#karachi attack

[maslows-pyramid-scheme]

The household was fast asleep when the six men broke in. They sought out Sobia Batool Shah, 22, and one of them attacked her with a hatchet, chopping at her limbs in an effort to sever her legs. “He was relentless and must have hit me at least 15 times,” she says. “I screamed in pain and pleaded with him to stop, but he was like a man possessed,” she adds. “I even told him I will not seek a divorce.” Shah was attacked by men from her own family – including her father, Syed Mustafa Shah, her uncle and cousins – who broke into the house, in Naushahro Feroze, in Pakistan’s Sindh province, as “punishment” for refusing to withdraw her application to divorce her husband. ... “It’s all about power control,” says Dr Summaiya Syed Tariq, chief police surgeon in Sindh’s capital, Karachi. Syed Tariq, who also heads the Sindh police medico-legal department, has seen hundreds of women physically and mentally abused, raped, burned and murdered over the last 26 years. “We are nurturing abusers who are worse than animals,” she says. On an average day, the department receives reports of about six cases of sexual violence and 10 to 15 cases of domestic violence across the medico-legal centres at three public hospitals in Karachi. “In the case of sexual violence against minors, my assessment is that for every three cases that come to us, seven more go unreported. And I am not counting the dead bodies that we receive,” Syed Tariq adds. Gender inequality is a global problem, but Pakistan’s indicators reflect especially alarming rates of disparities and violence faced by women. According to this year’s World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap report, Pakistan is ranked second from bottom out of 146 countries, behind only Sudan. It ranked 164 out of 193 countries on the 2023-24 UN gender inequality index. Abdullah Lakhair, deputy superintendent of police in Naushahro Feroze, says the victim’s father admitted the attack, telling police his daughter had brought “dishonour” to the family by filing for divorce. She had asked the authorities for protection after her father threatened to kill her previously. “Earlier last month, the district judge had referred her to a women’s shelter, where she stayed for two weeks, but then decided to return to her mother. The incident happened soon after,” Lakhair says. Shah says her father had left her mother and siblings and cut all ties with them. “Had it not been for my maternal grandfather and my uncle, we would not have had a roof over our head all these years. How dare he talk about his honour being sullied by my divorce,” she says. Lakhair says Shah’s father is awaiting sentencing and could face up to 14 years in prison. The incident has sparked angry reactions from the public and civil society organisations in Pakistan. Anis Haroon, a women’s rights activist and former chair of the National Commission on the Status of Women, travelled from Karachi to visit Shah in hospital. She is sceptical about the case sparking any meaningful change. “Like so many harrowing incidents in the past, this will soon be forgotten,” she says. Pakistan has the laws but no “political will” to implement them, she adds. “The legislators think their work ends after laws are passed in assemblies. They fall short of putting efforts towards their implementation,” Haroon says. After the attack on Shah, her mother went to neighbours for help, thinking her unconscious daughter had lost so much blood she must have died. “After giving her immediate medical help, we sent her to Nawabshah, an hour and a half from here,” says Lakhair. “She had to be given 10 bags of blood, which the police arranged. She is in safe hands, for now.” Although her father is in prison awaiting sentencing, Shah has been provided with round-the-clock police protection in the hospital. “My father has been apprehended but his brother has been granted bail. I am very scared,” she says.

[paandaan]

Donation For Demolition Victims In Karachi

Karachi did not have then means to house all migrants coming in post partition. Eventually, they housed themselves. The government provided them with electricity, gas, water lines, etc. Much of Karachi has been built this way. Mujahid Colony is one of these neighborhoods. People who live here have lived here since the creation of Pakistan. They populated this vacant area and brought commerce, housing, life here. Multigenerational homes, multiethnic mohallas. Now this land is valuable for luxury developers and greedy builders. They distort and exploit the corrupt nexus of land and governance stakeholders and have used police to raid these homes in the middle of the night and fire bullets on children, drag women without purdah from their homes, use tear gas and bulldozers to clear the way. Hospitals were told not to record the injuries or take in the injured. Many died from heart attacks and extreme stress as well. Suddenly homeless with all property destroyed, they had nowhere to go. Daily wage earners asked to pay lakhs in security deposits. They lost everything.

• Mujahid and Wahid Colony faced demolitions last year

• The rubble is still lying there

• The affectees have been living in the area since the Partition

• They built the neighborhood from scratch, and the government wants to displace them to Taiser Town, where no gas, electricity, and water lines exist

• They want to stay in their own neighborhood

• Affectees have legal documents of property ownership and paid bill records of decades

Please donate to StopEvictionKHI as follows:

Here is the link to the GoFundMe:

[taraross-1787]

This Day in History: Elsie Ott, Flight Nurse

On this day in 1943, Second Lieutenant Elsie Ott departs on a grueling trip—the first intercontinental air evacuation flight. Ott was the flight nurse that day, and she would become the first woman to receive the U.S. Air Medal as a result of her service.

Believe it or not, she��d never even flown in a plane before. Where would this country be without brave ladies such as these?

Ott joined the Army Nurse Corps in September 1941, a few months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. After a few brief assignments in the States, she was dispatched to Karachi, India.

Little did she know it, but she was about to make history.

The story continues here: https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-elsie-ott

[girlactionfigure]

🛟 SHABBAT & HOLY DAY — SAFETY BRIEF — for those in ISRAEL 

via ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime

EREV SHABBAT

✡️ Erev Shabbat - Parshat Karachi - Numbers 16:1 - Korach incites a mutiny,

▪️DEAL SITUATION ANALYSIS.. (“The Land of Jihad”) What is the connection between the Israeli delegation to Qatar and the threats of an all-out war in the north?  If we examine for a moment the set of levers that Israel has over Hamas, we will find that there are not many of them. The strip is already destroyed (and the Hamas leadership doesn’t care), the IDF has already operated in every sector and the elimination of the senior officials is not in sight (as they stay deep in tunnels or within masses of civilians).

If there are no levers of pressure on Hamas, then we will look for a lever of pressure on the patron - that is, the Iranians. And there is one such, their name is Hezbollah.

The worsening of the rhetoric in recent days against Hezbollah and the threats that after the operation in Rafah the eyes will be on the North, has a dual purpose: one, to deter Hezbollah. But the second goal is more interesting.

When the Iranians realize that Israel is serious and is probably going to make a move that means tremendous damage to Hezbollah, then the Iranians themselves will pressure (Hamas leader) Sinwar to finish the deal.

The Iranians will fight to the last drop of Sunni Arab blood. For them, all Gazans will die on the way to the liberation of Jerusalem. But the Shiite Hezbollah, meat from Iran, is another story. The Iranian interest is to preserve it.

