This Blog is intended for use by students in the Islamic Middle East course at Northfield Mount Hermon School and guest students and teachers from other participating schools.
The war on terror, writes Dexter Filkins, will be decided in the tribal frontier areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Dexter Filkins, “Right at the Edge,” New York Times Magazine, Sept. 7, 2008
More on the Taliban
More on Al-Qaeda
Asif Ali Zardari, widower of slain former P.M. of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto, will become Pakistan’s next president. He assumes office under a cloud of suspicion: accused of extortion, money laundering, and receiving kickbacks. These charges have earned him the nickname of “Mr. Ten Percent.”
Jane Perlez (see below) writes that Pakistan “has only $6 billion in foreign [...]
Pakistan has begun looking into the “honor” killings of five women who were beaten, shot, then buried while still breathing. “Honor” refers to family honor, or rather the loss of it when women choose marital partners families do not approve of, or become pregnant outside of marriage, etc. Pakistani officials estimate there are hundreds of [...]
Gunmen in Pakistan opened fire on a car carrying the nation’s Prime Minister Raza Gilani, who was not hurt (and may not have even been in the car). The Pakistani government has recently become more aggressive in combating Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces in the northwest tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
Story from BBC
Pankaj Mishra, in an Op-Ed piece in today’s New YorkTimes writes:
“Over the last two decades, most ordinary Kashmiri Muslims have wavered between active insurrection and sullen rage. They fear, justifiably or not, the possibility of Israeli-style settlements by Hindus; reports two months ago of a government move to grant 92 acres of Kashmiri land to [...]
The Taliban launched its most severe attack yet against a Pakistani government installation: a munitions factory in the town of Wah.
Story at the New York Times
Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf has resigned.
Story at the Economist.com
More - See: Jane Perlez, “Wrangling Begins Over Pakistan’s Next President,” New York Times, August 19, 2008
Extended coverage at PBS.org
More on Pakistan
In a review that captures well the current conflicts, political patterns, moods, and failures throughout much of the Middle East, Raymond Bonner looks at a new book by esteemed Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid.
Raymond Bonner, “War in Progress,” New York Times Book Review, August 10, 2008
The book: Ahmed Rashid. Descent Into Chaos: The United States and [...]
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is alleging that Pakistan’s spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), is linked with militants. See: Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt, “C.I.A. Outlines Pakistan Links With Militants, New York Times, July 30, 2008.
ISI support of militant jihadist movements is not new or surprising. The same could have been said of the CIA in [...]
A report in today’s New York Times claims that, thanks to infighting within American security and intelligence networks and cooling relations between the United States and Pakistan, Al-Qaeda is gaining strength in the border regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Mark Mazzetti and David Rohde, “Amid Policy Disputes, Qaeda Grows in Pakistan,” New York Times, June 30, [...]
BBC Middle East