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Shama

Looking For The Moderate Taliban

by Shama

Ever since Obama admitted the US was not winning in Afghanistan and broached the possibility of reaching out to the “moderate” Taliban, there has been a flurry of responses weighing in his odds on both sides. Obama bases his approach on the apparent success of peeling away the moderates from the extremists in Iraq.

40 comments

Gaza: Durable And Sustainable Ceasefire

by Shama

Gaza is the last bastion, not only for the Palestinian state, but also for the two state solution. In a strangely self destructive manner, Israel is destroying all future possibility of a two state solution. It will have no choice, if it defeats Hamas, but to inherit the Palestinians.

46 comments

Remembering Babri Masjid

by Shama

Who had even heard of it? A nondescript little used mosque somewhere in the city of Ayodhya in central India. On 6 Dec 1992, Babri Masjid became the mosque that no one in India would ever forget, a national wound that 15 years later, still throbs, still pierces the hearts of those who lost forever [...]

8 comments

My Name Is Mo

by Shama

Whats in a name? you say. Quite a lot apparently, as Gillian Gibbons, a 54 year old mother of two discovered when she allowed her class of six and seven year olds to select a name for their teddy bear, in the Unity School in Khartoum, Sudan. One of the boys named the bear after [...]

32 comments

Amar, Akbar, Anthony

by Shama

Amar Akbar Anthony reinforces the Muslim stereotypes but in mostly a positive way.

10 comments

Defying the myths: the rational, educated, secular, prosperous suicide bomber

by Shama

Suicide terrorism. A term that in today’s political climate carries a certain image, like the one depicted to the left. One of irrationality and illiteracy, with fanaticism, religious zeal and 70 virgins promised in heaven for the martyr. Etymology The term “terrorism” comes from Latin terrere, “to frighten” via the French word terrorisme, which is [...]

12 comments

Indo-US Nuclear Deal: To Be Or Not To Be?

by Shama

The current stand by the Left leaders to put an indefinite hold on the Indo-US nuclear deal while awaiting its ratification by the Indian Parliament, is a good opportunity to go over the grievances and assertions of both sides regarding this two year long attempt by the US to share its technology and nuclear fuel [...]

5 comments