▪️YEMEN ON BEING IN LEBANON.. "We ask the Yemeni brothers living in Lebanon not to leave the country and bear arms together with the people of Lebanon and participate in fighting if necessary, against Israel.  We need to provide protection for Arab honor and our precious lands."  (( Honor, more important than life in their society. ))

▪️LEADER OF THE NEW MAJORITY PARTY IN FRANCE.. Marine Le Pen pledged:  ”Those who identify with Islamic ideology should be excluded and expelled.  French people who adopt the "ideology of the enemy" must be punished.  Radical mosques will be closed.  The Muslim Brotherhood will be disbanded.”

▪️HAMAS CAPTURES PEOPLE TRYING TO TAKE AID, BEATS AND LEAVES THEM TIED IN THE SUN TO DIE..  we are frequently asked for these videos.  Very violent, viewer discretion advised: https://t.me/arabworld301/82876.    And here they are left to die - https://t.me/arabworld301/82877

▪️ON JULY 4TH..  Pro-Palestinian protesters marched on American Independence Day in the streets of New York with Palestinian flags and shout death to America?  

▪️HEZBOLLAH SAYS.. Deputy Secretary General of Hezbollah: We will stop attacking Israel only after a complete ceasefire in Gaza.

▪️DEAL POLITICS - NATIONAL UNITY MK BENNY GANTZ.. his party will support ANY responsible outline that will lead to the return of the hostages. (Meaning he is guaranteeing to provide votes from outside the coalition if Netanyahu can’t get votes from the coalition right wing parties.)

🛟 SHABBAT & HOLY DAY — SAFETY BRIEF — for those in ISRAEL 

via ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime

Chief Rabbinute instructions with Risk Adjustments and sensible advise

✡️ Note Israel Realtime DOES NOT POST updates on Shabbat or Holy-days (Israel time) UNLESS life threatening / saving. 

❗️The NORTH, draw a line from  Haifa to Afula and Tiberius, as well as near-Gaza towns..

❗️These are all HIGH risk of rocket and drone attacks.  Shabbat & Holy Day precautions REQUIRED.  Elsewhere, keep them in mind.

➡️ Prepare your safe space before Shabbat/Holy day: unlocked, MAMAD LIGHTS ON, A/C on.

➡️ SAFE TO GO TO SYNAGOGUE?  Prepare for alerts on the way, and in synagogue - know the space safe!

➡️ CHILDREN, ELDERLY, DISABLED?  In higher risk areas it may not be safe to go to synagogue.

➡️ CARRY YOUR WEAPON, even without an eruv.  Pepper spray, legal size knife, legal gun.

➡️ CALL POLICE, DO NOT HESITATE !! - If anything suspicious, CALL POLICE immediately!  Dial 100

➡️ (Silent) MONITOR FOR ALERTS :

.. SILENT TV -  Channel 14 - stream https://www.now14.co.il/live/ (doesn’t work with adblocker)

.. SILENT RADIO - 

• Kol Chai radio - on radio 92.8, 93 and 102.5. - stream https://www.93fm.co.il/radio/players/%d7%a9%d7%99%d7%93%d7%95%d7%a8-%d7%97%d7%99/

• Kol Barama Radio - on radio 92.1, 104.3, 105.7 and 107.6. - stream https://kol-barama.co.il/live/

• Galei Israel - on radio 89.3, 94 and 106.5. - https://www.rlive.co.il/station/galey-israel

.. ON COMPUTER - leave a computer open to https://www.oref.org.il/en (only in Israel) - alerts will display and sound on the screen. Turn OFF screen saver, sleep and hibernate.

.. VIA APP - leave on phone with red alert app.  Set app to YOUR area so it only alerts for your area.

✡️ It is a mitzvah to take actions to protect and save and preserve life on Shabbat, not a violation.  But ONLY actions which do so.

[mariacallous]

Humanity’s superpower is sweating—but rising heat could be our kryptonite, and an average temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels could bring regular, fatal heat waves to large parts of the planet, says Tom Matthews, a senior lecturer in environmental geography at King’s College London.

“We have evolved to cope with the most extreme heat and humidity the planet can throw at us,” he explains. But when our core temperature gets to about 42 degrees Celsius (around 107.5 degrees Fahrenheit), people face heat stroke and probable death as the body strains to keep cool and the heart works harder, inducing heart attacks.

Matthews cites an example from his home country, the UK. In the summer of 2022, the UK broke its high temperature record, surpassing 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Scientists estimate there were roughly 3,500 heat-associated deaths that summer in the UK. Across Europe, they estimate high heat caused more than 60,000 deaths.

“At 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, the likes of Lagos, Karachi, [and] Shanghai start to experience heat waves exceeding our limit. At 2 degrees Celsius, the events increase at least 10 times more often, and if we get to 8 degrees Celsius, a large fraction of the Earth’s surface would be too hot for our physiology and would not be habitable,” he says.

Air conditioning and heat-escape rooms would help, but we might need to abandon intense outdoor work such as rice farming in hotter regions. And these solutions will need to be able to meet demand. “The infrastructure must be able to withstand the surges when everyone turns on the air conditioning, and must be able to withstand hurricanes or floods,” he says.

Our best hope in the face of inevitable rises in heat? Cooperation. “We’ve built forecasting systems that will warn us when disasters are incoming by working together at enormous scale. We must continue to do the same.”

[beardedmrbean]

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Dozens of members from Pakistan's civil society rallied on Tuesday in the southern port city of Karachi against the death sentence handed down to a Christian man on blasphemy charges, nearly a year after one of the worst mob attacks on Christians in the country.

Several Christians also joined the rally which comes a day after a court in Sahiwal in the Punjab province announced the death sentence to Ehsan Shan after finding him guilty of sharing “hateful content" against Muslims on social media.

Shan's lawyer Khurram Shahzad said on Monday he will appeal the verdict.

He was arrested in August 2023 after groups of Muslim men burned dozens of homes and churches in the city of Jaranwala in Punjab after some residents claimed they saw two Christian men desecrating pages from Islam’s holy book, the Quran. The two men were later arrested.

Though Shan was not party to the desecration, he was accused of reposting the defaced pages of the Quran on his TikTok account.

At Tuesday's rally in Karachi, a Christian leader Luke Victor, called for Shah's release.

He also demanded action against those who were involved in burning churches and homes of Christians in Jaranwala.

