Mustafa Qadri

FOR well on three decades, Pakistan’s military establishment has been sympathetic to Islamist militancy, causing many to doubt its bona fides in the war against the Taliban, now in its ninth year.

But recent developments in this war suggest that military planners have finally realised the risks of this most dangerous of relationships. Army chief Ashfaq Kayani recently noted that a Taliban society at home and in Afghanistan was not in Pakistan’s interests. In the past, Pakistan supported the Taliban in Afghanistan and its own tribal areas in a quest to achieve “strategic depth” against rival India. Now, Kayani concedes, a stable and friendly Afghanistan is sufficient strategic depth for Pakistan.

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Today I was interviewed by Phillip Adams on Radio National Australia about Pakistan’s changing relationship with the Taliban. You can listen and download the interview here.

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It’s not the first time foreign passports have been used by Israeli assassins but the Dubai murder may push the limits of international goodwill, writes Mustafa Qadri

No organisation fuels more conspiracy theories than the Mossad, Israel’s much feared international spy agency — and conspiracy theories have been splashed across the front-pages of Australian newspapers today in the wake of allegations about the fraudulent use of Australian passports by Mossad agents.

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With the recent capture of three high profile Taliban commanders, is Pakistan’s relationship to the insurgency changing, asks Mustafa Qadri

In what appears to be a major shift in the war against the Taliban, a joint raid by Pakistani and American security forces has captured the insurgents’ most senior military commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in the Pakistani port city of Karachi.

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With the capture or murder of senior leaders and with massive US-led operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it appears the Taliban’s days are numbered.

The most spectacular evidence apparently in support of this claim is the capture last week of the senior most military commander of Taliban forces in Afghanistan, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Only weeks earlier, Pakistan authorities revealed that Hakeemullah Mehsud, head of the Pakistan Taliban, succumbed to injuries from a US drone strike in the tribal areas.

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The former president has hinted at a return to Pakistani politics. Worryingly, it could be more than just a pipe dream.

Mustafa Qadri
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 18 February 2010 18.30 GMT

At no point do world leaders look more diminished than after leaving office, and Pakistan’s former president and military dictator Pervez Musharraf is no exception. So when he addressed a London audience this week, it was perhaps ironic that much of what he said was a reminder that little has changed in the way the west relates to the “AfPak” region.

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As US-led forces engage in a major offensive in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, commentators in Pakistan are still taking stock of the London conference and what it could mean for the role their country plays in their neighbour’s stability. Mustafa Qadri reports that many believe the road to such stability and security will inevitably run through Pakistan–and to the Taliban.

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As protests and celebrations marked the anniversary of the 1979 Revolution in Iran, international pressure on the world’s newest nuclear state is increasing, writes Mustafa Qadri

Thirty-one years ago this week a coalition of religious and secular Iranians ousted the pro-US Shah. The move from the Shah’s superficially modern, Western-centric monarchy to an independent Islamic theocracy in 1979 marked one of the biggest geopolitical shifts in the Middle East in recent history.

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Antagonism between Sunni and Shia Muslims is entrenched, and there is little the state can do to quell the violence

Mustafa Qadri
guardian.co. uk, Thursday 11 February 2010 18.00 GMT

Ordinary Pakistanis have fallen victim to a civil war largely orchestrated by forces well beyond their control. As the recent bombings targeting Shia Muslims in Karachi proves, the violence facing the country is more complex than extremists versus moderates. But how to unravel all the twists in this violent story?

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Negotiating with the Taliban is too little, too late – western allies need to fix the socioeconomic mess started long before 9/11

Mustafa Qadri
guardian.co.uk, Monday 8 February 2010 08.00 GMT

Memory spans are short in modern politics, but even by those standards the relative ease with which the discourse on Afghanistan has shifted from fighting the Taliban to negotiating with them is remarkable.

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Getting out of Afghanistan won’t be cheap. Mustafa Qadri takes a look at the West’s new hope for a solution to its Afghanistan problem

After much anticipation, Western leaders have finally put some meat on their previously bare-bones proposals for stabilising Afghanistan over the next few years. The short story is that President Obama is sticking to the plan he outlined in his speech at West Point last year, whereby he intends to hand responsibility for the country’s governance and security back to the Afghan authorities over a five-year period starting from 2011.

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Faced with terrorism, a flagging economy and a raft of potential lawsuits, how long can Pakistan’s president survive?

Mustafa Qadri
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 27 January 2010 15.10 GMT

With his chequered past and unlikely rise to the top, it is understandable that Asif Ali Zardari has faced constant calls to resign ever since becoming president of Pakistan two years ago. The central focus of the grievances has been Pakistan’s supreme court where a raft of charges have been submitted against Zardari and most of the senior leaders of the ruling Pakistan Peoples party by a motley mix of political parties, private citizens, and the court itself.

But in the glasshouse that is Pakistani politics the risk is that perceptions of judicial independence will be shattered by all the stone throwing. To understand the fracas it is necessary to consider recent history. After public pressure forced the Zardari government to reinstate Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, there was widespread celebration that at last Pakistan had found one institution that was above the cronyism that has plagued political life here.

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Already ravaged by high inflation, massive energy shortages and political turmoil, Pakistan has been shocked by bombings in most of its major cities, writes Mustafa Qadri

Pakistan is enduring the most brutal spate of political violence since the Punjab-dominated Army was implicated in mass slaughter in 1971. Despite military victories in large swathes of the tribal areas that are home to the Taliban, Pakistan’s major cities have been rocked by an escalating series of violent events that, according to one estimate, have claimed 544 lives in a little under three months.

