Middle East Policy2015 In November 2014, President Obama accepted India’s invitation to be the chief guest at its Republic Day celebrations. He will be the first American president to do so. I was in Kolkata (Calcutta), India’s “cultural capital” when this was announced. Most of my interlocutors there were euphoric
Providence JournalMarch 17, 2013 I’m saddened by the bloody mayhem rocking Bangladesh, where I lived and worked through two turbulent decades. Street fights between the country’s secularist government forces and Islamist activists have claimed dozens of lives. The clashes were triggered by a death sentence handed down by a Bangladeshi
SF Gate – Muslim WorldSeptember 14, 2012 It was a reprehensible crime. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other U.S. diplomatic staff members were nurturing excellent U.S.-Libyan relations until they were murdered by a Muslim mob in Benghazi. Many Libyans will fondly remember Stevens’ hard work to implement the U.S.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 12, 2012 A casualty of a trip to Bangladesh (and many other Muslim countries) could be the belief, or illusion, that Islam and modernity are conflicting value systems. A college classmate’s visit to my ancestral home here in Polashpur village reminded me of this illusion, which is
Middle East Policy2011 The question once again: Is Pakistan a “failed state?” Anatol Lieven, a professor at King’s College in London, is among the latest authors to try an answer. His book Pakistan: A Hard Country is a broad and detailed survey of the security, economic, social, political and ecological challenges facing
The Columbus DispatchApril 30, 2011 Democratization of Arab societies “would be a disaster” for the West, warns Princeton University scholar Bernard Lewis. Yet he predicts that Islamic political parties are “very likely to win … genuinely fair and free elections” in the Arab world. Democratization of Arab societies “would be
By Mustafa Malik Middle East Policy, 2010. In the spring 2004 issue of Middle East Policy (Vol. XI, No. 1), I argued that, while earlier groups of immigrants assimilated into European societies, “Muslims are unlikely to do so.” A majority of those who commented on it thought I didn’t get it. They
Middle East PolicySummer 2009 Ever since 9/11, America’s preoccupation in Pakistan has been with “terrorism.” Anti-American Pakistani militants call it part of their jihad against the U.S.-NATO “occupation” of Afghanistan. Today political stability has become the overriding U.S. concern in Pakistan. President Obama says his administration is “working to secure stability in
The Daily Star Beirut, LebanonMay 22, 2009 A friend called from Lahore, Pakistan, and asked if I could put up his family in my home in the Washington suburbs. “Most welcome!” I said. “When are you all coming?” “As soon as Pakistan begins to collapse!” replied Abdul Wahid Qureshi, a
SF GateMay 17, 2009 A friend called from Lahore, Pakistan, and asked if I could put up his family in my home in the Washington suburbs. “Most welcome!” I said. “When are you all coming?” “As soon as Pakistan begins to collapse!” replied Abdul Wahid Qureshi, a retired college professor. Qureshi was responding,
Philadelphia Daily NewsMay 2009 A FRIEND called from Lahore, Pakistan, and asked if I could put up his family in my home in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. “Most welcome!” I said. “When are you all coming?” “As soon as Pakistan begins to collapse!” said Abdul Wahid Qureshi, a retired college
Dawn – EditorialJanuary 27, 2009 THE Obama administration should build on the Israeli and Hamas ceasefires to promote a durable truce between them but realise that Hamas’s survival in the Gaza war has unravelled the basis of the current peace process. Of the nearly 1,200 Palestinians killed in the war,
DawnJanuary 8, 2009 `UNPRECEDENTED election!` The headline in the Bengali-language newspaper Jugantar aptly described Bangladesh`s parliamentary election. Thanks largely to the deployment of 600,000 security personnel, the voting passed off without violence, which had marred most of the previous elections. Unprecedented, too, was the level of political consciousness revealed by
The Columbus DispatchOctober 10, 2008 Pakistan is too weak to have repelled recent American ground and air raids on suspected Taliban targets within its borders. It has protested the violations of its sovereignty by its “war on terror” ally and fired what appears to be symbolic shots at some intruding
The Columbus DispactchJuly 5, 2008 Pakistan’s assault last weekend on a militant stronghold in the Khyber tribal area might have been a sop to the Bush administration, fuming over Islamabad’s peace deal with the Taliban. But I doubt that the Pakistani army or government will, or can, rein in anti-NATO