Blasphemy accusations are common in Pakistan. Under the country’s blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or Islamic religious figures can be sentenced to death. While authorities have yet to carry out a death sentence for blasphemy, often a mere accusation can cause riots and incite mobs to violence, lynching and killings.

[simle4life]

A report once stated that Baloch society is mainly rural, guided by local tribal codes and adheres to strong patriarchal norms. This has resulted in a serious gender gap, with only 26% of Baloch women attending school, one of the lowest literacy rates in the world. In rural areas, this proportion drops to just 2%, indicating the seriousness of the systemic inequalities faced by Baloch women. In a society with clear gender roles, where women are often restricted to the domestic sphere and their public existence is tied to the company of men, the absence of a breadwinner means a fragile and uncertain future. This forces these women onto the streets, where they have no choice but to seek visibility and voice their concerns.

In April 2022, Shari Baloch, a 35-year-old graduate and mother of two children, launched a suicide attack on Karachi University. Similarly, in June 2023, Sumaiya Qalandrani Baloch acted as a suicide bomber in an attack on a Pakistani military convoy. Both incidents were claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which declared it "the beginning of an era of brave sacrifices by women in the national movement".

However, can this truly be defined as the “rise of women”? In order to achieve the goals of the organization, the Balochistan Liberation Army exploited women, forcibly recruited them, tortured them, and forced them to shoot obscene videos to coerce them into becoming "suicide bombers." This seriously violated the teachings of Islam and Balochistan Culture and traditions. Women should not become human shields for terrorists, let alone artillery tools that can be used to dominate and control them in war. The blood-stained Balochistan Liberation Army is bound to be condemned by the world.

[laurellynnleake]

Writing While Muslim: The Freedom To Be Offended - Rafia Zakaria, 2015

When the attacks on Charlie Hebdo happened last January, I wrote an essay pointing out how more Muslim journalists had been killed in 2014 than those of any other faith, yet Muslims continued to occupy a position in the Western imaginary as haters of free speech, collectively given to riots and ruin. Greater valor is accorded Westerners dying at the hands of terrorists than, say, journalists dying in Pakistan or Iraq or Syria at the hands of the same forces while engaged in the same task. There is a particular valuation of valor inherent in this, which says simply that the war is “there” not “here,” and hence it is a greater tragedy for journalists to be killed “here” — in this particular case, lovely, romantic, sophisticated Paris — than on the streets of Karachi. ...Westerners, by and large, do not consider themselves complicit in the perpetuation of the wars that have led to the deaths of the very journalists that are buried without awards and without recognition of their courageous exercise of free speech pinned to their names.

I came across this essay (I've added spaces for readability) while refreshing my memory on the Charlie Hebdo bombings, and Neil Gaiman/Art Spiegelman/Alison Bechdel's related "Cartoonist Lives Matter" bullshit in 2015...Zakaria's essay is unfortunately still just as relevant today as liberals like Gaiman and orgs like PEN America keep both-sides-ing the genocide in Palestine.

I'd somehow forgotten that PEN America lionized the extremely racist & Islamophobic CH cartoonists with an award at a star-studded Gala. I had to re-read Neil Gaiman's weird essay where he ponders why-oh-why 6 writers refused to attend in protest. He imagines that they were merely "upset", and "only supporting the freedom of the kind of speech [they] like."

More and more I understand how deliberate this hypocrisy is, and how it works to deny the reality of Israel murdering Palestinians (including journalists, artists, and writers) in front of our eyes. "Writing While Muslim: The Freedom To Be Offended" is an excellent reminder of how people were fighting back against this bullshit in 2015 (and every year before). Give it a read!

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 5.13 (before 1955)

1373 – Julian of Norwich has visions of Jesus while suffering from a life-threatening illness, visions which are later described and interpreted in her book Revelations of Divine Love. 1501 – Amerigo Vespucci, this time under Portuguese flag, set sail for western lands. 1568 – Mary Queen of Scots is defeated at the Battle of Langside, part of the civil war between Queen Mary and the supporters of her son, James VI. 1612 – Sword duel between Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro on the shores of Ganryū Island. Kojiro dies at the end. 1619 – Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is executed in The Hague after being convicted of treason. 1654 – A Venetian fleet under Admiral Cort Adeler breaks through a line of galleys and defeats the Turkish navy. 1779 – War of the Bavarian Succession: Russian and French mediators at the Congress of Teschen negotiate an end to the war. In the agreement Austria receives the part of its territory that was taken from it (the Innviertel). 1780 – The Cumberland Compact is signed by leaders of the settlers in the Cumberland River area of what would become the U.S. state of Tennessee, providing for democratic government and a formal system of justice. 1804 – Forces sent by Yusuf Karamanli of Tripoli to retake Derna from the Americans attack the city. 1830 – Ecuador gains its independence from Gran Colombia. 1846 – Mexican–American War: The United States declares war on the Federal Republic of Mexico following a dispute over the American annexation of the Republic of Texas and a Mexican military incursion. 1861 – American Civil War: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the Confederacy as having belligerent rights. 1861 – The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia. 1861 – Pakistan's (then a part of British India) first railway line opens, from Karachi to Kotri. 1862 – The USS Planter, a steamer and gunship, steals through Confederate lines and is passed to the Union, by a southern slave, Robert Smalls, who later was officially appointed as captain, becoming the first black man to command a United States ship. 1888 – With the passage of the Lei Áurea ("Golden Law"), the Empire of Brazil abolishes slavery. 1909 – The first edition of the Giro d'Italia, a long-distance multiple-stage bicycle race, began in Milan; the Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna was the eventual winner. 1912 – The Royal Flying Corps, the forerunner of the Royal Air Force, is established in the United Kingdom. 1917 – Three children report the first apparition of Our Lady of Fátima in Fátima, Portugal. 1940 – World War II: Germany's conquest of France begins, as the German army crosses the Meuse. Winston Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons. 1941 – World War II: Yugoslav royal colonel Dragoljub Mihailović starts fighting against German occupation troops, beginning the Serbian resistance. 1943 – World War II: Operations Vulcan and Strike force the surrender of the last Axis troops in Tunisia. 1945 – World War II: Yevgeny Khaldei's photograph Raising a Flag over the Reichstag is published in Ogonyok magazine. 1948 – Arab–Israeli War: The Kfar Etzion massacre occurs, a day prior to the Israeli Declaration of Independence. 1950 – The inaugural Formula One World Championship race takes place at Silverstone Circuit. The race was won by Giuseppe Farina, who would go on to become the inaugural champion that year. 1951 – The 400th anniversary of the founding of the National University of San Marcos is commemorated by the opening of the first large-capacity stadium in Peru. 1952 – The Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, holds its first sitting. 1954 – The anti-National Service Riots, by Chinese middle school students in Singapore, take place.

