MAQzine

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2010 A funny thing happened after the Saudi Arabia-sponsored 2008 World Conference on Dialogue in Spain : People began paying attention. For those readers who may have forgotten, King Abdullah initiated the interfaith dialogue conference with the hope of bridging the gap that exists primarily among Muslims, Christians and Jews. Not unexpectedly, the conference was greeted with a lukewarm response, if not more than a little hostility by the Western media. Saudi Arabia , according to the argument at the time, was presumptuous to sponsor a conference on religious harmony since no churches are permitted in the Kingdom. Media coverage was casual and the event was soon forgotten. Or maybe not. According to the Washington Times, an arch-conservative newspaper and ordinarily a harsh critic of Saudi Arabia , some Jewish leaders have recognized that such conferences can narrow the gap that separate Jews and Muslims. Rabbi Marc Schneier, who heads the Foundation Fo...

By Irfan Hussain UNWITTINGLY, our private TV channels provide us with more entertainment than they know. The other day, I was sent a link to a recent debate between that hardy perennial, Mustafa Khar, and another permanent fixture, Brigadier Imtiaz ‘Billa’. Both have been in and around power, with the former having flip-flopped his way across the political spectrum, and the latter providing his uniformed and civilian masters with a sharp and ready hatchet out of the ISI/MI armoury. This debate — which was more of a ferocious verbal punch-up than a courtly discussion — focused on yet another London conspiracy that was supposed to have been hatched in the mid-1980s. A number of military officers were arrested and sentenced to long terms for planning a coup against Zia; and Raza Kazim, the brilliant lawyer and multi-faceted intellectual, was arrested for his alleged role in the conspiracy. Mustafa Khar was then in exile and was accused of getting Indian support and arms for this plot. ...