The Daily Star – LebanonJuly 1, 2008 As NATO troops face stepped up guerrilla attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s new ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, is trying hard to explain to Americans why his government has tried to make peace with the Pakistani Taliban. That peace deal, despite the army’s confrontation
Council for Research in Values and PhilosophyChapter X in the 2008 publication entitled: ‘Communication across Cultures: The Hermeneutics of Cultures and Religions in a Global Age’ Chapter XIslam’s Emerging ‘Third Space’ in the West Whether a full-blown “clash of civilization” is inevitable between Islam and the West, a culture clash
Pittsburgh Post-GazzetteMay 25, 2008 WASHINGTON — The other day my wife and I headed for New Hampshire to spend the weekend with my in-laws. At the Baltimore-Washington International Airport, Patricia used her e-ticket to get her boarding pass from a self-help computer. But when she keyed in my e-ticket information,
The Daily Star – LebanonMay 20, 2008 The other day my wife and I headed for New Hampshire to spend the weekend with my in-laws. At the Baltimore-Washington International airport, Patricia used her e-ticket to get her boarding pass from a machine. But when she keyed in my e-ticket information,
The Columbus DispatchApril 5, 2008 Pakistan’s new prime minister is distancing his government from the U.S.-sponsored war on terrorism that President Pervez Musharraf carried on for six years. In so doing, Yousaf Raza Gilani is reviving a stance typically adopted by Pakistan’s democratic regimes that succeeded pro-American dictatorships. Pakistan’s new
The Baltimore SunApril 3, 2008 SYLHET, Bangladesh — The new Pakistani prime minister is distancing his government from the U.S.-sponsored “war on terror” that President Pervez Musharraf carried on for six years. In so doing, Yousaf Raza Gillani is reviving a stance typically adopted by Pakistan’s democratic regimes that succeeded pro-American dictatorships. “Dictators always
Middle East PolicySpring 2008 A recent visit to Pakistan reminded me of the movie Gone With the Wind. The country where I lived and worked has been hit by turbulence that has blown away many of the symbols of secularism and Western lifestyle that once characterized its urban life. Gone were
The Philadelphia InquirerOctober 5, 2007 PESHAWAR, Pakistan – A cartoon circulating in Pakistan depicts a scowling Gen. Pervez Musharraf marrying a cowering former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice look on, worried. “Dear God,” prays Rice, as the bride’s mother, “please make him treat
The Columbus DispatchJuly 27, 2007 Is Iran luring America into a deal that would concede domination of the oil-rich Persian Gulf? The speculation has been fueled around the gulf by the recent U.S.-Iranian talks on Iraq. “The Iranians are carpet sellers,” said Mustafa Alani, program director at the Gulf Research
San Francisco ChronicleJuly 13, 2007 Is Iran luring the United States into a deal that would concede its domination of the oil-rich Persian Gulf? This speculation has been fueled by the recent U.S.-Iranian talks on Iraq. “The Iranians are carpet sellers,” said Mustafa Alani, program director at the Gulf Research
The Daily Star – LebanonNovember 23, 2006 The Democrats in the United States declared the recent congressional elections a “referendum” on the Republican President George W. Bush’s stewardship of the Iraq war. On the campaign trail, they savaged Bush and the Republican-majority Congress for the disastrous war and demanded its
The MastheadSummer 2006 HeadnoteUntil American reporters get up to speed, op-ed pages need to offer insights into Islam I think it’s time our op-ed pages be a bit more hospitable to Muslim perspectives on Muslim issues. The news and editorial pages will, I hope, follow suit. I attended several seminars
Middle East PolicyWinter 2005 After the July 2005 bombings in London, Frances Stead Sellers wrote a piece in The Washington Post (August 22, 2005) arguing that “multiculturalism as a political ideology” wasn’t working in her native Britain. She expressed happiness over seeing that Britons had “overcome the racism of their
The Daily StarNovember 14, 2005 Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff of Vice President Dick Cheney, is facing charges in connection with the leak of a CIA officer’s identity and has become a popular target of Americans scared by the human, moral and economic toll of the Iraq
The Daily Star – LebanonOctober 7, 2005 Human rights groups around the world are concerned that the UN resolution calling on governments to punish “incitement to terrorist acts” will further stifle the voices of the oppressed, especially because the world body has failed to define what terrorism is. This resolution
Dawn – EditorialAugust 26, 2005 IN HIS Independence Day message President Pervez Musharraf reiterated his vow to defeat terrorists and extremists. He took that vow after the United States began its war against “Islamic terrorism.” On July 18 Benazir Bhutto accused him again of not “doing enough to combat terrorism.”
