The Power of Faith The price of having a faith in one of the major religions of the world (Islam being the most expensive one) is substantially greater than any perceived power of the faith. It is utter nonsense to talk about it in terms of reason.

PPP Isn’t Convinced! one can not put the real problems of the people and reinstating the judges in the same basket. The real problem are gonna take much longer provided a sincere and systematic approach towards solving them is taken, whereas reinstaing judges is a matter of a resolution followed by the executive order - all of which can take less than a day.

Therefore don't try to make excuses in the name of peoples' real problems for dragging feet on the judges issue.

Dumbing Down Parliament....Again! Let me start with a hypothetical criterion of B.A. degree for voters as well. I bet that Jamaat-e-Islami is gonna win more than 30 percent of the contests in Pakistan. So much for the necessity of Bacheolar degree for elected representatives!!!

In parliamentary system, most elected parlimentarians are just numbers - to vote on the party lines; the agenda is set by the kitchen cabinets, inner circles and higher party office holders.

Surviving Musharraf\'s Exit? Who expects Shahbaz Sharif as the chief minister of Punjab to welcome Musharraf at the airport in case of his supposed visit to Lahore?

Musharraf has successfully entered himself into the list of ten most hated historical personalities for progressive Pakistanis, whose identity is land and cultural based.

The Idea of Chowk Re: # 226

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The Trouble With Irshad Manji
Irshad Manji is bogus. Her thesis reads like a high school level essay. She lacks scholarship and knowledge and she is relyng on rhetoric and one liners, already popular in the media. Many people at chowk can do better job than her. Perhaps in Canada she may be something to listen to but she would fail miserably in the more competitive USA media market. People like Salman Rushdie and Ibn Warraq have done much better job of highlighting the need for reforms without bringing up more recent role of Islam in world geopolitics. Ibn Warraq`s ``Why I am not a Muslim`` is a must read for making an intellectual case for reformation independent of current political climate.

The trouble with Manji and likes seeking reformation is that they cant prove reformation producing a better world for Muslims. By the same token, if Muslims become modern and prosperous miraculously, the need and calls for reformation fall flat. Reformation to them is the panacea for all Muslim ills. The point reformers should be concerned most about is bringing reason and rationality to the faith and making it more in-line with the current understandings of nature, life and society. The role of religion should decrease more than reforming it.