[ao3feed-sladedick]

Pretty Wishes

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/IGa569x by timbitsandpieces “Oh, fuck no,” Dick said. “You can’t just decide to keep a whole-ass human being, Jesus Christ. Why don’t you go off to do whatever asshole djinns do, and I can never think about this again.” He laughed again. Of course he did. Slade didn’t seem very pleasant so far. “That’s really not how that works. Now, let’s go somewhere a bit more…scenic.” “Scenic?” And in a dizzying rush that reminded Dick of clinging to Wally as he ran, he was not in his safe house anymore. I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Karachi anymore, Dick thought, somewhat hysterically.“Oh, fuck no,” Dick said   Dick tries not to let himself think about the what-ifs and the impossible, but when he stumbles over a djinn lamp right out of a fairy tale he already knows what he'll wish for, what he wants, and what the right thing to do is. In the end, doing the right thing is what ends up screwing him over. Words: 10259, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Dick Grayson, Slade Wilson, Brief Appearance of Tim Drake Relationships: Dick Grayson/Slade Wilson Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Genie/Djinn, Djinn Slade Wilson, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Enemy to Caretaker, Canon-Typical Violence, Slade Wilson Being an Asshole, but not as much as he could be, Slade Wilson doesn't know how to flirt, seriously he's so bad at it, Identity Shenanigans, oh the tag is, Identity Porn, Trope Subversion/Inversion, Dubious Consent, Sex Chicken, Canon Divergence - Jason Todd's Attack on Titans Tower, at the end read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/IGa569x

[secular-jew]

Daily Caliphate Headlines: The Repugnant and Vile Voices of the Global Islamic Caliphate:

Syrian Journalist: Supporting Terrorist Organizations In The Name Of Solidarity With The Palestinian Cause Endangers The Middle East

In Speech Leading To Her Arrest, International Coordinator Of Samidoun Charlotte Kates At Vancouver Rally: Long Live October 7; Hamas, PFLP, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hizbullah Are Not Terrorist Groups, They Are Heroes

Muslim American Society Staten Island Imam Abdelrahman Badawy: The Zionist Devils Have Envy, Hatred, Evil In Their Hearts; They Are Like The Sneaky, Cunning, Conniving, Foul Jewish Tribe That Battled The Prophet Muhammad

Islamic State Mozambique Province Releases Photos Showing Operatives Taking Down Crosses, Torching Church In Christian Village In Nampula

Jordanian MPs Join The 'Gaza Freedom Flotilla' In Turkey: We Have Written Our Wills And Are Here With The Intention Of Waging Jihad, Becoming Martyrs; We Will Sacrifice Our Souls And Blood To Redeem Our People; We Will Break The Siege And Join Our Brothers In Gaza

Hamas Senior Official Mousa Abu Marzouk: Most Of Hamas's Leaders Are Jordanian Citizens; If We Had To Leave Qatar, We Would Go To Jordan

The Houthis Seek To Position Themselves As A Regional Power Opposing The U.S. And The West; Houthi Shura Council Member: Everyone Hostile To America Is Our Friend, We Will Welcome Exchange Of Military Expertise

Strengthening Relations With Palestinian Factions; Coordination With Hamas Regarding Crew Of Highjacked "Galaxy Leader" Ship

Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) Claims IED Attacks Against Nigerian Army, Affiliated Militia In Borno State; Publishes Photos Of Armed Assault On Army Barracks In Niger's Diffa Region

'Al-Akhbar' Daily: Iran-Backed Militias Deliberately Not Claiming Responsibility For Attacks Against U.S. Forces; Attacks To Continue Until U.S. Forces Withdraw, War In Gaza Ends

Iranian TV Report About Gaza 'Freedom Flotilla,' American Attorney Lamis Deek: The Age Of Israeli Impunity Has Ended; We Will Make Sure Every Israeli Soldier, Settler, Head Of State Pays For Every Crime Committed Against Palestinians Since 1948

Yemeni-Houthi Minister Of Information Dayfallah Al-Shami: We Chant 'Curses Upon The Jews' Because They Are Cunning Schemers; We Would Fight Against The Zionists Directly In Gaza, But It's Too Far Away

English-Language Salafi-Jihadi Telegram Channel Criticizes 'Tamed' Version Of Islam That Limits Jihad; Endorses Terror Attacks In Non-Muslim Countries

In Dari-Language Article, Hizb-ut Tahrir Afghanistan Writes: 'America Is Trying To Influence And Interfere In Afghanistan In Many Ways, Including The Issue Of Women'; 'Women In Western And American Thought Are Nothing More Than A Commodity To Be Used... To Secure The Evil Interests Of Western And American States' 

In Karachi, Suicide Bombers Target Van Carrying Japanese Nationals Working In Pakistan's Export Processing Zone

Sec.-Gen. Of The Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit: The Jews Have No Conscience Left – It Was Burned In The Holocaust; Israel Does Not Have The Right To Self-Defense Just Like The Nazis Did Not Have It In WWII

Hamas's Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades Spokesman Abu Ubaida: We Salute The Heroes In The West Bank And The Jordanian Masses And Call Upon Them To Escalate Their Activity And Resistance

 Pro-Al-Qaeda Media Group Praises Stabbings In Australia, France; Warns 'Crusader Peoples' Against Defaming Islam

Commanders Of Iran-Backed Iraqi Militias Hold Secret Meeting In Syrian City Of Al-Bukamal

Senior Hamas Official Praises Anti-Israel Demonstrations Across U.S.: 'Today's Students Are The Leaders Of Tomorrow'

Hizbullah-Affiliated Academic Sheikh Sadek Al-Naboulsi: The Pre-October 7 Element Of Surprise Has Been Lost, But Hizbullah Is Preparing For Nasrallah's Orders To Cross Into The Galilee At The Right Time

Qatari Shura Council Member Essa Al-Nassr: October 7 Was An Introduction To The Annihilation Of The Zionist State; There Can Be No Peace With Them; They Are The Slayers Of The Prophets

Dearborn, Michigan Friday Sermon By Dr. Baqir Berry: Zionism, Israel Pose An 'Imminent Danger' To Humanity, Like Nazism; The Jews Need To Be Re-educated; In America Too, The Zionists Are Barbaric, Criminal Savages – What Kind Of Peace Can You Have With Them?

