Over five years ago – I had written exhaustively on counter insurgency and counter terrorism policies, contextualizing them within the ambit of national security policy, national interests, national purpose and national identity. It was a time of hope and vigour and a sense that maybe something was in the air that will allow us to…
Since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, women are deprived of educational access because of the Taliban perception and their misinterpretation of Islamic principles related to women’s education. The Taliban’s discriminatory policies not only promoted gender inequality and patriarchy but deprived women of their fundamental human right to education. The restrictions on women’s…
The border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is sensitive in nature for a variety of reasons and for different sects of people across the border. Looking deeper, when late and recent ancient history is reviewed, we find different power poles crossing the Hindukush mountains and invading the subcontinent and this continued throughout the course of regional…
In a lush green valley nestled between the mountains of the Himalayas lived a carpet weaver named Kalash. His village flourished, its threads woven from the vibrant lives of its people – the merchants, the artisans, the farmers. But a storm loomed, threatening to undo peace and tranquility. Murmurs of problems and whispers of discontent…
IntroductionIn the last issue of DJ, “Tanzih and Tashbih” were discussed, the key concepts in Islamic theology representing God’s dual nature of incomparability and similarity. Tanzih means declaring God’s incomparability, emphasizing that He is free from all imperfections and unlike any creation. It highlights God’s transcendence, as in the Quranic verse “Nothing is like Him”…
Recent developments in Pakistan are worrisome for fellow citizens due to a multi-dimensional nexus that points towards Indian financial support to the Afghan Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the violent attitude of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) that is also backed by the Afghan Taliban regime. It is now absolutely clear that the Afghan Taliban…
Throughout the recorded human history war has been a constant feature of our lives while there is also ample evidence to show that war existed even before humans could record and communicate their experience in language. As historian Michael Howard notes, the documented evidence indicates that war has been the universal norm in human history….
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a twoday visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea (DPRK) on July 19, 2024, for the first time since the 2000s, because Russia had earlier agreed to the UN Security Council’s sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear program; these sanctions prevented Putin from visiting North Korea for…
Relations between Russia and North Korea have a long history. Both countries are neighbours; they share a border along the lower Tumen River, which is 17 kilometres long. When World War II ended, Korea, which had been a Japanese colony for 35 years, was liberated and then divided by the Soviet Union and US at…
The Vision of Islam – Extract-10So tell the tale — perhaps they will reflect. [Koran 7:176] Tanzih and Tashbih In the technical language of theology, especially as it developed after the seventh/thirteenth century, two terms are commonly employed to express the contrast between the perception of God’s nearness and mercy and that of his distance…