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Journalism is a dangerous profession in Pakistan. But a vibrant, relatively free press still exists in this volatile country

For as long as anyone cares to remember, journalism has been a dangerous profession in Pakistan. Although of late much of the attention has focused on the risks to foreign journalists, the situation for local reporters is equally, if not more, parlous.

First consider that virtually all the on-the-ground news you read from Pakistan, especially from conflict zones, has been gathered by a local reporter under considerable personal risk. That is certainly the case for journalists working in the northwest frontier where the Taliban are most active. “I [do some] work for Voice of America,” one veteran reporter, who requested anonymity, told me in the safety of a hotel room in Islamabad. “Even now, I do not tell [the Taliban he interviews] that. It would mean certain death.”

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Barack Obama’s surge in Afghanistan worries Pakistan – when the US leaves, it will still have to deal with the Taliban

Mustafa Qadri
guardian.co.uk, Friday 11 December 2009 16:00 GMT

There is more to President Obama’s policy shift in central Asia than more boots in Afghanistan. For Pakistan it represents an escalation of US drone strikes in the tribal areas and continued pressure on its army to immediately engage the Taliban and al-Qaida despite the practical complexities of the task.

The fundamental problem for Pakistan is that Obama’s acceleration of the war against the Taliban has been calculated largely on the basis of domestic US political demands and not those of the region, let alone Pakistan. Already under intense pressure at home from the financial crisis and the unpopularity of the US presence in Afghanistan, Obama must deliver some semblance of victory before he bids for a second term as commander-in-chief in 2012.

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Now that an amnesty providing immunity to thousands has expired, Pakistan’s supreme court has the chance to showcase its merits

· Mustafa Qadri
· guardian.co.uk, Saturday 5 December 2009 18.00 GMT

It may be more a matter of wits than weapons, but the battle for control of Pakistan’s executive branch of government is as significant for the country as the war against the Taliban. Resolving this latest crisis, the fiercest tussle over the stewardship of the country since Pervez Musharraf was ousted from the presidency in August 2008, will determine the future of Pakistan’s parliamentary democracy for many years to come.

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A troop surge AND a withdrawal by July 2011? Despite the fuss, Obama’s Afghanistan speech marks very little in the way of new policy, writes Mustafa Qadri

“Unlike Vietnam, we are not facing a broad-based popular insurgency.” Those were President Obama’s confident words as he announced a major US troop surge into Afghanistan earlier this week.

The US may have entered Afghanistan to clean out what was believed to be the key haven for the international terrorist network known as al Qaeda. But in the intervening eight years, America’s main opponents in the deserts and towns of Afghanistan have been the young men of rural Kandahar, Uruzgan, Helmand and so many other areas fighting not for global jihad but for independence from foreign interference. There are key differences between the war in Afghanistan and that in Vietnam — but a lack of a broad-based popular insurgency is not one of them.

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Amid daily suicide attacks, the Pakistan Army is closing in on Taliban strongholds — and this time they seem to have the support of the Pakistani people, reports Mustafa Qadri from Islamabad

Pakistan’s once sleepy capital Islamabad has been transformed into something of a fortress, with checkpoints, cement barriers and police dotting the tree-lined streets. There is no doubt about it: Pakistan is at war, and the signs are everywhere. As of last week, the police alone say they have prevented 67 individuals from carrying out suicide attacks, most recently in a dramatic confrontation at a barricade in Islamabad.

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Blame for the recent spate of bombings is being laid at the door of foreign powers by many ordinary Pakistanis. Why?

Mustafa Qadri
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 November 2009 12.00 GMT

Although the Taliban have openly claimed responsibility for the recent epidemic of suicide bombings against civilian targets in Peshawar and Islamabad, many Pakistanis appear convinced that the real culprits are India or the United States.

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Leading Pakistani humanist and anti-nuclear scientist Pervez Hoodbhoy gives Mustafa Qadri his take on the current crises facing his country

For three decades Pervez Hoodbhoy, professor of Physics at Qaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, has been promoting science and humanism in Pakistan. His was one of the earliest voices to sound the alarm on the perils of developing nuclear weapons, and on the danger posed by the country’s deepening religious intolerance — issues that have gone on to damage the country’s reputation. His respected scientific work has been published widely, but in 2001 when the Pakistani Government wanted to present him with a national award, Hoodbhoy refused it, saying that Pakistan’s misuse of such awards had eroded their own credibility. Recently I spoke to Professor Hoodbhoy about science, Islam and the challenges facing Pakistan.

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The Diplomat’s Pakistan correspondent, Mustafa Qadri, meets refugees from the conflict in Pakistan’s Swat Valley and finds anger, trepidation and hope as they return home after this summer’s counter-Taliban military offensive.

Travelling along the road leading to the Swat valley is a memorable experience. As the narrow dual carriageway snakes around impossibly steep mountain ranges, the breathtaking vista of snow-capped peaks come into view as they loom over an emerald green valley pierced by the Swat River. It looks too perfect to be natural.

‘The beauty of Swat is unmatched in the world,’ says Ashraf, a Swati villager and journalist who agreed to take me to the region. When I ask if anyone maintains the near perfectly manicured grasslands and pine forests he laughs and shakes his head. Described in local poetry as heaven on earth, for centuries Swat has been home to saints and soothsayers–first those hailing from Hindu and Buddhist traditions, and in more recent centuries mystical Sufi Islam.

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by Mustafa Qadri

29 October 2009

Karachi, Pakistan - Access to justice is a major concern in Pakistan. Pakistan was ranked 134 in the world, lower than Rwanda and Libya, in the 2008 annual Corruption Perception Index released by Transparency International. In fact, one reason some communities in the North West Frontier Province cautiously welcomed the Taliban was the promise of a more efficient, less corrupt justice system.