Greenville, North Carolina Friday Sermon By Imam Khadem AbuZain: Allah Decreed Friday Sermons In Order To Inspire Youth To Raise The Banner Of Jihad; We Have Become Numb To The Nature Of The Jews, Who Killed Prophets And Apostles, And Strive To Spread Corruption; Gaza Is Harboring The Heroes Of Palestine Who Declared Jihad

[badedramay]

can i say that i really don't understand why everyone is so vehemently intent to criticize the fact that kim calls elders by their name? i understand it's not really a thing but isn't the entire point that kim has grown largely removed from any kind of pakistani community, so she's adopted the practices of those around her instead? it's incredibly common for americans here to refer to adults by name once they're adults themselves. and even then if it still isn't believable i think it's absolutely ridiculous people are eager to write off the whole drama merely bc kim is unconventional when it comes to a few things. we're so obsessed with maintaining this "ideal" diaspora image that we can't even invest in a drama for more than two episodes to see what it has to say. not to mention diaspora pakistanis are hardly a monolith. i'm not an ideal diaspora pakistani myself. i'm not a pti supporter, i don't really hold a lot of nationalist sentiment, i talk freely with and openly challenge my parents. if i wrote a story about myself would that be unrealistic too? people have got to start questioning the things that make them stop watching dramas and the things that don't. they're more willing to field abuse narratives bc at the least it's "realistic" and familiar than they are willing to field anything out of the ordinary simply bc it doesn't speak to their direct experiences. what a load of nonsense

gaah i wish i had better technical knowledge to name the right terms and not just the concept which would give my answer brevity but alas, i am forever cursed to type in long winded paragraphs so pls bear with me here T_T

i just feel that the Pakistani desi audience, diaspora and non, have a very..strenuous relationship with identity. we don't HAVE an identity. in the larger global political landscape, Pakistan doesn't really stand apart. not our food, not our clothing, not the cultures of our country; there's nothing that can be credited to being solely originated from here. the food we take pride in on the global level is attributed to India. same goes for our clothing. when we try to own something as our own, there's someone else standing up to take claim ke jee actuallyyyyy this is originated from our land so please back off. there's a reason why Ertrugrul, a Turkish dizi about a historical figure of the Ottomon Empire's time, became a rage in Pakistan to the point of being promoted by our then-PM because Pakistan, a country that supposedly got its freedom on the basis of the religion Islam, doesn't even have one single "perfect" Muslim figure that they can own. we are constitutionally an Islamic country but the state of the religion and its interpretation in the country is pathetic to say the least.

hum kaun hain? humein nahin pata. we are something else in our heads and completely something different in reality. and the two versions don't match. this conflict becomes most apparent when interpreting the stories of our dramas. the good, perfect, ideal mashriqi character satisfy the perfect version in our heads. the modern, flawed character is seen as an attack on our "values" and hence banned. ironically BOTH these kind of characters are defended as "aise log hote hain dunya mein! Maine khud dekhe hain!" so what's the reality here?

and because we don't even HAVE an identity to speak of so we have yet to ACCEPT the fact that yes, people are different. and because people are different, CHARACTERS will be different too. just because these characters don't look and sound like ME doesn't mean they are a bad representation or unrealistic characters. they are not my mirror, doesn't mean they don't reflect anyone. have you noticed how in Pakistani media we don't really get characters that are defined by their background? like their cities are almost always deliberately kept ambiguous? at most you'll get the Karachi vs Lahore vs Islamabad debate and the characters hailing from only these particular backgrounds will have any kind of obviously noticed traits. but what about countless other areas of the country?

In Indian media you'll see characters being known by their cities and immediately all of their idiosyncrasies are accepted ke haan, they are from this particular area toh they gonna be different. yes, this gives rise to stereotypes BUT there's also an acceptance of the characters as they are hence, allowing them to be explored as individuals and not just a perfect representation of whatever place they hail from. in Pakistani media you don't have that. because our media, in dramas specifically, EMPHASIZES on the entire culture and identity of our country as BEING homogeneous. and anyone who is even remotely related to this identity HAS to act in accordance of the rules and mores of this society or be rejected.

which brings us to Kim. Kim hasn't been accepted by the audience because of her father's Pakistani origins. Kim herself is a true American, she never set foot in Pakistan before the start of the drama. in fact if not for her mother's upbringing, Kim wouldn't even have learned her parents' mother tongue. the tragedy with Kim is that the writer couldn't give her either accurate American traits not accurate Pakistani traits so she's stuck in between. Pakistani audience cannot accept her as their own, the diaspora audience cannot accept her as their own. everything else becomes secondary because Kim DARES to have an IDENTITY that cannot be neatly boxed. She's just Kaneez "Kim" Fatima.

the failure to understand that for the story of Yunhi to work, Kim HAD to have selective traits from the liberal west and the conservative east is really most because Kim serves as a reminder of our own lack of solid identity. the fact that if she tried to she could fit in either of these opposing societies is what baffles people. how could she? you are either east or west. you cannot be separated from either of these like Kim.

on one hand social media is exposing us to inter-racial relationships or transnational relationships (yes, even amongst Muslims) making us aware of how people can choose to make their own world that combines the two worlds from which they belong. on the other hand we as a society are still having generational fights over "ji hamare yahan toh yeh ritual aisa hota hai hum aapke tareeqe ko nahin maante". the little bit of sense of identity that we do have, we cling to it desperately and want to defend it from inauthentic people like Kim in media that challenge our notions of identity. Kim can say a 10000 right things but because one of the most prominent feature of our society is that we always address all elders with a title of respect, Kim not doing that makes her an outsider. but she's worse than an outsider, she's a traitor to her Pakistani identity. which...she never claimed to be in the first place??

I can bet if Maya had perfected the New York accent and that reflected even in her Urdu dialogues, the criticism about her calling the elders by the name wouldn't have been that much. it'd have been "cute" then kyunke identity toh hamari hai nahin, complexes toh MaShaAllah bohat zyada hai. angrezi ke talway chaatna toh hum lagta hai Ammi ke pait se seekh ke aate hain. khair. Kim doesn't attach respect to titles but to people. sure, she calls her MiL by her first name but has she ever disrespected her. I thought that was one of the POINTS™ the show was making that just being ADDRESSED with a title of respect is not enough when our individual identity is denied and disrespected on every chance. is it really that deep jo samajh mein nahin araha hai ab tak?

urrgh this is running long and I think i lost the thread of sense long ago but just one last thing! it's been 30 episodes now, right? and until now Kim hasn't CHANGED in appearance. and the desi diaspora is OBSESSED with appearances. sahi dikho, sahi bolo; dil bhale jaisa bhi ho. be politically correct, be diplomatic. make your intentions as crude as possible but never let your language reflect that. cuz that is all we have to offer. the Pakistani diaspora, in all these years, hasn't produced much of progressive mindsets or done anything to own their identity. toh sabko chupa lo carpet ke neeche..keep your head down, say the right things, and just hope we'll be ignored. apni dunya mein mast raho bass.

