Najum Mushtaq

It’s time for Washington to wake up and smell the elections.

Religion has permeated the history and politics of Pakistan. Now it’s time, Najum Mushtaq argues, to keep religion out of it.

The Pakistani president’s commando raid against Islamic militants achieved only a Pyrrhic victory.

Hardliners in Washington want Pakistan’s leader to crack down on terrorists, but hardliners in Islamabad are deeply ambivalent. What’s a poor dictator to do?

Should the United States emphasize democracy or humanist religious traditions in its approach to global Islam? FPIF’s Najum Mushtaq and Abdeslam Maghraoui of the U.S. Institute of Peace offer two different answers.

The Bush administration is supporting the reform of Islam from within. But this faith-based approach is undemocratic, ignorant of the complexities of Islam, and ultimately doomed to fail.

Is Somalia rapidly turning into this year’s Afghanistan, with the Islamic Courts in the role of the Taliban and Ethiopia as the unilateral invader?

“Free and fair” elections under a military government imply continuity of military rule, not a transfer of power to an elected parliament.

The western media, too, is awash with stories of a reformist general living dangerously in a volatile country.

, Pakistan’s General Pervez Musharraf in his policy address on January 12th set about redefining the role of religion in Pakistani society and its domestic and external politics, with a special reference to Kashmir and terrorism.

Whatever turn events take from here onward, the Pakistani state and society is bracing for a troubling time ahead.