Yitzakh, Rafik, and Salman

Reading the Taseer Assassination
The Murder of Salman Taseer, longtime Governor of the Punjab (the country’s dominant and Richest province) and publisher of the Lahore Daily Times, is likely to have unnerved members of the Pakistani elite who assumed that the state’s security forces could and would protect them against fundamentalist violence. However, there is genuine speculation in this part of the world — unexplored so far in the foreign press — that Taseer may not have been killed because of his oppo...

Pakistans Minister for Religious Minorities: Clerics who issued decrees against assassinated governor should be held to account
Shabhaz Bhatti himself now has death Fatwa hanging over his head for defending Asia Bibi and challenging the Blasphemy law. Like Salman Taseer, he has committed Blasphemy against the Blasphemy law, and in a typically disproportionate response (cartoons = death, criticism = death, etc.), that was enough for an Islamic group to call for his head over a month ago. "Anyone who is against the Blasphemy law puts his life at risk, Lahore Archbishop says," by Fareed Khan for AsiaNews, January 5: Lahor...

The General Wants Back into His Labyrinth - An Interview with Pervez Musharraf
On any given day, Pakistan tops the list of states on crisis alert. But this week has been rocky in the south Asian country, even by that low standard. On Monday, the country's government looked like it might imminently fall; the Prime Minister's ruling coalition shattering as its second-largest party pulled out. Then on Tuesday, one of the country's most moderate politicians -- Punjab Governor Salman Taseer -- was assassinated by one of his own Bodyguards. ...

Pakistan's increasing radicalisation: Staring into the abyss
The PPP has been rocked by Mr Taseer’s Murder, which brings back memories of the ghastly Assassination by Extremists of the party’s leader, Benazir Bhutto, in 2007. Pakistan’s problems, including an economy in a tailspin and a raging Islamist Insurgency, are unlikely to get the attention they need while the government struggles for survival. Mr Taseer was the Governor of Punjab, a largely ceremonial position in Pakistan’s most populous province, but a high-profile one for...

Paper: Taseer died for 'questioning a law'
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- The twist in the Assassination of Pakistan Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer was that while he broke no law, he died "for questioning a law," a Dawn editorial said. The reference was to Taseer's efforts to change Pakistan's Blasphemy law, under which a person can be sentenced to death for criticizing Islam, the Koran or the Prophet Mohammed. Taseer, a noted liberal, was gunned down allegedly by his own Security Guard in retaliation for his liberal views. "That unprec...

Muslim Assassin of Governor Critical of Blasphemy Laws Showered with Rose Petals
The pious assassin of the Pakistan Governor who was shot dead in cold blood because he criticized Islamic Blasphemy laws (the Sharia) was showered with rose petals. [Jihad Murder Victim, Governor] Taseer had recently spoken out in defense of a Christian woman sentenced to death for Blasphemy and calling for the law to be struck down, drawing ire from Islamist parties. Recently on Twitter, Mr. Taseer had been calling for people to demonstrate on the street against the Blasphemy laws, which date...

How Pakistan views the assassination of Salman Taseer
The Assassination of the Governor of Pakistan's Punjab Province, Salman Taseer, has prompted a litany of responses across Pakistan, from praise to lament....

This Really Is Mainstream Islam
Don't pretend that the enemies of freedom are a small minority of Extremists. Even the AP reported this: (emphasis added) More than 500 Muslim scholars praised the man suspected of killing a Pakistani Governor because the politician opposed Blasphemy laws that mandate death for those convicted of insulting Islam. The group of scholars and clerics known as Jamat Ahle Sunnat is affiliated with a moderate school of Islam and represents the mainstream Barelvi sect. The group said in a statement We...

Alleged killer seen as security threat
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- The Security Guard alleged to have assassinated Pakistan's Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer had previously been seen by police as a security threat, authorities said. New information on the suspect, Malik Mumtaz Qadri, has raised speculation Taseer's killing may have been a political Conspiracy and not the act of a lone religious Extremist, Dawn reported. It had been alleged Qadri, a member of the elite security guard, had acted in retaliation for Taseer's oppositio...

Former boss feared Pakistan suspect's "extremist" views
Islamabad (Reuters) - The supervising Police Officer of the Bodyguard accused of killing a Pakistani politician had asked for his removal from all sensitive security duties because of his extreme religious views, an investigator said on Thursday. The accused killer, identified as Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, said he was angered by outspoken Punjab Governor Salman Taseer's opposition to Pakistan's Controversial Blasphemy law. A senior police official investigating the case said Qadri had been dec...

Pakistan: Supporters of murderer of governor who opposed blasphemy law disrupt his court appearance
More rose petals for the murderer of Salman Taseer, who opposed Pakistan's Blasphemy law. Tiny Minority of Extremists™ Update: "Chaos over Mumtaz Qadri's court appearance," from AFP, January 6: Islamabad: A planned court appearance for Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, the killer of Governor Punjab Salman Taseer, ran into chaos on Thursday as extremist supporters prevented an attempt to re-locate the session, witnesses said. Mumtaz Qadri, who was assigned to Salman Taseer's security detail and c...

Pakistan Reverses Course On Fuel-Price Increase
The Pakistani government said Thursday that it will reverse unpopular fuel price hikes that helped spark the breakup of the governing coalition, an apparent attempt to prevent the government from collapsing at a time of growing turmoil in the country. The move came as the ruling Pakistan People's Party is reeling from the Assassination of an outspoken liberal Governor by one of his Bodyguards who told officials during his first court statement he was proud of the Murder and saw it as his religio...

