader told a news conference…..
He had been asked to explain his statement earlier this week in which he said the Jewish state would soon disappear from the map.
This is�not the first time�that Mr Ahmedinejad has expressed similar sentiments…But the reason this particular report caught my …