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As Pakistan’s new campaign in Waziristan gears up, Mustafa Qadri examines the cost of the war for the increasingly dislocated civilian population

There was a time not so long ago when the violence emanating from Pakistan had a mythical quality. In no region of this troubled country has the hyperbole of terrorism been so thoroughly lathered than South Waziristan, the tribal agency bordering Afghanistan where, since last weekend, Pakistan’s army has been waging a massive campaign against the Taliban’s most robust stronghold.

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The US has promised Pakistan $7.5bn of aid over five years – if it agrees to oversight of its most sensitive security issues

Mustafa Qadri
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 21 October 2009 20:00 BST

You would think that the citizens of a developing country promised $7.5bn over five years would be dancing in the streets. Instead, last week’s approval of the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act, formerly the Kerry-Lugar bill, by Congress met with widespread howls of condemnation in Pakistan.

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In the Pakistani army’s offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan, the line between victims and villains remains unclear

Mustafa Qadri
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 October 2009 16.30 BST

The Pakistan army’s invasion of the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan this week brings few surprises. For years observers in Washington and Brussels have been pressing for an assault on this scale. The army says its aims in Operation Rah-e-Nijat (”Road out of Misery”) are to finally eliminate the main sanctuary for the Taliban and al-Qaida in Pakistan and, according to army chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, the foreign and local “elements” that given them succour.

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The proposed truth and reconciliation commission is a fine idea. But a lack of historical distance will make it politically thorny

Grievance is at the heart of Pakistani politics. Almost all of the elites that dominate political life here have faced the deprivations – poverty, harassment, imprisonment or exile – experienced by the ordinary citizen at some point in their lives. When at the height of their strength, the powerful always invoke the myriad injustices that plague the common citizen to rally popular support.

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Few people take more risks than the locals who help foreign correspondents in conflict zones, writes Mustafa Qadri. So why don’t the Western media give credit to their fixers?

Investigative journalism can be a dangerous profession because, by its very nature, it seeks to uncover the lies and scandals that someone, somewhere, is trying to suppress. As work descriptions go, few civilians face as many life-threatening situations as those who aid foreign investigative reporters in conflict zones.

Generally known in the profession as “fixers” — but very often respected local journalists in their own right — these brave reporters are asked to arrange anything and everything required by a foreign media outlet: from interviews with hostile governments and militants in hiding, to transportation and accommodation. They risk their lives not only by working in dangerous situations but by virtue of fact that, being citizens of developing nations, the western media outlets that employ them generally place little value on their lives.

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It’s unlikely Richard Goldstone’s report into the Gaza bombings will result in ICC prosecutions but it may mark a turning point in the conflict, writes Mustafa Qadri

This week the United Nations released an explosive report on Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip in late December last year. It finds both Israel and armed Palestinian groups guilty of war crimes and, potentially, of crimes against humanity. Over 1400 mostly civilian Palestinians (including over 300 children) and 13 Israeli (including nine soldiers) were killed during Israel’s massive invasion of the Gaza Strip, the most densely populated region on the planet.

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The greatest militant threat facing India comes not from the Islamists who attacked Mumbai but Naxalite Maoist rebels

Mustafa Qadri
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 16 September 2009 09.00 BST

Last November’s fedayeen-style attacks on Mumbai may have reminded the world that India was not immune to terrorism. But few outside the subcontinent are aware that the greatest source of militancy in this diverse country comes not from Islamists but Maoists.

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Suicide attacks have become so common in Pakistan that they often don’t even make the Western press. Mustafa Qadri meets the father of a suicide bomber in the country’s North West Frontier Province

Darra Adam Khel, just south of Peshawar in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, has always been a dangerous transit zone between Afghanistan, Peshawar, and the southern most regions of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Until recently it was also part of the Taliban heartland.

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Last month’s attack on a Pakistani Christian community by a mob of Sunni Muslims is a worrying development in a country that purports to fight extremism, writes Mustafa Qadri

“Make mincemeat of the Christians” blared the mosque loudspeakers.

This was not the Taliban speaking, nor was it in the frontier of Pakistan along the Afghan border. The setting was the Christian Colony of Gojra in rural Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous and powerful province.

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The knives are out when dictators fall from power, but the politics of retribution is rarely clean or cathartic

Mustafa Qadri
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 30 August 2009 17,00 BST

The tables turn quickly in politics, but for dictators the shift from all-powerful to powerless can be rather sudden. Over a period of 12 months, the last Shah of Iran went from feared dictator to refugee who struggled to find asylum in three different continents (including the US, his one-time staunchest supporter).

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By Mustafa Qadri

Mustafa Qadri is our Middle East and South Asia correspondent and has been based in Pakistan for two years. In this slideshow, he talks about some of the people he has met in his travels
Over the past two years Mustafa Qadri has travelled widely throughout Pakistan. In this time he has met a [...]

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This month Pakistan celebrates Independence Day. In 1947 Pakistan became the first post-colonial nation in the world but the journey has not been easy. This week Pakistani police arrested 13 militants suspected of plotting to bomb targets in the Punjab. After 62 years as an independent nation, challenges ranging from extremism to energy shortages mean [...]

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If the West needed a credible election in Afghanistan to help prove that its war there is a good idea, it sure didn’t get it, writes Mustafa Qadri

In the wake of last week’s seriously flawed election in Afghanistan, NATO staff have expressed their “desperation” to pull out of the country.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an analyst with close contacts inside NATO headquarters in Brussels cited plunging domestic support within member countries for the war, as well as the worsening violence inside Afghanistan as factors contributing to their desire to end military involvement.

