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Asia

Pakistan TV show gives away babies to boost ratings

Pakistan’s television wars have plumbed new depths in the battle for Ramadan ratings with the country’s most controversial presenter giving away abandoned babies on his prime-time show. Aamir Liaquat Hussain has presented two babies to childless couples so far during Islam’s holy month. His show’s heady mix of charity, piety and kitsch has made it a hit with viewers but also attracted accusations that he is using religion to generate headlines. In an episode broadcast last week, Mr Hussain shocked …

Saudi Arabia will send Imams to Pakistan

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia would send imams, one each from Masjidul Haram in Makkah and Masjid-i-Nabawi in Madina, to Pakistan every year. Talking to visiting Pakistan’s Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Sardar Mohammed Yousaf, President of the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques Sheikh Abdulrahman Al-Sudais made the announcement. He said this was being done to promote ties between the two countries. He said that King Abdullah attached great importance to Pakistan and its people.

State of religious freedom in Pakistan considered “Dire”

Panelists at a religious freedom session on Pakistan called for reform of the nation’s laws, calling the situation for minorities dire. In June alone, 47 religious minorities were killed in Pakistan, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The victims included an 18-year old Christian man tortured to death by police after he was suspected of kidnapping a Muslim woman, the commission said. “Basic law enforcement and legal reform are desperately needed,” Knox Thames, director of policy and …

Malala, Salam and Zafrullah

As I looked at Dr Salam’s tombstone, I felt a pang of guilt and shame at what we have done to the Ahmadis in Pakistan. We have abolished their religious freedom and in the process our own The disgusting manner in which Malala Yousafzai has been targeted by a section of our society recently is upsetting but unsurprising. It is a bit of a local tradition, it seems, to abuse those who do something for the hapless people in this …

The Wrong Kind of Muslim – Putting an end to Islamic Terrorism

American Muslim author releases landmark book to put an end to the Taliban & Islamic terrorism The Wrong Kind of Muslim is a call to unite those of all faiths and of no faith in the struggle for universal freedom of conscience. Since 9/11, terrorists in Pakistan have killed over 40,000—and counting. Often risking his own life, Qasim Rashid journeys into the heart of that terrorism to unearth the untold story of those silenced by Taliban suicide bombings, secret police …

Pakistan election: the 4m votes no one wants

As Pakistan’s election campaign enters its dying days, no town has escaped the attention of the country’s politicians as they crisscross the country, plastering every spare billboard, lamp-post and shop-front with posters bearing their heavily airbrushed faces. Except Rabwah, a sleepy riverside settlement in the critical battleground province of Punjab. It is home to 40,000 potential voters who could safely be relied upon to vote whichever way the town’s elders recommend – a particularly large and reliable example of what …

Chairman PTI Imran Khan tries to distance himself from Ahmadis

Chairman PTI Imran Khan who has a history of being soft on the Taliban has yet again made a controversial statement. The statement was issued in response to a viral video which showed Nadia Ramzan of PTI UK along with members of the Pakistani press meeting the head of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in London. In the meeting Ramzan asked his Holiness who would he vote for personally and what would he advise (to his followers). During the meeting, His Holiness …

Bomb blast kills 45 Shi’ite Muslims in Pakistan, Ahmadi man also among dead

In the killing fields of Pakistan, the bloodletting continues unabated. On March 03, the attack on the Shiite minority in the seaport city of Karachi claimed 45 lives, Women and children were among the dead. At least 150 others were critically wounded. The powerful explosion ripped through a crowd of Shiites as they left a mosque in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city. An Ahmadi muslim man was also among the dead. Mubashir Ahmad Abbasi of Abbas Town went missing after the …

Sectarian group carries out anti-Ahmadiyya procession in Rabwah

On 25th January 2013 ( 12 Rabiul Awwal ) Muslims around the world celebrated the birthday of the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H.). Mullahs associated with Mjalis e Ahrar and Khatm e Nabuwat movement used the celebrations as an excuse to carry out an anti-Ahmadiyya procession in Rabwah. The procession started from Kot Wasawa, a suburb of Chenab Nagar and went on to Aqsa square via the Degree College. On its way to the bus stand it stopped infront of the local …

Measure by US House of Representatives would create religious minorities envoy

Legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives calling for the creation of a special envoy in the US State Department for religious minorities in the Middle East and South Central Asia. US Reps. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and Anna Eshool (D-Calif.) introduced the legislation on Jan. 15. A similar bipartisan bill passed the US House of Representatives during the last session of Congress by a vote of 402-20 but was blocked in the Senate. “We have a strategic and moral …

Khatme Nabuwat hoax prompts Ahmadi mosque search

It turned out to be a rumour that around 25 members of Ahmadiyya community managed to gather at a ‘disputed’ worship place in Rawalpindi to attend Friday prayers, when local police carried out a search operation of the building on the request of a mob, fraught with great emotion, gathered in front of the worship place. The rumour was aired by none other than Sharjil Mir, the head of so-called Action Committee Khatm-e-Nabuwat. However, later it exposed that Mir had …

Taliban kill 21 kidnapped Pakistani soldiers

The bullet-riddled bodies of the personnel were found on Saturday night, two days after they were abducted from their military post located a short distance from Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. On 27th December around 30 Taliban armed with mortars and rocket launchers launched an attack on two checkpoints south of Peshawar, killing two security personnel, wounding another and kidnapping 23 others. Taliban lined up the Levies personnel on a cricket pitch and tied their hands with rope before …