IslamicLawBlog

Huffington Post A potentially perilous pattern of militancy is developing in response to the Western war on terror. Muslim militants across the world are confederating to assist each other. A few days after the French forces attacked Mali militants, a band of Muslim militants captured Western workers at an Algerian natural gas complex owned by British and Norwegian oil companies. While the French soldiers, receiving assistance from the Germans and the British, were killing Muslim militants in Mali, Muslim militants of various nationalities were threatening to kill Western hostages at the Algerian gas complex. This is not the first time Muslim militants have confederated to counter Western attacks. The Taliban of Pakistan and the Taliban of Afghanistan, along with Arabs, Chechens, and others, reinforce each other in fighting Western troops. The philosophy of al Qaeda, the mother of modern militancy, privatizes military jihad but also unites Muslim militants of all national stripes int...

Benefits of Dualistic Politics Huffington Post Neoteric political theories, just like novel laws, can emerge from the concurrence of seemingly irreconcilable facts. Pakistan's collaborative democracy -- a form of government under which the leading political parties engage in dualistic politics of simultaneously governing and sitting in opposition -- has surfaced as a consequence of fortuitous election results. In the 2008 general elections, no political party obtained an absolute majority in the national parliament. The Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which won the most seats in the national parliament, has allied with other parties to form a multiparty national government. The Pakistan Muslim League (N), the second largest party in the national parliament, after a short period of alliance with the PPP, opted out of the national government and it now serves as the leading opposition party. The 2008 elections yielded even more complex results in the four provinces of Pakistan...

The Dictators of the Middle East by Liaquat Ali Khan The dictators of the Middle East have a morbid love affair with power; they are prepared to do any harm to maintain power; they do not easily relinquish power; and, they, arising from the core of the Muslim world, disgrace the religion of Islam, forcing non-Muslims to conclude that it must be Islam that prompts rulers to forcibly establish sole proprietorships. In the eighteenth century, Montesquieu branded the Muslim Middle East as an incorrigible land of despots. The most recent arrogation of dictatorial powers is underway in Egypt where President Muhammad Morsi, holding unimpeachable Islamic credentials, has allegedly assumed Pharaoh's powers, frustrating judges, intellectuals, and the ordinary people who sacrificed liberty and life in overthrowing Hosni Mubarak, a secular self-seeker, who ruled Egypt with an iron fist for nearly 30 years. It is not only Egypt that produces despots. It is the entire Arab region stretch...

By Dr. L. Ali Khan Brazenly, the 2012 Republican platform disowns the human rights of women, children, and persons with disabilities, the historically disadvantaged groups that are emerging from the thicket of patriarchic and Darwinian ethos. The Republican platform urges the U.S. Congress to reject the human rights convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, the human rights convention protecting the rights of the child, and the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. The platform specifically calls on the Senate not to ratify these conventions and urges the House of Representatives not to appropriate any funds for their possible enforcement. The platform advocates an ideological repudiation of human rights treaties if the Republicans win the Senate, the House, or the White House. Mythical American Family Invoking American Exceptionalism, the Republican platform envisions America without human rights and detaches the nation from t...

Disregarding the constitution and parliamentary system, President Zardari, the chairman of Pakistan People's Party (PPP), has reduced the prime minister to a yes-sir (gi-jinab) minion who must seek the president's consent before taking any political, economic, foreign policy, or domestic action. Contrary to the constitution's letter and spirit, President Zardari himself has become the most powerful executive. Important government decisions are made in the presidential palace and not in the prime minister's office. This de facto constitutional subversion has deepened in the last few months as the Pakistan Supreme Court struggles with prime ministers over reopening a money-laundering case against Zardari pending in Swiss courts. Following the British parliamentary model of government, Pakistan has established a constitutional system under which the prime minister is the head of government whereas the president is the head of state. The president commands very few power...

Huffington Post Pakistan has transmuted the customary concept of nepotism into a popular and profitable business. Some experts portray customary nepotism as a biological compulsion. We are hard-wired as a species to take care of our off-springs, siblings, even nieces and nephews. The word nepotism is derived from the Italian word nepote, which means nephew; and, historically, nepotism refers to past practices of the Roman Catholic Popes, who would grant special favors to nephews and other relatives. Currently, however, influential and powerful persons are accused of nepotism when they confer substantial benefits on undeserving family members. Nepotism, favoritism, and cronyism are deeply imbedded in almost all nations. In Pakistan, however, nepotism thrives as a business for profitable networking and money laundering. Morally upright individuals who challenge the nepotism business face retaliation; they are scandalized and discredited. Sifarish Sifarish, another name for profi...

Huffington Post The United States and Israel have launched a vociferous global campaign to justify an attack on the Iranian nuclear facilities. Israel paints the Iranian nuclear program as an existential threat to itself whereas the United States characterizes the Iranian program as a peril to international peace and security. Most Western European states and some Middle Eastern states, including Saudi Arabia, view the Iranian quest for nuclear energy with suspicion and alarm. Russia and China, the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, and numerous Muslim and non-Muslim states in Asia, Africa and, Latin America, even when they are unsure about Iran's intentions, oppose an armed attack on Iran. As a State Party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran claims a lawful right to develop nuclear energy, just as scores of States Parties including the United States mobilize such a right to develop nuclear energy. The Iranian leaders deny, in an unambiguous languag...