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Mustafa Qadri

Last Updated: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:24:00 +1000

People in a Pakistani frontier region threatened by the Taliban are trying to preserve a culture rich in poetry and dance from religious extremism.

The culture of the ethnic Pashtun peoples often delights in worldly pleasures - like sex and alcohol - considered un-Islamic by religious conservatives.

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Much of Afghanistan’s Pashtun-dominated south and east has been tense during for the recent presidential elections, but just over the border in Pakistan, outside Peshawar, the battle rages for cultural control of the community. The Taliban are trying to outlaw traditional poetry and dance, which they consider un-Islamic.

Presenter:Mustafa Qadri
Speaker: Fazal Maula, Peshawar-based non-government organisation

QADRI: Following my travels through northwestern Pakistan where millions fled the war against the Taliban, I met members of an anti-Taliban lashkar or army in the tribal district of Badaber. To describe Badaber as an outpost would be something of an understatement. Both the Taliban and government security forces have wrestled for control of this vitally strategic tribal region. Fazal Maula from a local non-government organisation explains.

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Communal stability is at risk as the rollout of Zia ul-Haq’s Islamisation continues unabated

Mustafa Qadri
guardian.co.uk, Monday 24 August 2009 10:00 BST

In decades past, the town mullahs decried the use of megaphones during the call to prayer. Now they have embraced the technology in Pakistan. In every city the loud blare of the muezzin echoes throughout the streets, although they rarely call out in unison. For centuries Muslims have bickered over prayer times, and much else.

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As Pakistan celebrates Independence Day, Mustafa Qadri looks at the country’s unstable beginnings, troubled history and the miracle of its continued existence

“The religious bigot considers me an infidel
And the infidel deems me to be a Muslim!”

With these immortal words, Pakistan’s national poet Mohammad Iqbal captured the eternal quandary that is Pakistan.

The nation created for the subcontinent’s Muslims has always struggle to define itself — is it meant to be an Islamic state or a state for Indian Muslims?

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In recent years. there have been increasing attempts to reform Pakistan’s much-maligned religious schools, known as madrassas. At a conference in Islamabad, WPR contributor Mustafa Qadri spoke to religious scholars and teachers about their attempts to broaden the pedagogical scope of Pakistan’s seminaries. The program, funded by the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy, [...]

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Pakistan has seen rapid change and frequent conflict in its 62 years. Its resilience is a testament to its people

· Mustafa Qadri

· guardian.co.uk, Friday 14 August 2009 19:00 BST

Karachi’s Saddar Town is the frenetic heart of Pakistan’s commercial capital. A retail hub where anything and everything from cameras to salwar kameez can be purchased, it was once the economic gateway into the northern reaches of British India. That legacy is still visible in Saddar’s fading colonial terraces, but the intricate wooden shutters are mostly gone and the Victorian entrances have been converted into street stalls. Today most are too busy trying to survive to notice the heritage.

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India was once a bulwark against cold war militarism – but now, under US influence, it is buying weapons at an alarming rate

Mustafa Qadri
guardian.co.uk Saturday 8 August 2009 15.00 BST

“We both seek a more secure world for our citizens,” wrote US secretary of state Hillary Clinton on the eve of her recent visit to India last month.

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The United States is playing a dangerous game of roulette with India and Pakistan, writes Mustafa Qadri

When it comes to US policy in South Asia, it’s a case of do as we say, not as we do. Consider, to begin with, the rhetoric.

The Obama White House has gone to great lengths to demand that Pakistan end its support for militants targeting India. It wants the Pakistan Army to end its “obsession” with India-inspired oblivion by moving its large reserves from the Indian border to engage the Taliban and al Qaeda on the eastern frontier. Most of Pakistan’s active armed forces are located on the tense border with India where they are more than matched by the much larger Indian military.

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Updated August 6, 2009 11:42:34

To many foreign observers, Pakistan is the global centre of extremist Islam, and its madrassas - or religious seminaries - are where the violence starts. However, this kind of scaremongering hides a more complex reality.

Presenter: Mustafa Qadri in Pakistan
Speaker: Professor Qibla Ayaz, Peshawar University; Abdul Ghani, organiser of education conference in Islamabad; Azi Hussain, International Centre for Religion and Diplomacy in Washington DC

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QADRI: There are believed to be 2 million madrassa students in several thousand seminaries throughout Pakistan. But exact figures are hard to verify because most operate independent of government supervision. Although madrassas have ominous connotations in the West…

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Many of the world’s most dangerous Islamic extremists have learnt their approach in Madrassas, or religious schools, that offer a restricted curriculum that fails to reflect the modern world. In Pakistan madrassas also have a reputation for breeding extremists: but a plan to reform them is in motion, writes Mustafa Qadri.

“One cannot deny the very real role played by madrassas in fomenting extremism in Pakistan. I have met several members of the Taliban and a Lashkar-e-Tayaba operative. All had either been recruited or taught at madrasssas.”

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Ordinary Pakistanis still suffer from energy shortages – and are unlikely to benefit from their country’s rich natural resources

· Mustafa Qadri
· guardian.co.uk, Sunday 2 August 2009 17:00 BST

Few things are as oppressive in Pakistan as the summer heat. In colonial times, the British would shift their garrison headquarters from Rawalpindi to the cool peaks of Murree, just north of present day Islamabad. Today, the elite are more likely to skip the country entirely or barricade themselves in the air-conditioned comfort of their cars and homes.

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Reviewed by Mustafa Qadri

Sunday, 21 Jun, 2009 | 10:04 AM PST |

‘Never again’ was the world’s reaction to the horrors of Hitler’s concentration camps. Sadly, those words continue to ring hollow over six decades later. In this timely book Gareth Evans, Australia’s foreign minister in the Hawke and Keating governments, charts international attempts to put an end to mass atrocities once and for all.