The Daily Star – LebanonAugust 26, 2005 My wife was griping about having to pay $2.58 a gallon to fill up her gas tank. The significance of her complaint began to sink in when I heard about the rocket attack against U.S. warships at Jordan’s Aqaba port and then received
The Daily Star – LebanonAugust 1, 2005 British Prime Minister Tony Blair has waged quite a campaign against a so-called “evil ideology” and the Pakistani madrasas, or Muslim religious schools, which supposedly teach it. In the course of his efforts, British special police have killed an innocent Brazilian electrician who
Middle East PolicySummer 2005 This book is a sociohistorical narrative of Islam in which author Reza Aslan debunks many Orientalist myths about the faith. Then he argues that the uplift of Muslim societies calls for their democratization and “the interpretation of Islam that yields to the reality of democracy” (pp.
The RecordMarch 15, 2005 Earlier this month, a 31-year-old Moroccan-born immigrant to Belgium quit her job at a prepared foods factory in the small town of Ledegem. Her decision was the result of several months of intimidation, beginning in November when her employer, Rik Remmery, received an anonymous letter. It
The Washington PostMarch 13, 2005 Ten days ago, a 31-year-old Moroccan-born immigrant to Belgium quit her job at a prepared foods factory in the small town of Ledegem. Her decision was the result of several months of intimidation, beginning in November when her employer, Rik Remmery, received an anonymous letter.
The Daily Star – LebanonJanuary 11, 2005 The foreign ministers of several Arab regimes met in Jordan recently and issued a call to Iraq’s Sunni Arabs to participate in the January 30 parliamentary elections. Turkey and a reluctant Iran signed on to the appeal. The Sunni Arabs in Iraq have
Boston GlobeDecember 23, 2004 WASHINGTON – A TIGER killed a fawn and began munching on it, according to a popular Bangladeshi folk tale. A hungry bear jumped on the tiger to snatch the carcass away. The two fought until both lay mortally wounded, unable to move. A fox, which was
The Daily Star – LebanonNovember 27, 2004 In Iraq they are comparing it to Hulagu Khan’s carnage. In the past year, following the U.S.-led war and the mayhem that followed, about 200,000 Iraqis have perished, according to a survey by the Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg school of public health. Fallujah
Middle East Policy2004 What went wrong in Iraq? Bernard Lewis, the author of the book What Went Wrong? and other promoters of the Iraq war got it all wrong when they thought that Muslim societies need to be and can be remade in the Western image. Few American intellectuals have
Middle East Policy, Vol. 11 # 2 (Summer 2004) Soon after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Arundhati Roy wrote an article sharing Americans’ “immense grief” but also suggesting that they reflect on “why 11 September happened.” She received a torrent of letters calling her “a
St. Louis Post – DispatchJune 17, 2004 COMMENTARY – A FORUM FOR OTHER VOICES, IDEAS AND OPINIONS Mustafa Malik, a Washington journalist, has researched ethnic and religious movements in the Middle East as a research associate with University of Chicago Middle East Center. DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ President Bush has hailed
The Daily Star – LebanonJune 8, 2004 US President George W. Bush gets excited when he says Iraq’s newly installed interim government will finally create a “democratic” country. The new 33-member Cabinet is charged with arranging elections to a Parliament that will draw up a democratic constitution. The United Nations
Middle East PolicySpring 2004 On November 20, 2003, while President George W. Bush was visiting Britain, two Turkish militants bombed the British consulate and a British bank in Istanbul, killing 27 people. Bush’s state visit had been scheduled months earlier to celebrate what had been expected, if a bit presumptuously, to
The Daily Star – LebanonFeb 19, 2004 In December 1941, when the Japanese bombed US ships at Pearl Harbor, little did they know that the “isolationist” Americans would roar into World War II, occupy Japan and Germany and change the course of history. Could a real “clash of civilizations” over
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sept. 2, 2003 WASHINGTON – If you fell for the American neoconservative propaganda that democracy doesn’t grow on Muslim soil, visit my native Bangladesh. You’ll know that it’s a lie. Bangladesh’s population is 88 percent Muslim and its coalition government includes the Islamist Jamaat-i-Islami party. Yet Washington extols
St. Louis Post – DispatchOctober 1, 2003 COMMENTARY: A FORUM FOR OTHER VOICES, IDEAS AND OPINIONS Mustafa Malik has worked as an editor and writer for the Washington Times, Hartford Courant and other newspapers, and is researching the evolution of Muslim cultural patterns. POLITICS AND RELIGION If you have fallen
