POLITICAL DIALOGUE

Islamism in Popular Western Discourse June 23, 2011 Islamism in Popular Western Discourse Written by David Belt Policy Perspectives , Volume6 , Number2, July – December 2009 Abstract[The 9/11 attacks gave birth to a popular discourse on "Islamism"-both signifier and the signified-in the Western world that predictably returned data showing accentuated potential threats and anti-Western attitudes known as resistance. The present Western discourse produced popular securitization of Islamism, the development of popular expertise, and the construction of Islamism's identity that has occurred in a highly contested field of power, resulting in dominant narratives and narratives of resistance, or counternarratives. The dominant constructed identity of "Islamism" is becoming less stable and even schizophrenic; the challenging narratives are not so much broadening and deepening that identity as they are providing an alternative identity, or weak antithesis. Western...

JI, Ikhwanul Muslimoon to join hands for resolving Ummah’s problems. LAHORE, June 22: The Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan and the Ikhwanul Muslimoon ( Muslim Brotherhood) of Egypt have decide to make joint efforts for the solution of the Muslim Ummah’s problems including Kashmir and Palestine and play their role in the public awakening in the Muslim world.             Top leadership of the two parties at a meeting at the Ikhwanul Muslimoon headquarters in Cairo on Tuesday, also decided to strengthen the relations between the Islamic movements. A three member JI delegation led by the JI chief, Syed Munawar Hasan, is currently on a four day visit to the brother Muslim country on the invitation of  the Ikhwanul Muslimoon chief Dr. Muhammad Badei. Formal talks between the two sides were held between JI chief Syed Munawar Hasan, Secretary General, Liaquat Baloch and Foreign Affairs chief Abdul Ghaffar Aziz,  and the Ikhwanul Muslimo...

Religious Education Institutions (REIs): Present Situation and the Future Strategy Written by Khalid Rahman , Syed Rashad Bukhari    Abstract Madaris have been the focus of Western media in general and the intelligentsia’s attention in particular since the last over three decades. This focus has intensified after 9/11. Madaris are now openly linked to terrorism and reforms are thus demanded as the only viable option if these institutions are there to stay. Pakistan government has prior to 9/11 been engaged in reforms but the outcome has never been encouraging. On the other hand, the religious institutions eye government measures with suspicion terming the measures as western onslaught on Muslim culture and civilization, and the government of Pakistan as Western stooge. The approaches of the West and those at the helm of affairs at Madaris are thus poles apart. This study is an effort to bridge the gulf. At first, it analyzes western apprehensions towards the ro...