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Frequently demonised in the West as hotbeds of terrorism, Pakistan’s religious seminaries are actually a vital institution, not the evil dens they are made out to be, writes Mustafa Qadri

According to many security analysts and world leaders, Pakistan is the global centre of extremist Islam. Much of that reputation has been built upon the country’s madaris, or religious seminaries (also sometimes referred to as madrassas), which have been described as jihadi factories spreading terrorism internationally.

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The latest pieces in America’s Afghanistan jigsaw puzzle have started falling into place. Indeed, parts of the picture had already begun to emerge earlier this year, with US President Barack Obama making good on his election campaign promise to increase the US troop presence from 30,000 to 50,000. He then replaced the traditionalist Gen. David McKiernan with the counter-insurgency expert Gen. Stanley McChrystal as effective military commander of all Afghan national and foreign forces in Afghanistan.

In addition, there have been the controversial missile strikes against suspected Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders. Although the strikes have been mainly focused on Pakistan, they have targeted insurgents operating in Afghanistan - a clear signal the United States is happy to escalate the war in the territory of key ally Pakistan.

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Bring peace to the troubled frontier

Grassroots attempts to foster peace in Pakistan provide hope for communities torn apart by war with the Taliban

· Mustafa Qadri

· guardian.co.uk, Saturday 25 July 2009 16.00 BST

There has been much soul-searching in Pakistan of late, and with good reason. Although the Army claims to have largely pushed the Taliban out of the Swat Valley, the most developed part of the country yet infiltrated by the insurgents, the war continues in all of its brutality and uncertainty.

Even in Swat it is unclear whether the Taliban are really vanquished. The government may have told the millions made homeless by this conflict that it is safe to return, but the army’s inability to eliminate key Swat Taliban leaders and the existence of huge pockets of remote mountainous terrain incapable of ever being properly secured make the possibility of a Taliban return a real threat…

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With the death of another Australian soldier in Afghanistan this week, what are the prospects for peace in the region? Mustafa Qadri reviews political and strategic developments

As the Australian Defence Force mourns its 11th soldier to die in Afghanistan, Private Benjamin Ranaudo, and more than 400 additional troops prepare to travel to the region, many Australians are asking what the future of the conflict holds.

After much anticipation, the United States has finally started to reveal its political and military strategy in the country.

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A snapshot of life in Pakistan’s refugee camps

Updated July 16, 2009 11:48:55

Although the fighting in Pakistan’s Swat valley has ended and some refugees have started to head home, many remain wary of returning.

An estimated 2 million fled the conflict between Pakistani troops and the Taliban, and some ended up at a displaced person camp two hours north of the capital Islamabad.

Presenter: Mustafa Qadri
Speakers: Purmanari, displaced person; Mohammad Yahya, a former town mayor; Ziauddin Yousufzai, School teacher; Mannu, school student

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Public Unites Against Taliban in Pakistan

Mustafa Qadri | 16 Jul 2009

KARACHI, Pakistan — There has been a perceptible shift in the battle against militancy in Pakistan. The massive army operations that recently concluded in the Swat valley, the largest ever conducted by Pakistan against the Taliban, are but one facet of it. For the first time, the government is also winning the propaganda war.

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Fixing Pakistan’s madrasas

Pakistan’s madrasas have a bad reputation. But is it justified, and will a new programme of reform improve standards?

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Pakistan madrasas: ‘We focus on how to live together and respect diversity’

Mustafa Qadri reports on a programme to reform madrasa curriculums in Pakistan

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Displaced Pakistanis speak out

by Mustafa Qadri

16 July 2009

Karachi, Pakistan - Pakistan is in the middle of its largest operation against the Taliban in the troubled Swat Valley and adjacent areas.

Although a small first wave of refugees has begun to return as part of the government’s efforts, up to 2.5 million people are believed to have fled the once quiet, scenic mountain ranges. At a camp in Risalpur, 50 miles south of some of the fiercest battle zones, I spoke with some of the displaced.

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All Eyes On Iran

The fallout from its controversial presidential election has left Iran in a similar position to that faced by Iraq in the lead-up to the US-led invasion, writes Mustafa Qadri

At no point in recent memory has the Islamic Republic of Iran dominated headlines as it has these past four weeks. Virtually all Western governments and mainstream commentators have rushed to condemn the Iranian Government’s violent crackdown on opposition protesters.

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Interviews with Pakistan’s “disappeared persons” for Amnesty International’s Human Rights Defender Magazine - June/July/August edition 2009.

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Lost Victims Of War

Mustafa Qadri

As Pakistan announces it has cleared 90 per cent of the country’s north west of Taliban militants, Mustafa Qadri visits the refugee camps sheltering civilians who have been forced from their homes by conflict.

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Late last year I interviewed “Mullah Noor Allam”, a middle ranking Taliban commander from the Swat valley. The interview was published in Australia’s Canberra Times newspaper on 17 January 2009. You can view the story…

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The Karachi king

After a bloody conflict in Karachi, much-feared political boss Altaf Hussain fled to London, but he is no less powerful in Pakistan

o Mustafa Qadri
o guardian.co.uk, Monday 6 July 2009 18.00 BST
o Article history

With his healthy plume of gravity-defying hair and chunky tinted glasses, Altaf Hussain is as colourful in appearance as his reputation suggests. Perhaps no other Pakistani politician has as big a list of enemies as the one-time cabbie and university student who transformed himself into one of the most feared political bosses in the country. That he has directed his Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) party from the distant shores of the UK since 1994 speaks volumes for his enduring influence in the treacherous political life of Pakistan.