[becks-magenta]

Sometimes you need to charm a few snakes to get through the day…

This photo was taken in Karachi, Pakistan, on my first trip to the country in the fall of 2016. I was walking around the beach with a good friend and we came upon this sight, among many others.

I love this picture.

I have, unfortunately, been working with a few snakes lately. Usually I can find ways to charm them, keep the civility, keep the work moving forward. But I made the mistake of calling out the snakes, asking they stop biting, stop attacking those I feel a duty to serve. Now the snakes are biting me, my students, my colleagues…

I don’t regret calling out the snakes. I don’t regret standing up for what I felt was right. I just wish there weren’t so many snakes to charm at the moment, so many baskets to avoid. Now I have to find a new beach.

[pct-zindabad]

Pakistan’s Babar Azam in T20I

When Babar Azam takes the field on Friday, 14 April for the match against New Zealand, he will become the third Pakistan player to feature in 100 Men's T20Is

Shoaib Malik (123) and Mohammad Hafeez (119) are the two other Pakistan players to reach this milestone in men's T20Is.

The level-headed Pakistan captain is well known for his flamboyant batting style and along with Mohammad Rizwan forms an intimidating opening pair in T20Is.

As we celebrate his 100 T20Is, let's have a look at some of Babar's top innings in the format.

122 off 59 v South Africa, Centurion, 2021 — Babar and Rizwan are a force to reckon with. While Rizwan plays the role of an aggressor more often, there have been times when Babar has blown away the opposition with his explosive shots. The third T20I against South Africa in 2021 was one such example.

Chasing a formidable 204, Babar took the lead almost right from the start. After taking a couple of overs to adjust, he started pummelling the bowlers all over the park. His 50 came in just 27 balls and he accelerated after that with aplomb. He ended up with 122 off just 59 deliveries but unfortunately was dismissed with Pakistan needing just 7 to win, nevertheless having brought his side to the brink of victory. Pakistan then chased the total with two overs to spare. It was also Babar's first century in the format.

110* off 66 v England, Karachi, 2022 — Babar's second T20I century was no less impressive and this time it came at home. After losing the first T20I, Pakistan needed to hit back. England batted first and scored 199/5. Chasing another 200 score was not going to be easy but both Babar and Rizwan were in a different mood altogether. Babar, in particular, led the charge, smashing 110* off just 66 deliveries as Pakistan registered a 10-wicket victory over England. It was Babar who hit the winning runs, an inside-out four through covers celebrating a dominating win.

97* off 58 v West Indies, Karachi, 2018 — Babar's first Karachi masterclass came in 2018, four years before his hundred; an almost century innings against West Indies at home. Batting first, Pakistan lost Fakhar Zaman early, who had opened the innings with Babar. The 24-year-old Babar Azam had only hit three fifty-plus scores in his career then and came close to scaling three figures when he took on the Windies bowling attack single-handedly. Pairing with Hussain Talat at No.3, Babar hit 13 fours and a six on his way to 97* off 58 deliveries. Pakistan put up a huge total of 205/3 and defended it easily with their strong bowling attack.

79* off 53 v New Zealand, Christchurch, 2022 — Babar's 79* was not in an high-scoring encounter but a low-scoring chase against New Zealand's celebrated bowling attack in their own backyard. The Pakistan bowlers had done their job keeping the Black Caps down to 147/8 in their 20 overs. But the hosts were not going down without a fight. They removed Rizwan early and crippled Pakistan further with a second wicket, leaving them at 37/2 in the sixth over. But Babar kept going. He rebuilt the Pakistan innings, first patiently stabilizing them, then pouncing on the bad balls to put them away. He formed crucial partnerships with the middle order and though New Zealand got a couple of more wickets, they had no answer to Babar. The Pakistan captain remained not out as the visitors claimed a six-wicket victory in the 19th over.

68* off 52 v India, Dubai, 2021 — The famous ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021 match. While there were many heroes in the game, Babar's contribution to it cannot be forgotten. After India were restricted to 151/7, Pakistan went all out with the bat to bamboozle the Indian bowlers. Rizwan was sensational and Babar played the perfect fiddle for him. Both batters complemented each other and pummelled the Indian attack without any rest. Babar hit the winning runs helping Pakistan to their first victory over India in the history of the tournament.

[lilywrites9]

Top 5 Out of the Box Sonam Kapoor Movies

Sonam kapoor Indian actress Ahuja performs in Hindi-language movies. She has received a National Film Award and a Filmfare Award, and from 2012 to 2016, she was listed among Forbes India's Celebrity 100 based on her popularity and earnings.

Fashion and Sonam Kapoor go hand in hand. And enjoyment too. It's no secret that we enjoy Sonam Kapoor's choice of entertaining films to act in. Her films frequently have a carefree, sunny, perfect day feel. Popcorn movies at their very best.

Aisha

Rajshree Ojha is the director of the 2010 Hindi-language romantic comedy-drama Aisha. Sonam Kapoor, Abhay Deol, Ira Dubey, Cyrus Sahukar, Amrita Puri, Anand Tiwari, Arunoday Singh, and Lisa Haydon are all part of the ensemble cast in this comedy of manners. It is a version of Jane Austen's 1815 novel Emma and is set in the upper-class society of Delhi, India. It has the same tone as the cult Hollywood movie Clueless (1995), which is also an adaptation of Austen's book. Aisha, which debuted on August 6, 2010, had a mediocre box office performance. Critics gave it mixed to favourable reviews. She characterised her persona as an intrusive diva with a penchant for playing Cupid and matchmaking.

2.Neerja

The 2016 Indian biographical thriller film Neerja, which was written by Saiwyn Quadras and Sanyuktha Chawla Shaikh, was directed by Ram Madhvani. The narrative is based on a true incident: the attempted hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 by the Abu Nidal Organization, which was supported by Libya, on September 5, 1986 in Karachi, Pakistan. The head purser of the flight, Neerja Bhanot, who stopped the hijack attempt by warning the pilots and forcing them to ground the aircraft, is portrayed in the movie. Bhanot lost his life while attempting to save the 359 survivors among the 379 passengers and crew. She played the role of the air hostess Neerja Bhanot, who perished in 1986 while attempting to save the passengers of Pan Am Flight 73, which had been hijacked.