Fears for life of Pakistani Christian
Salmaan Taseer meets with Aasia Bibi after she was sentenced to hang for blasphemy in Punjab province, where Taseer was governor until his assassination on Wednesday. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images Human rights workers say they fear for the immediate safety of Aasia Bibi, the Christian woman at the heart of Pakistan's blasphemy furore, following the assassination of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer this week. "None of us feel safe, least of all her," said Shahzad Kamran, a Christian charity work...

The Global Radical Islamic Threat To Freedom: Ignore Or Excuse At Our Peril
In an editorial today entitled “Under Siege,” the New York Times laments the recent violence committed by radical Islamists against Christians in Egypt and Iraq. Yesterday, the Times ran an editorial entitled “A Brave Man Killed,” in which it lamented the Assassination of Salman Taseer, the Governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province who had called for the Repeal of Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy law. This law, popular with Pakistan’s Muslim majority, imposes a...

Viewpoint
The killing of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer has been described in the country's media as awful, tragic and "a grim commentary on the state of affairs in Pakistan". Author Mohammed Hanif asks whether a Pakistani culture which fails to challenge Extremism is in part to blame. When Pakistan's television anchors and newspaper columnists describe Salman Taseer's Assassination a tragedy, they are not telling us the whole truth. Because many of these very anchors and columnis...

The sorry state of Pakistan
Salmaan Taseer is dead. He’s neither the first politician, first liberal, the first outspoken Bullish pugnacious politician who was killed. Nor is he last. There were many, there will be more. He was the sitting Governor of Pakistan’s biggest province and was assassinated by his own Bodyguard.  Does Pakistan suffer today because of his death? Yes. Does it change anything on the ground? No.  He was slain because he called the notorious Blasphemy law as black law. He stood up

Pakistan's Road to Disintegration
In the first few days of this year, Pakistan's Coalition Government was thrust into crisis after losing a coalition partner, and then a top politician--Punjab Governor Salman Taseer--was assassinated. A leading expert on the country, Stephen P. Cohen, says these incidents are symptoms of the profound problems tugging the country apart. "The fundamentals of the state are either failing or questionable, and this applies to both the idea of Pakistan, the ideology of the state, the purpose of the s...

Pakistan: A good man who did something
Mr Taseer, a member of the Pakistan People’s Party and a close ally of the president, Asif Ali Zardari, had been campaigning on behalf of Asia Bibi, an illiterate Christian farm worker who in the course of a row with neighbours over Drinking Water was accused of Blasphemy, convicted and sentenced to death. He had called for her to be pardoned, and also for the law, under which death for blasphemy against the prophet is mandatory, to be changed. His murderer, one of his Bodyguards, said thi...

Pakistan: Benazir Bhutto and her commitment to democracy?
Editor’s Comment : December 27, 2011 was the 3rd anniversary of Benazir Bhutto’s Assassination and Shahid R. Siddiqi updates the essay he wrote for publication on Axis of Logic on the second anniversary of her death. Associated Press of Pakistan reported Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani’s words on this third, sad anniversary. Gilani told the Pakistani people that the life of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto is “a classic study of courage, commitment tow...

Turmoil in Pakistan After Key Governors Assassination
Political turmoil in Pakistan after the Assassination of Salmaan Taseer, the Governor of Pakistan's Punjab Province, who was shot by one of his own Bodyguards who said he did it because Taseer criticized the country's Blasphemy law....

California's First Lady Gets New Title
After months of speculation surrounding what role California's First Lady would play in Gov. Jerry Brown administration, we now have an answer. Brown has nnounced his wife Anne Gust Brown will be special counsel to the Governor. She is one of three people who appear to be shaping up to be the inner circle of the executive offices in Sacramento. Having a family member play a role in an elected official's administration is not unprecedented. Robert Kennedy played a key role in the John F. Kennedy ...

Iran wont have nuclear capability before 2015, reports outgoing Mossad Chief Meir Dagan
Meir Dagan, who retired from his post as Mossad chief on Thursday after eight years, does not believe Iran will have Nuclear Capability before 2015. In a summary given to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Dagan said Iran was a long way from being able to produce Nuclear Weapons, following a series of failures that had set its program back by several years. Dagan handed over the job to his successor, Tamir Pardo, in the Prime Minister’s Bureau Thursday morning, after havi...

Guess What? Islamic Countries Most Dangerous for Christians
Of the top 10 countries on the 2011 WWL , eight have Islamic majorities and persecution of Christians has increased in seven of them. They are: Iraq , which saw Extremists massacre 58 Christians in a Baghdad cathedral on Oct. 31. Of the top 30 countries on the list, only seven have a source other than Islamic Extremists as the main persecutors of Christians. The top 10 in order are North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Maldives, Yemen, Iraq, Uzbekistan and Laos, which has a Comm...

The Drone of Death
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Thu, 01/06/2011 - 3:34pm. For me, it always comes back to the media and the moral values implicit in throwaway news stories - the ones we barely notice as we move through our day. "A series of Missile Strikes killed at least 19 suspected Insurgents Saturday in Pakistan's tribal borderlands, signaling that the new year would bring no respite in a relentless campaign of U.S. attacks employing unmanned aerial drones to target Militants." What a smooth glide these words fr...

Robert Koehler: Drone Reporting
For me, it always comes back to the media and the moral values implicit in throwaway news stories -- the ones we barely notice as we move through our day. "A series of Missile Strikes killed at least 19 suspected Insurgents Saturday in Pakistan's tribal borderlands, signaling that the new year would bring no respite in a relentless campaign of U.S. attacks employing unmanned aerial drones to target Militants." What a smooth glide these words from the LA Times, reprinted in news outlets through...