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Bigger Than Bin Laden

Beitullah Mehsud, the man analysts describe as more dangerous than Osama bin Laden, continues to evade death in Pakistan, writes Mustafa Qadri

Ever since he was labelled more dangerous than Osama bin laden, Beitullah Mehsud has been the single greatest target of US drone attacks. Remarkably, he has evaded death on every [...]

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Pakistan’s divided Taliban

Despite internal divisions and a bloody army crackdown, the Pakistani Taliban are a long way from being defeated

o Mustafa Qadri
o guardian.co.uk, Friday 26 June 2009 16.00 BST
o Article history

Baitullah Mehsud, the Taliban warlord from Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal agency, often described as Emir Baitullah, is widely seen as the movement’s leader in the country. For at least the past two years, Pakistani authorities have sought to attribute most of the terrorism that occurs in this troubled nation to him. According to the North West Frontier Province governor Owais Ahmed Ghani, Baitullah is “the root cause of all the evil”.

Perhaps that is why he was targeted in what was probably the latest and deadliest US drone attack in Pakistan. While the strike failed to kill Mehsud, it did leave the charred remains of anywhere between 40 and 100 people scattered amid the wreckage of a South Waziristan mosque. This has become a dirty war, and neither insurgents nor counterinsurgents have hesitated to attack places of worship.

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Homeless in the mountains of Pakistan

19 Jun 2009 12:39:00 GMT

Written by: Mustafa Qadri

Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author’s alone.

The Pakistan Army is in the middle of its largest ever operations against Taliban forces in the troubled region bordering Afghanistan. Up to 2.5 million are believed to have fled the once quiet, scenic mountain ranges. At a camp in Risalpur, 50 miles south of some of the fiercest battle zones in the Swat valley, I talked to schoolgirl Mannu.

Among the bare dwellings of Risalpur’s industrial area, buildings donated to the displaced by local businessmen that have been transformed into miniature cities, I met eleven-year-old Mannu, a fearless young student unfazed by the traumas that have, for the time being at least, destroyed her ancient village community.

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Mustafa Qadri: Stuck between India and the Taliban
The idea that Pakistan is inherently dangerous is a mantra used by those who ignore history and avoid the complicated reality
According to Kapil Komireddi in these very pages, the demise of Pakistan is “inevitable” because it has since foundation been a source of division and extremism. [...]

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Did Ahmadinejad Steal The Election?

Five days after the election, Iran is still in the grip of massive protests. Now the offer of a partial recount isn’t going to put the genie back in the bottle, writes Mustafa Qadri

Did Ahmadinejad steal the election? That is the question being asked by so many in Iran and around the world.

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Mumbai bombing suspect’s release raises many concerns

Mustafa Qadri 10-Jun-2009

Has South Asia really only brought us grief, Madhav? I don’t think that’s entirely fair, though I admit I’ve increasingly found myself asking that very same question while travelling through the southern mega city of Karachi last week.

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The Battle Has Only Just Begun

Thanks to massive army operations in the Swat valley, Pakistan’s Taliban movement is in retreat for the first time, writes Mustafa Qadri

Ever since Nek Mohammad began the first insurgency from Waziristan in 2003, the loose confederation of warlords known as the Pakistan Taliban Movement have either advanced or obtained de facto government recognition in large parts of Pakistan’s Pakhtun tribal areas. Before the current Pakistan Army operations in the Swat valley, one analyst estimated that the Taliban had a presence in over 10 per cent of the country.

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Don’t write the Taliban off just yet

Although the Taliban is on the back foot in Pakistan, the war is far from over and thousands of civilians have been left homeless

o Mustafa Qadri
o guardian.co.uk, Thursday 4 June 2009 09.30 BST

The Taliban have suffered their heaviest defeat in Pakistan since first erupting into open insurgency in 2003. Before May, the loose network of warlords that have invoked the Taliban franchise here have expanded into large swaths of Pakistan’s Pakhtun tribal areas. Prior to current events, some estimates placed the Taliban in 11% of Pakistan, almost all of that being in the North-West Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas that are presently the centre of military operations by Pakistan and the US.

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The Taliban Has No Plan B

By Mustafa Qadri

The Taliban is stepping up its violent attacks but ordinary Pakistanis have had enough and the organisation is losing popular support, reports Mustafa Qadri from near the Swat valley…

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Isolating the Taliban

Violence in Pakistan can only be tackled if the state listens to devastated communities and recognises the Taliban threat

Mustafa Qadri

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 May 2009 18.30 BST

It was really only a matter of time before we would see this. A day after a bomb ripped through central Lahore, three explosions rocked Peshawar – two at the famous storytellers’ market, and another near the city’s railway station, destroying significant amounts of property, lives and livelihoods. It is too early to know what motivated these latest attacks in Peshawar. Like so much of the North-West Frontier Province, however, Peshawar businesses, particularly book music shops and women’s clothing stores, have been heavily hit, often after being told to shut for being unIslamic.

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Time to end the insecurity and fear

Mustafa Qadri 28-May-2009

If you speak to most Pakistanis – even the rank and file of the army, as I sometimes do – the answer, Madhav, would be: yes, Pakistanis are ready for more open trade links with India. This shouldn’t be surprising. According to an International Republican Institute poll released a few weeks ago, the priority for most Pakistanis is the economy.

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The human cost of war on the Taliban

Pakistan’s operations against militants have won praise from Washington but displaced thousands of innocent people

o Mustafa Qadri
o guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 May 2009 14.03 BST

The latest chapter in Pakistan’s war with the Taliban has been a humanitarian disaster for ordinary villagers from Malakand Agency, the region in Pakistan’s lower Himalayas where the battle is now being fought.