The Austin American-Statesman2003 A.B. Mohammad Musa was my boss at the Pakistan Observer newspaper in the East Pakistani capital of Dhaka. He almost never prayed, and he recoiled at the word “Islam.” He and many other East Pakistani Muslims carped about West Pakistanis dominating them in the name of Islamic
Middle East PolicyMarch 21, 2003 The Turks are secular Muslims,” said Recep Tayyip Erdogan. For centuries they have “lived in peace with different cultures.” His Justice and Development party, known by its Turkish initials AKP, stood for justice for all Turkish citizens regardless of their creeds or cultures. Erdogan said
Hartford CourantMarch 17, 2003 President George W. Bush announced the other day he would help democratize postwar Iraq, which would spur a drive for “freedom in other nations in the region.” Democracies “desire peace,” and he expected democratic Arab regimes to facilitate peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians. Two days
Middle East PolicyJune 2002 While the United States has yet to bring the masterminds of the September 11, 2001, suicide attacks to justice, its attorney general has issued an indictment against their faith. “Islam is a religion,” said John Ashcroft, “in which God requires you to send your son to
Hartford Courant, Oct. 1, 2001 DURING WORLD WAR II, Winston Churchill told a group of Indian leaders about the Nazi threat to Britain’s “freedom and independence” and asked them to help recruit Indian soldiers for the war. The Indians said they would be glad to help. But could the prime minister just
Boston GlobeSeptember 19, 2001 MY DAUGHTER, ALIA, WAS SHAKEN WHEN SHE CAME HOME FROM SCHOOL THE OTHER DAY. A MAN HAD ASKED HER FRIEND, AN 11TH-GRADER, ABOUT HIS PARENTS’ NATIONALITY. THE BOY SAID, “PAKISTANI,” AND THE MAN SPAT ON HIM. A friend in Frederick, Md., inquired if I was OK.
Middle East Policy, Vol. 8 # 2 (June 2001) My guide at the Alhambra, the fabulous Moorish palace in Granada, Spain, drew my attention to its lush gardens livened by a gentle breeze. Did I know why the gardens were square-shaped? asked Mohamed Yusef Garcia, a native Spaniard who had
St. Louis Post DispatchSeptember 2, 1999 ETHNIC STRIFE GERMAN peacekeepers stopped a car in southeastern Kosovo one day recently, “Your identification papers, please!” one of them said, stepping toward the car. Three passengers pulled out pistols and started shooting at the Germans. Luckily, only one bullet hit a soldier whose
Philadelphia Inquirer July 8, 1999 Turkey’s “trial of the century” ended June 29 with a death sentence for Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan, convicted of treason and murder. Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit hopes the verdict “will be auspicious” for the Turks and Kurds. Nearly 37,000 have died in the
San Francisco ChronicleJuly 6, 1999 TURKEY’S “trial of the century” ended last Tuesday with a death sentence for Abdullah Ocalan, who was charged with treason. He had been fighting for the cultural rights and political autonomy of 12 million Turkish Kurds, and was captured in Kenya by Turkish commandos on a
The Christian Science MonitorDecember 9, 1998 Last week Washington hosted an international fund-raiser for former guerrilla leader Yasser Arafat, which netted more than $3 billion for his would-be Palestinian state. A few days earlier the Clinton administration repeated its demand that Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan, now under house arrest
The Baltimore SunJune 10, 1997 WASHINGTON — Most scholars have dismissed Samuel Huntington’s warning that the Western Judeo-Christian civilization is entering upon a phase of confrontation with the Chinese and Islamic civilizations. The Congressional Human Rights Caucus appears, however, to have taken it seriously and introduced a bill that could
Chicago TribuneMay 15, 1997 Despite its Islamists-led government, Turkey is again one of America’s favorite allies, and Washington has stepped up efforts to help latch it more closely to Western economic and security systems. Americans are warning European governments not to belie the continent’s secular credentials by barring Turkey from
Council for Research in Values and PhilosophyChapter XV in the 1996 publication entitled: ‘Civil Society and Social Reconstruction‘ Two-thirds of America’s 5 million Muslims have immigrated from Third World countries during the last three decades. Some American scholars and journalists are concerned that the “Islamic wave” augurs a “culture clash”
Some Arabs see a ‘double standard’ in American foreign policy The Christian Science MonitorDecember 9, 1996 FBI director Louis J. Freeh went to Saudi Arabia to take a close look at the recently completed Saudi investigation of the Dhahran bombing. Nineteen Americans were killed in that June 25 terrorist blast.