Since the project is based on actual events, Kapoor felt a sense of responsibility towards it. As part of her role preparation, she met the Bhanot family. The movie received a lot of positive reviews, and many critics thought that Kapoor gave her best performance to date. According to Raja Sen, her performance was a career-defining moment, and Rohit Vats of the Hindustan Times observed that "she carries entirely on her shoulder." She conveys a mixture of sincere, fear, goodwill, and boldness. Rajeev Masand invited Kapoor to his yearly best actresses roundtable, and Sen named Kapoor the best actress in Hindi film of 2016. In addition to numerous other honours, Kapoor received a Special Mention for a National Film Award and a Filmfare Award for Best Actress (Critics).

3. Raanjhanaa

Beloved One, also known as Raanjhanaa, is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film that was written and directed by Aanand L. Rai. Kapoor played the part of Varanasi-based Muslim student Zoya Haider, who becomes involved in politics as a result of the murder of her Sikh lover. Kapoor met with students, went to workshops, and practised with theatre groups affiliated with Jawaharlal Nehru University in order to get ready for her role. Additionally, she looked at Jaya Bachchan's performance in Guddi (1971), which she thought was "ideal" for the part. In response to a question about her role in the movie, Kapoor gave the following explanation of her acting style: "I have always tried to do diverse films and… I strive to be different for every character. The film was superhit at box office.

4. Delhi 6

Rakesh Omprakash Mehra is the director of the 2009 drama film Delhi-6, which was made in Hindi. Abhishek Bachchan plays an NRI in the movie who travels to India with his elderly grandmother (Waheeda Rehman) and starts learning about his ancestry before becoming involved in a religious issue involving an unknown attacker who resembles a monkey. After receiving its world debuts at the Museum of Modern Art and the Dubai International Film Festival, Delhi-6 was finally released on February 20, 2009, to critical and box office acclaim. Although it did poorly financially, it earned mixed reviews from critics, who praised the soundtrack and the cast's performances while criticising the plot, writing, and pacing. Best Production Design went to Delhi-6 at the 57th National Film Awards (Samir Chanda).

5. Veere Di Wedding

Female buddy comedy Veere Di Wedding is a 2018 Hindi-language movie that was produced by Rhea Kapoor, Ekta Kapoor, and Nikhil Dwivedi and directed by Shashanka Ghosh. Starring Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sonam K. Ahuja, Swara Bhaskar, and Shikha Talsania as four friends attending a wedding, the movie is loosely based on the 2015 movie The Wedding Ringer. On June 1, 2018, Veere Di Wedding was released in theatres to mixed reviews. The movie, which had a budget of $28,000,000, ended up earning over 139,000,000 globally, making it the highest-grossing Hindi film of the year and the biggest for a movie with female leads. At the 64th Filmfare Awards, it garnered three nominations, including Best Supporting Actress for Talsania and Bhaskar.

[mariacallous]

On Feb. 3, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) blocked Wikipedia nationwide. In its statement before the ban, the PTA said the online encyclopedia had refused to remove “sacrilegious contents” from the website. In 2020, Pakistan had threatened legal action against Google and Wikipedia for “disseminating sacrilegious content,” regarding Islamic beliefs held by minority Muslim sects. And while the ban on Wikipedia was overturned three days later, there’s an evident surge in Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy policymaking targeting Muslim minorities, which in turn is further emboldening Islamist vigilantes.

On Feb. 11, a Muslim man was lynched by a mob in the eastern city of Nankana Sahib over allegations of desecrating the Quran. The victim was killed inside the local police station, with the law enforcement authorities being hapless bystanders. Often, local police are complicit in victimizing individuals and communities once Islamist thugs conjure the accusation of blasphemy. And this thuggery has the backing of the state, which is now expanding its already notorious blasphemy codes.

The Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) was co-opted after Partition in 1947 from the Indian Penal Code (IPC) of 1860, with Sections 295 and 298 dedicated to desecrating worship places and outraging religious sensibilities, respectively. The IPC under British rule added Section 295-A to curtail “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings.” The original sections, identically present in the IPC, are equally applicable to all religions. In the 1980s, under the Islamist military dictatorship of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistan added Islam-specific clauses, defining violent penalties over blasphemy against Islam alone.

Last month, the National Assembly passed amendments to the PPC to expand its blasphemy laws. One of those amendments, the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023, ups the penalty from three years to life imprisonment for “disrespecting” the companions (including the caliphs), family, or wives of the Prophet Muhammad. The PPC criminalizes any sacrilege against the Quran and the prophet, with penalties including capital punishment.

While Pakistan is yet to execute anyone for sacrilege, its blasphemy laws continue to encourage mob violence; at least 93 people have been killed extrajudicially since 1947—including the most recent victims—and more than 1,500 have been imprisoned since 1987, the year after the death penalty was introduced for heresy against Islam in Section 295 of the PPC. The most high-profile victim of the blasphemy laws was one of their staunchest critics, former Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer, who was gunned down by his security guard Mumtaz Qadri in 2011. Taseer’s killing silenced debate on the blasphemy laws and turned Qadri, executed over terrorism charges in 2016, into a saint, with his tomb turned into a shrine.

Last year, a teacher was attacked and killed by her colleague and students in an all-girls school, a mentally unstable man was stoned to death by a mob, and a man born without arms was drowned, in separate incidents of blasphemy killings.

Last month, a Muslim man threatened to incite mobs against a Christian security officer working at the Karachi airport by accusing her of blasphemy against the prophet after the woman had denied his acquaintance entry into the premises. The brutal killing of Sri Lankan business professional Priyantha Kumara illustrated the menace of Pakistan’s murderous blasphemy laws nearly 15 months ago.

While the blasphemy laws have disproportionately and overwhelmingly harmed non-Muslims in Pakistan, many of those victimized have been Muslims themselves. Sometimes these are individuals targeted for personal vendettas; however, many are Muslims who espouse beliefs deemed divergent from those sanctioned by majoritarian orthodoxy. The man killed for blasphemy in October was killed for expressing devotion at the graves of Sufi saints, a significant tenet of Barelvi Islam that the vast majority of South Asian Muslims have traditionally adhered to.

The ideology of takfir, or excommunicating Muslims, is based on outlawing divergent beliefs and penalizing those deemed guilty per Islamic law, or sharia, with punishments for apostasy that include execution. The takfiri ideology fuels murderous sharia codes and jihadi groups alike. Outfits such as the Islamic State and its Pakistani Taliban affiliates have bombed Sufi shrines over the years, deeming the mystic practices heretical. The Islamic State-orchestrated 2017 bombing at the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in Sehwan, killing at least 90 people, remains one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Pakistan’s history.