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Thousands Displaced by War in Pakistan

By Mustafa Qadri and Tahir Ali
Displaced villager

“We are ready to leave [Katcha Ghauri] to make room for our brothers from Swat,” says Kushdhil, who was displaced from Bajaur Agency, to the west of the current fighting. Photo: Mustafa Qadri

Last week a number of quiet mountain villages became part of the deadly frontline in Pakistan’s battle with Islamic militancy, report Mustafa Qadri and Tahir Ali…

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My latest article for NewMatilda.com is on ethnic tensions in Pakistan’s great port city of Karachi:

Shadowy Forces In Karachi

The recent gun battles across Karachi demonstrate that there’s a lot more to Pakistan’s problems than dealing with the Taliban, writes Mustafa Qadri

There were a number of Kodak moments for the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan in Washington last week. But back in their respective countries, the world’s media were transfixed by images of civilians suffering from the unending war with the Taliban. In Afghanistan the images were of the horrific bombardment of civilians in the southern province of Farah. And next door in Pakistan, there is little doubt that army operations against the Taliban along the foothills of the Himalayas are having a devastating impact on tribal societies.

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Pakistan’s displaced voice fear and anger

13 May 2009 17:10:00 GMT

Written by: Mustafa Qadri

A veteran of the war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan rues the misfortune of being homeless in his own country.

Mustafa Qadri in Peshawar and Tahir Ali in Rangmala talk to civilians displaced by a Pakistani army offensive against Taliban militants in the Swat valley that has uprooted hundreds of thousands…

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Loewenstein delves into the ‘Blogging Revolution’

Reviewed by Mustafa Qadri

Hot on the heels of his last book, My Israel Question (a history of the Israeli occupation of Palestine from the perspective of an anti-Zionist Jewish Australian), freelance journalist Antony Loewenstein delves into the ‘Blogging Revolution’ with a book of the same title.

The greatest virtue of this book is that it is written not from the distant comforts of the West but on the ground in six fascinating and misunderstood countries. In Iran, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and China, the reader is taken on a journey through the lives of a variety of people, including but not limited to activists, seeking to engage their society in a social debate on a range of topics from sex to religion and popular culture.

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The following report for The Guardian, published today, looks at the recent meetings between the Presidents of the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan in Washington D.C. and the risks to civilians caught up in the war with the Taliban:

‘Collateral damage’ in AfPak hurts the US too

The bombardment of civilians in Afghanistan undermines the security credentials of western forces in the region

o Mustafa Qadri
o guardian.co.uk, Friday 8 May 2009 16.30 BST

The timing may have been a disaster for Washington, but for villagers in Afghanistan’s south it was far worse. A day after a US bombing killed up to 120 civilians in Afghanistan’s southern Farah province, President Obama asked the visiting presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari, to step up their attacks on Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

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My latest report for The Guardian is on the Pakistan army’s inability to defend Pakistan:

Pakistan’s army: as inept as it is corrupt

The answer to why Pakistan’s mighty army seems impotent against Taliban insurgents is that it is more mafia than military

Mustafa Qadri

No institution dominates Pakistan like its army. The armed forces account for 20% of Pakistan’s national budget, totalling $5bn last year according to official statistics. But the actual figure, already staggering for a country with high levels of illiteracy and malnutrition, is likely to be much higher. The army has been practically unaccountable since the very foundation of the country – last year’s figures were the first it has publicly released since 1965.

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My column for newmatilda.com this week is on the inherent failings of the Pakistan Army that make fighting the Taliban more difficult:

Is Pakistan’s Army a paper tiger?

They’ve huffed and they’ve puffed but they can’t blow the Taliban down. Why not, asks Mustafa Qadri

The Army is the most powerful force in Pakistan. So why how has a rural insurgency armed with basic weapons managed to overrun so much of the country? That is the question that Pakistanis, as well as many in the international community, are now asking.

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My analysis of the Obama Administration’s new AfPak policy for the Common Grounds News Service was published today:

Obama’s new “AfPak” strategy – the view from Pakistan
by Mustafa Qadri

30 April 2009

Karachi, Pakistan - People with a hammer only see nails. This well-worn maxim aptly describes the United States’ relationship with Afghanistan and Pakistan over the past several decades. As early as 1954, the United States identified the country as a bulwark against regional encroachment by the Soviet Union when Pakistan received its first substantial tranche of American military and economic aid.

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We’re now seeing a subtle, yet seismic, shift in the War on Terror narrative in Western capitals. The host of a recent CNN discussion on ‘Islamism’ tried to distinguish al-Qaeda from the Taliban, basically arguing that as rigidly conservative and chauvinist as the Taliban are, they are not, like al-Qaeda, interested in open conflict with non-Muslim societies and instead want to establish a ‘true Islamic state’.

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Not everybody is in a position to write a column, but may have a profound experience or perspective to share. In this feature we seek out such people and report back so the Unleashed audience can absorb and discuss unique, fascinating or moving stories.

In our latest instalment of “Unleashed Voices” Mustafa Qadri meets a boy from Pakistan who has trained to become a Taliban suicide bomber.

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My latest column for The Guardian, on support for the Taliban in some of Pakistan’s tribal areas, was published today:

Why they love the Taliban

Rampant corruption, and the Pakistani government’s failure to provide, is driving people into the arms of the militants

* Mustafa Qadri
* guardian.co.uk, Friday 24 April 2009 20.30 BST

It may be difficult to understand, but in many of the tribal areas where Pakistan’s ethnic Pakhtun population live, the Taliban are very popular.

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My latest piece for newmatilda.com is based on a recent visit to parts of the Kohat and Dera Adam Khel tribal areas in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province where the Taliban has a strong presence:

Is Al Qaeda About To Conquer Pakistan?

