Akber Choudhry

1974 Featured

Shrill Religious Cult Digs a Deeper Political Hole

Once again with the July 2018 election of Imran Khan, the official spokesperson of the Ahmadiyya goes all out to provoke the incoming government,

theology

Uthaymeen, Five Years after the 'Qad Khalat' Debate

Exactly five years ago, I engaged in a deep theological debate with Waqar Akbar Cheema on a mis-translation of a verse of the Quran 3:144. I am always very sensitive to scholars and writers not distinguishing between translation and commentary and doing nip, tuck and tweak with scripture in

islam

Malcolm X knew Islam's History of Slavery, not Racism

An interesting article appeared in the Telegraph, titled "The conversion to Islam of Malcolm X is the wrong model for young black men [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/11425643/The-conversion-to-Islam-of-Malcolm-X-is-the-wrong-model-for-young-black-men.html] ." Although the author, David Edward, cites historical events, he makes a serious error that fatally undermines

Islamophobia

No Solutions to British Muslim Problems without Mutual Respect

Jonathan Russell of the Quilliam Foundation has a logical premise on which he bases his piece about the signatories [http://leftfootforward.org/2015/03/the-muslim-community-joint-statement-offers-no-progressive-solutions/] of the Joint UK Muslim Statement [https://jointmuslimstatement.wordpress.com/]. It is indeed a valid assertion that the signatories did not offer any solutions. When

Gaza

Sayeeda Warsi, the Conscience of Britain

I would not be writing this were it not for the utterly unwarranted criticism of Sayeeda Warsi by the Daily Mail and the Spectator [http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2014/08/baroness-warsi-was-over-promoted-incapable-and-incompetent/] . Britain has a long history of ministers resigning when their conscience would not let them continue with

2014

Discussion: Caliphate as a Political System - Myth or Reality?

* Speakers’ Papers and Presentations - Dr. Nevin Reda: The Caliphate, Sharia and the Search for an Islamic Political Theology: A Contemporary Perspective [http://www.qern.org/en/the-caliphate-sharia-and-the-search-for-an-islamic-political-theology-a-contemporary-perspective/] * Dr. Tahir Qazi: Caliphate as a Political System [http://www.qern.org/en/tahir-qazi-caliphate-as-a-political-system/] * Dr. Daniel Pipes: The Caliphate Brings Trauma [http:

Dawn

Nadeem Paracha Breaks Through on Qadianism

Liberal Muslims who are conversant about the Qadiani Ahmadiyya community have to walk a very fine line: the Ahmadiyya are discriminated against in Pakistan and are targeted by extremists in that country and liberals generally don’t want to be part of any judgmental discourse on what they perceive as

Voltaire

The Ugly Side of Voltaire

I had always recognised Voltaire as a philosopher and an important cog of Western liberal thinking but I recently came across a play written by him:Le fanatisme, ou Mahomet le Prophete [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahomet_(play)], literally Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet. Voltaire, and his admirers, have

hate

Saudi Sows Hate and Makes Others Reap

After considerable agonising over trans-national Muslim affinity, and avoiding criticising any single party, the time has come to say it: if Arab cultural fetishes and monarchical paranoia are not actively combated by Muslims worldwide, they threaten the trans-national fabric of theUmmah(Global Islamic Community). This is a rather lengthy article

Shock and Horror at Woolwich Killing

We are horrified and shocked by the killing of a British soldier in a barbaric and inhuman manner. Seminar time will be reduced from 10:00 to 14:00 with lunch at 12:45 Presenters will change their topic in light of the horrible event and topics will reflect that.

De-fund Orwellian Terrorist Factories to Regain the Moral High Ground

The terrorist bombings in Boston have brought home a very hard truth: Western moral certainty that led us through the Cold War is ceding its surefooted stance to extremist Islamists. Open and transparent justice has always worked simply: innocent or guilty, resulting in exoneration and freedom or sentence and punishment.

assimilation

Neo-con Conspiracies? Burma Burning to Birmingham Burqas

A quick search of Google News yesterday showed that, with theexception of Reuters [http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/25/us-myanmar-unrest-idUSBRE92O0O720130325] , no Western media outlet or news agency is regularly reporting on the recent massacre against Muslims in urban Burma (Myanmar). The BBC, while reporting on a curiously silent

Qadiani

Follow-up: Are Ahmadis Allowed to Vote in Pakistan?

