From a detention center in Denver Rahman spoke to the Pakistan Post over the phone. He believes that a rival shopkeeper, a non-Pakistani, maliciously tipped off the FBI. Fourteen agents searched his store for four hours and found nothing. He had no criminal record either. Rahman is a legal resident of the United States and is married to a Mexican American, non-Muslim citizen. more>

There is a change in the air. The word immigrant no longer only evokes feelings of despair, humiliation, and an incommunicable feeling of civic isolation. Instead we are learning to associate the word with the great march of civil rights in this country. more>

On July 4 three men massacred 53 Muslims in a Shia mosque in Quetta, Pakistan. more>

I wish I could blare out to the mainstream U.S. media that public opinion in Pakistan is not ‘inflamed’ on this issue. The religious right has not been able to muster any public demonstration. more>

Ifti Nasim, a Chicago-based Urdu poet and journalist, referring to the issue of racial and religious profiling by the FBI and Justice Department, said that he can learn to walk and talk American, but that he cannot change his skin color. “I am not going to go the way of Michael Jackson,” he joked, presumably referring to the superstar’s attempts to be neither black or white. more>

I believe that the Muslim community in the United States needs to organize itself and give an answer to Bush and the Republicans in the 2004 elections. It may be the most fateful elections Muslims in the United States have ever encountered. more>

New York City is the hub of Urdu journalism. These papers provide coverage of the everyday life of the Pakistani community. On the other hand, publishers of these papers also use them to promote parochial interests by, for example, defaming their business rivals. more>

My friend Teddy Shah thought he was imagining things when he heard a loud knocking at his door in the middle of the night. But then he peeked through the eyehole and saw a team of uniformed men. The news was happening to him. more>

It is amazing how easily the Pakistani military establishment can just say that we can now resolve an issue which we have considered unresolvable so far. But, if the present military dispensation in Pakistan can make peace with India then that will be a great accomplishment that will set the country on a path to prosperity. more>

It is amazing how easily the Pakistani military establishment can just say that we can now resolve an issue which we have considered unresolvable so far. But, if the present military dispensation in Pakistan can make peace with India then that will be a great accomplishment that will set the country on a path to prosperity. more>

No matter what you do as an undocumented immigrant—stay and register, leave the United States for Pakistan, or Canada—your future is rife with uncertainty. more>

Urdu newspapers published on the East Coast progressed a great deal in the last few years. Through these papers, the Urdu reading public learns about political, religious, and entertainment events in the community. more>

Even the moderates here in Pakistan are outraged. Across the board, young and old, poor and rich, fundamentalist and secularist are united in their hatred of the United States and their contempt for Britain. Such unprecedented unanimity in a country renowned for its ethnic and sectarian divides is a huge achievement. more>

We must take a clear-headed look at the status of women and children in our Pakistani community. If we don’t recognize the anti-women bias in our own history, we will not be able to do anything about it. more>

A public school on Coney Island Avenue has a large population of Pakistani kids, and whenever I pass this school I find myself taking time to look at kids in the schoolyard. It never fails to gladden my heart to see Pakistani kids mingling with kids of many races and nationalities. more>

It seems that in industrialized countries the gains that women are making in equal rights are more straight forward than in Pakistan. more>

I overhear Pakistanis passionately criticizing the policies of the Bush administration but almost never hear anyone taking an interest in local issues. But two community members—one in Long Island, one in Brooklyn—are taking the lead. more>

It's amazing to see how much trouble the Jamaat e Islami of Pakistan has caused for Pakistanis both in and out of Pakistan. Their history of unscrupulousness starts before Partition. more>

Before September 11th, Brooklyn was “home” for Pakistanis. Walking about Coney Island Avenue was like walking in a bazaar in any Pakistani city. The neighborhood was known as “Little Pakistan.” more>

According to Paul Boyer at the University of Wisconsin, some born-again Christian Americans (of which President Bush is one) believe that the war against Iraq is a sign that the world is coming to an end and hence the war is a necessary war. At the apocolypse, the messiah will rise again. more>

I have been reading various American books on Islam, terrorism and democracy published recently. They’re all wretched, and here’s why. more>

The FBI had been tapping the cleric’s phone and heard him refer to the events of September 11th without expressing remorse. The Pakistani community is all too sickeningly familiar with its members undergoing profiling, reporting, detentions, and deportations. It is surreal that communities that live side by side with us are not experiencing these conditions. more>