The Islamic State and the Pakistani Taliban have similarly targeted Shiite mosques across the country, dubbing Shiites, comprising the second-largest sect of Islam, collectively guilty of sacrilege. And the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023, passed last month, is the systematization of this anti-Shiite narrative, which borders on codification of the entire sect’s excommunication.

The new amendments to the blasphemy codes were introduced by Abdul Akbar Chitrali of Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist party that espouses radicalism against, among others, Shiite Muslims across South Asia. In the bill’s Statement of Objects and Reasons, Chitrali argues that the current penalty for sacrilege against Muhammad’s companions, unlike the capital punishment for blasphemy against the prophet, is insufficient deterrence, citing the Quranic verse that upholds fitna (mischief or deviance) as “worse than murder.” Following the amendment, Section 298-A of the PPC, which heretofore upheld lighter penalties for any sacrilege of Muhammad’s companions, will henceforth make it a nonbailable offense punishable by life imprisonment.

The amendment passed by the National Assembly is an extension of a bill passed by the Punjab Assembly in 2020, albeit still awaiting the governor’s signature. These laws, in effect, outlaw Shiite beliefs by enforcing Sunni theology and tradition across the population, in turn playing judge, jury, and executioner over a 1,400-year-old Sunni-Shiite split in Islam.

The Sunni-Shiite divide has been militantly fanned by the Saudi-Iranian proxy wars over the past half a century, with Islamabad doing Riyadh’s bidding from the onset. This proliferated Salafi and Deobandi madrassas and propped up the correlated jihadi militias, including anti-Shiite outfits such as Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). While these groups have militarily gravitated toward the Islamic State and the Pakistani Taliban, their political wings have allied themselves with major parties, especially in Punjab.

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which has historically dominated Punjab, has done so with the help of SSP and LeJ affiliates such as Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat. The PML-N’s rival, Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, and its allies have all backed the anti-Shiite legislation designed to uphold Sunni supremacism in Pakistan by making “respect for the caliphs” a rallying cry to woo the sectarian vote bank.

Sunni Islamists strong-arming veneration for their caliphs is an extension of the general Islamist intimidation over any critique of Muhammad, which even Barelvi jihadis have weaponized.

The idea that even those who do not believe in Islamic figures should be coerced into, at the very least, silencing their views so as to not offend the believers is, at best, an antediluvian notion that represses freedoms of belief, conscience, and expression; at worst, it is a tool of bloodthirsty ethnoreligious cleansing. And in Pakistan, this radical Islamist superstructure of jurisprudential takfir, blasphemy vigilantes, and state-sponsored jihad is founded on the fall of the first excommunication domino: the constitutional apostatizing of Ahmadiyya Islam.

Just as Shiites today are being compelled into shunning their beliefs so as to be accepted as Muslims in Pakistan, Ahmadis were forced to do the same vis-à-vis their belief in their sect’s 19th-century founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, via the Second Amendment to the Pakistani Constitution in 1974. The official declaration of Ahmadis as non-Muslims was followed by Sections 298-B and 298-C a decade later, banning the community from “posing as Muslims,” including referring to Islamic literature or expressions, thus making Pakistan the only country in the world where an individual can be imprisoned for reciting the Quran.

This veritable apartheid against Ahmadi Muslims over the past four decades has seen members of the community killed, their mosques vandalized, and graves desecrated. Ahmadis have to be declared non-Muslims for individuals to obtain a passport, exercise the right to vote, or even get a marriage certificate. Among the Wikipedia contents flagged by the PTA are pages on Ahmadiyya Islam.

While Shiites and Ahmadis are subjugated owing to their beliefs, another Muslim minority is targeted owing to their nonbelief: nonbelievers. Fast-growing atheism, agnosticism, and deism among Pakistani Muslims has been met with a state crackdown, especially online. Atheism and apostasy, as an extension of blasphemy, are punishable by death in Pakistan.

Following the enactment of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act in 2016, the state initiated a war on nonbelief, sending official texts nationwide asking users to notify any form of blasphemy. In 2017, the state promoted a crackdown on dissident bloggers deemed to be posting anti-Islam content online, with the “Pakistani Atheists and Agnostics” Facebook group among those highlighted by the Federal Investigation Agency. With the country’s blasphemy laws going digital, the new expansive codes are going to further stifle online expression in Pakistan, as exemplified by the Wikipedia ban.

The Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023 aims to do precisely that: restrict the religious discourse and intimidate Muslim minorities against expressing any contrarian views within Islam, just as non-Muslims have long been silenced into submission over Islam. This, in turn, will encourage vigilantes to expand their hunt for so-called blasphemers, whether in Islamic congregations, university auditoriums, or private WhatsApp chats.

Within a month of the Punjab bill being passed, 42 blasphemy cases were lodged, predominantly against the Shiite community, including against a 3-year-old. The toddler, Syed Fazal Abbas Naqvi, was taken into custody along with his father and uncle, with all of them facing terrorism charges before being released on bail. The Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023 has been followed by a spike in Shiite killings in the town of Dera Ismail Khan.

While the financially motivated Arab states that historically spread radical Salafism worldwide are now embracing moderation—even if not free thought in Islam—Pakistan appears to be wholly invested in being the bastion of Sunni fundamentalism and plunging further into takfiri jihadism. With Saudi Arabia expecting Pakistan to toe its line of significant geopolitical moves, such as normalization of ties with Israel, it can ill-afford Islamabad to be bogged down by radical Islamist mobs, which are also expressing condemnations of Saudi Arabia’s ostensible liberalization.

The United States, despite its withdrawal from the region, wouldn’t want a Pakistan that spirals further into radical Islamist disintegration at a time when the Western powers are still mulling the fate of the jihadi takeover in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s devastating economic crisis can further push the United States to condition any economic support to human rights advancements.

The Saudi and U.S. petrodollars that helped sustain Pakistan’s jihadi superstructure in the past are no longer on the table, with barely two weeks’ worth of foreign currency reserves to cover imports currently in the central bank. Global institutions, including the European Parliament, are mulling sanctions over Pakistan’s human rights abuses, especially its grotesque blasphemy laws. Any government expanding these codes in a way that risks increasing global sanctions is clearly not invested in Pakistan’s economic well-being.

Self-sustenance for the country is only possible through a purge of radical Islam at all national tiers, from the constitution to governance to the masochistic security policy. And Pakistan will only truly signal a departure from its jihad-infested past when it sounds the death knell for its blasphemy laws.