Does Pharaoh’s ghost still haunt Egypt?
The much criticized authoritarianism of Egyptian president Abdul Fatah al-Sisi has picked up steam with the sentencing to death of Muhammed Badie, Muslim Brotherhood leader, in Cairo on Monday. Mohamed Badie, a senior leader of Muslim brotherhood, as well as 21 members of the movement has been awarded death penalty for allegedly preparing attacks against the Egyptian […]
US again in the Latino Quagmire
The United States has not stopped imagining an ideological enemy in the larger picture it made of a unilateral world order, a conception that has disrupted an array of democratic political processes in the world, especially that of the middle east. An African American president, whose enthroning of American presidency produced some books that claimed […]
Racism: Is Liberal West Free from Filth?
It is argued that liberal democracies no longer reel under the oppressive customs such as racism. Only Asian countries like India and Pakistan bear the brunt of aggressive, pre-modern social customs. The Ferguson Shooting is a foil for this liberal democratic myth, if anything. The shooting of Mr. Brown, who was unarmed, led to a […]
Erdogan and Modi: Parallel journeys?
Back in March 2013, when I received and accepted an invitation to visit Bogazici University, I did not for a moment imagine that my arrival in Turkey would follow hot on the heels of a historic election in India. But so it did: I landed in Istanbul on June 1, 2014, five days after the […]
Haruki Murakami on Writing Novels and Bob Dylan
Author Haruki Murakami has continued to answer 20 to 30 questions per day on his temporary ‘ask-me-anything’-style website, which has received more than 30,000 messages from fans according to organizers. Although the website stopped taking any new questions on Jan. 31, the author is scheduled to continue posting his replies until about late March. In […]
Homecoming of common man or Ghar WaPasi of Aam Admi
An evening stroll along one of the alleyways in Calicut had me hearing a thought provoking political satire in India. A young man waiting for his pillion rider in his bike outside the latter’s office was asking him in his phone: ‘yaar isn’t it time for Ghar WaPasi?’ (shan’t we return home yet?) Anyone who […]
Is this the end of Iranian cinema?
I have had occasions to reflect on the fate of what we can now call a post-national cinema, a proposition not so outlandish in the heightened age of transnational globalisation. The idea is based on a conception of national cinemas, or any other national cultural movement, as predicated on national traumas. The leading Iranian film-maker […]
Politics for Future to Come
Books The Impossible State: Islam, Politics, and Modernity’s Moral Predicament By Wael Hallaq Recalling the Caliphate: Decolonisation and World Order By Salman Sayyid On the heels of Francis Fukuyama’s two books about political order, which maintains, even after the renowned author’s so-called spurning of neo-conservatism, that a strong, modern political order can ensure stability and […]
Azhar Usman: “A Clash of Two Worldviews”
Azhar Muhammad Usman is an American standup Muslim comedian, of Indian descent. A former lecturer, community activist and lawyer. His troupe “Allah Made Me Funny” consists of himself, Bryant “Preacher” Moss and Azeem Muhammad, who was later replaced by Mohammed “Mo” Amer. He has performed in 23 countries on five different continents. In 2008, […]
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