Ali Eteraz, American Takfiris, View from US: An affair to remember, Next Haiti,

Writing now Ali Eteraz's spiritual balm

American Takfiris - The theological justification for al Qaeda's wholesale slaughter of civilians was provided by Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, also known as Dr. Fadl, one of the founding fathers of al Qaeda. Because the murder of innocents is forbidden in Islam and the murder of Muslims in particular, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden required some sort of theological framework for justifying terrorism. This was provided by al-Sharif, who essentially argued in his book, "The Compendium of the Pursuit of Divine Knowledge," that apostates could be murdered, and that approach, takfir (which has come to be known as takfirism) allowed al Qaeda to, for all intents and purposes, kill anyone they wanted by declaring them to be apostates without violating the laws of Islam. In other words, Dr. Fadl helped provided a theological justification for something that everyone involved knew was wrong.
Choose Your Weapons: The British Foreign Secretary by Douglas Hurd Book review
View from US: An affair to remember
Ardeshir Cowasjee - Karachi, with its dense population of over 18 million, lies in the upper moderate seismic zone 2B, close to the confluence of three major tectonic plates: the Indian Plate, the Arabian Plate, and the Eurasian Plate. According to geologists, four active fault lines are identified in the immediate vicinity — Karachi-Jati, Allah Bund-Rann of Kutch, Surjan-Jhimpir and Pab. On two occasions in the past 65 years, in 1945 and 1985, earthquakes of lesser intensity have struck. So far, we have been lucky.