THE BALTIMORE SUNOctober 22, 1996 My friend Tom Neumann complains that American news media are distorting the Benjamin Netanyahu government’s stance on the Israeli-Palestinian peace accords. Tom is the head of the Washington-based Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. Other supporters of the Israeli prime minister have also assailed American reporters for
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Oct. 10, 1996 The Taliban, a pugnacious brand of Islamic revivalists, have taken over government in Afghanistan. As they entered government offices, their followers jeered at the body of former communist President Najibullah hanging from a post overlooking Kabul’s main square. Later they shut down girls’ schools,
Chicago TribuneOctober 9, 1996 The Taliban, a pugnacious brand of Islamic revivalists, have taken over the government in Afghanistan. As they entered government offices, their followers jeered at the body of former Communist President Najibullah hanging from a post overlooking Kabul’s main square. Later, they shut down girls schools, barred women
St. Louis Post – DispatchJune 11, 1996 The tragic loss of American lives in two terrorist attacks in the Saudi Arabian cities of Dhahran and Riyadh calls for a reassessment of the U.S. Persian Gulf policy based on the social transition taking place in the region. During three tours in
The Christian Science MonitorJune 5, 1996 Last month India had three governments in as many weeks. Following its worst electoral defeat in history, the secular, centrist Congress Party government yielded power to the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which had captured the most seats. But the BJP could not muster
Los Angeles TimesJUNE 2, 1996 Over the weekend, India’s 13-day-old Hindu nationalist government was replaced by a coalition of 13 leftist and regional parties after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee failed to assemble a majority in Parliament. The new government has 11 days to produce a working majority. The Indian
Washington Report on Middle East AffairsJune 1994 Early in April, India dispatched a playwright and his actress wife to the United States on a month-long mission to counter American criticism of Indian human rights abuses in Kashmir. Gopal Sharman and Jalabala Vaidya, the couple who produced the Indian movie classic
Chicago TribuneMay 24, 1990 President Bush’s special envoy, Robert M. Gates, was sent to India and Pakistan to try to ease the mounting tension between the two countries over the uprising in the Himalayan valley of Kashmir. The prospect of another India-Pakistan war has increased since late last month when
Chicago TribuneJune 6, 1989 In December, 1971, Ambassador George Bush ran into Pakistani leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his daughter Benazir at UN headquarters in New York. Learning that the young woman was attending Harvard, Bush gave her his calling card. “My son is up at Harvard, too,” he said.
Chicago TribuneAugust 29, 1988 The new Pakistani government has started off on a reassuring note. Acting President Ghulam Ishaq Khan has pledged to go ahead with the parliamentary elections scheduled by President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, who died in a plane crash. Ishaq Khan has not declared martial law, which he
Mustafa Malik, the host and editor of Community, worked for three decades as a reporter, columnist and editor for the Glasgow Herald, Hartford Courant, Washington Times and other newspapers and as a fellow for the German Marshall Fund of the United States and University of Chicago Middle East Center.
His commentaries and news analyses have appeared continually in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dallas Morning News and other major American and overseas newspapers and journals.
He was born in India and lives in Washington suburbs.
As a researcher, Malik has conducted fieldwork in the United States and eight other countries in Western Europe, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent on U.S. foreign policy options, crisis of liberalism, and religious and ethnic movements.