Vali Nasr
Plight of Islam in the Modern World – Egypt of the Muslim Brothers compared to post 9/11 Pakistan
While Pakistan in the first decade of the 21st century may be very different to Egypt in the high time of the Muslim Brothers (1930s – 1950s), there are some striking resemblances concerning modernity and religion and how the conflict between these two terms has influenced society or in reverse was shaped by it. In this paper some of these similarities are portrayed. While Hassan al-Banna stood for a defense of the (Muslim) East against the West based on reasoning coming from the Quran, Sunna and Sufism and trying to find a non-violent consensus, his movement is remembered as radically conservative and an intellectual base for today’s leaders of terroristic activity. Similarly an underlying intellectual development in Pakistan is disregarded over the rising violent outbreaks in the name of religion.
Imad Ahmed interviews Vali Nasr
Our friend Imad Ahmed (who probably none of us has seen in ages, one of the busy bees who seems to have made the step from carpet-pundit – that’s where we still are – to real-pundit, he still makes a bit too much of himself though I fear, why is his pic in the interview [...]
PBS Documentary/Obama’s War
As always – I was just about to Quit Firefox when on on my last scroll movement on Stephen Walt’s FP blog I stumble across a link to a new (to me) PBS Documentary on their AfPak Channel – Obamas War. Sit back and prepare to spend the rest of the evening watching and following [...]
The Team
Richard Holbrooke has been appointed by the Obama administration as the special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has subsequently assembled a team of experts under his wings that (according to George Packer in his New Yorker article) numbers around 30 people. Since this team is essential for the further progress of the conflicts in the area, the counter insurgency going on and possible prospects of rebuilding the Afghan economy and keeping Pakistan stable, I want to investigate the team’s members further and provide some information about them and their work to date.
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