Link to my previous article on the subject [http://www.qern.org/en/refusing-vote-pakistan/] Respected Iftikhar Chaudhry, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and Respected Fakhruddin Ibrahim, Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan: In 2002, when President Musharraf re-established a joint electorate, he agreed to the demands of Muslim

دہشت گردی

اسلام زندہ ہوتا ہے ہر کربلا کے بعد

# فتاوٰی کفر اور واجبُ القتل کا دھماکہ خیز نتیجہجب کوئی مسلمان کسی دوسرے مسلمان کو کافر کہتا ہے، تو وہ لازماً اُس کو مرتد کہتا ہے، اور تکفیری سوچ رکھنے والے اگر مرتد کو واجب القتل کہیں اور ملک کے قانون کی قدر نہ کریں تو پھر ہر

Islamophobia

Robert Fisk on Anonymous Internet Cowards like David Toube

Robert Fisk has rightly lashed out at the scourge of the Internet – extremist anonymous people [http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/anonymous-comments-are-as-pathetic-as-the-anonymous-sources-that-contaminate-gutless-journalism-from-the-new-york-times-bbc-and-cnn-8446788.html] with too much time writing and saying things they would not otherwise say in real life. He writes, Now in the old days, when someone stuffed

Feminism

Feminism is the Feeling of Being Safe - Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy recently became the first Pakistani to win an Academy Award. Her Oscar-winning documentary, “Saving Face,” co-directed by American filmmaker Daniel Junge, chronicles the lives of acid attack survivors in Pakistan and follows a British-Pakistani plastic surgeon, Mr. Mohammad Ali Jawad, who performs re-constructive surgeries on them. (Wikipedia [http:

muslim

Pakistan Turns the Corner without War or Revolution

![www.supportimrankhan.org](http://www.supportimrankhan.org/images/lets-build-better-pakistan-imran-khan.jpg)Pakistanis are a hardy and pragmatic people. Recently, exhibiting some signs of a true democracy, they have probably averted some of the worse outcomes being discussed only a few months ago. We’ll discuss some of the recent events here:

Ahmadiyya

Refusing to Vote in Pakistan

Many readers have asked: In the Aljazeera Debate on Ahmadiyya [http://www.qern.org/en/blog/ghaznvi/stream-aljazeera-english], why would the Qadiani Ahmadiyya representative say that Ahmadis are* ‘not allowed to vote in Pakistan’*? A Harvard-educated lawyer, Amjad Mahmood Khan, should know how to read statute and regulation. In the

Islamophobia Morphs into Christian Terrorism

History has a curious habit of coming full-circle. The forces that fanned Islamophobia after 9/11 have seen that manufactured Islamophobia convert itself to full-blown Christian Terrorism [http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/4910/is_norway%E2%80%99s_suspected_murderer_anders_breivik_a_christian_terrorist] . Our hearts go out

Anti-Muslim News Corp Comeuppance

The Globe and Mail writes [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/rupert-murdoch-gets-his-comeuppance/article2093936] : > The moral outrage is as thick as Devon cream. But this story is about much more than corrupt police and a media culture run amok. It’s about power, hypocrisy and revenge. It’s about

Europe

Lessons from Greek Financial Woes

The country that is widely considered to be the cradle of Western civilisation is bankrupt. Its bonds are now rated lower than any other country in the world. With a population of only 11 million, the country that was once regarded as an antidote to Turkey by traditional European powers

Takfeer - the Saturated Business Model

Also published on Chowk [http://www.chowk.com/Religion/Islam/Takfeer-The-Saturated-Business-Model] by Akber Choudhry As Irish bombs are in the media today, instead of AlQaeda bombs, and Muslims are not on the defensive for one whole day, maybe we can sneak in the opportunity about the biggest problem that ails

minorities

Reality Check about Christians in Pakistan

Listening to the commercial media in Western countries, one can be forgiven for thinking that in countries like Iraq or Pakistan, there is a Klashinkov-toting Muslim around every corner hunting down Christians and other non-Muslims. On my last trip to Pakistan, I stayed in one of largest Christian neighbourhoods in

The Shariah Threat to America

by Akber Choudhry This situation is the classical definition of the Arabic word ‘fitnah’. This picture on the left is actually from the title of a report [http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/p18523.xml] by the ‘B Team’, composed of generals and scholars and published by the Center for Security Policy,

The Pete "McCarthy" King Inquisition

Representative Pete King [http://peteking.house.gov] is using his position on the Homeland Security committee of the United States Congress to hold hearings on homegrown ‘Islamic Radicalization’. We are not the first ones to use the ‘McCarthy’ label on Rep. King. In a pot-kettle exchange during a public falling-out