Counter-insurgency expert David Kilcullen believes that Pakistan could collapse “within months”. But Mustafa Qadri reports that in the tribal areas, it is actually the Taliban, not al Qaeda, that is gaining traction…

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My assessment of the Obama Administration’s newly announced AfPak policy was published in The Guardian today:

Obama’s charm offensive

Is Barack Obama’s change of strategy – switching focus from Iraq to Afghanistan – a real break with the past?

It was easy to be cynical listening to Barack Obama speak about the “new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan” last Friday. Apart from a vast improvement in elocution, at first glance it was difficult to distinguish his rhetoric from that of his predecessor, George Bush.

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The following article was published in NewMatilda.com today:

Getting to Know Your Insurgents

Much of Pakistan is still trying to understand the mentality of the Taliban fighters who are mounting a worsening campaign of killings across the country, writes Mustafa Qadri

There were plenty of glimpses into the mindset of the Pakistan’s Taliban insurgents last week. On Tuesday a gang of heavily armed men dressed in police uniforms stormed a police training school in Lahore killing at least 12 and injuring close to another 100.

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My latest column for The Guardian, on the Taliban and the psychology of fear, was published today:

Taliban preys on Pakistani fears

The Taliban’s extreme version of Islam is the logical conclusion of the region’s violent past and feeds on insecurity

Pakistanis have been offered a frightening glimpse into the true character of the Taliban over the past weeks. Last Monday, 30 March, a group of heavily armed men in police uniforms stormed a police academy killing 11 and injuring close to another 100. Those traumatised police cadets that survived painted a grisly picture of bloodstained walls and body parts. The leader of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the umbrella network of pro-Taliban groups in the country, Baitullah Masud claimed responsibility for the attack.

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My analysis of NATO’s supply conundrum in Afghanistan was published on the Foreign Policy in Focus website today:

NATO’s Frayed Supply Line

Mustafa Qadri | April 1, 2009

There was much fanfare as President Barack Obama announced the eagerly anticipated “AfPak” policy review, what the White House terms is “a new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.” Many have argued, however, that the new AfPak policy is very much a continuation of the old policy with a few tactical grafts from the occupation of Iraq.

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Here is my analysis of the Obama Administration’s new ‘AfPak’ policy for newmatilda.com:

Not All Terrorists Are The Same

Obama’s new strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan is much more nuanced than Bush’s “war on terror”, writes Mustafa Qadri. As a starting point, it recognises that al Qaeda and the Taliban are distinct groups

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My latest column for The Guardian is on the quandaries of supplying NATO forces in Afghanistan:

NATO’s soft underbelly

Nato operations in Afghanistan depend on a precarious international supply system – and the Taliban have realised it

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Here is my report on Australia’s military presence in Afghanistan and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s visit to the United States this week, published in NewMatilda.com today:

Don’t Mention The War

They managed to avoid the sticky subject of a troop increase. However, despite growing opposition back home, Rudd has backed the Obama Administration’s questionable strategy in Afghanistan.

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My latest report from Pakistan, a reflection on the nation on the 69th anniversary of the Lahore Resolution of 1940, was published in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s ‘Unleashed’ website today:

Ordinary People Power

Mustafa Qadri

Monday was Republic Day in Pakistan, the 69th anniversary of the moment when, under the Lahore Resolution, the idea of Pakistan was formally adopted by the subcontinent’s Muslim leadership. Seven years later, on August 14, 1947, the idea would turn into the reality of an independent state.

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My latest piece on the situation in Pakistan for The Guardian was published today:

Rough Justice in Swat

The growing influence of the Taliban in the North-West Frontier Province is a direct threat to Pakistan’s fragile democracy…

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My analysis of the grassroots democracy movement that led to the reinstatement of Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry as Chief Justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court was published in the Los Angeles Times today:

Pakistan’s clear message to the West

It’s not all fanaticism and violence. A grass-roots democratic movement is making strides.

By Mustafa Qadri

March 21, 2009

Writing From Islamabad, Pakistan — Politics is never dull in Pakistan. This week, it was inspirational too.

On Monday, I watched people flock to the home of Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. A tense standoff between the government and a coalition of opposition groups over Chaudhry’s reinstatement as chief justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court had finally been resolved. After two years of government-enforced “retirement,” Chaudhry would return to the bench…

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My analysis of the reinstatment of Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry as Pakistan’s Chief Justice was published in Crikey.com.au today:

Democracy revitalised by Pakistan’s Chief Justice

By demonstrating the importance of functioning and accountable institutions, Pakistan’s lawyers may well have paved the road upon which the long road from its present hell may be charted, writes Mustafa Qadri.

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Here is my report for NewMatilda.com from the lawn of the Chief Justice’s residence in Islamabad the day of his reinstatement.

Long March ends in triumph

Instead of violent confrontation there was jubilation in Islamabad yesterday as the Government bowed to protestors’ demands and reinstated the sacked Chief Justice. Mustafa Qadri reports

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My report for The Guardian from Islamabad the day of the Chief Justice’s reinstatement has just been published here:

Democracy has been revitalised by Pakistan’s Chief Justice

President Zardari’s decision to reinstate Chief Justice Chaudhry has stabilised the country – and saved his political career

Mustafa Qadri

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My report for NewMatilda.com from the start of the lawyers’ Long March in Karachi for NewMatilda.com was published today:

The Long March Begins

Protestors in Pakistan’s lawyers’ movement set out yesterday on their long march to the capital. Mustafa Qadri reports from Karachi on what has become a street-level vote of no-confidence in the Government

From across the country they took to the streets, re-enacting scenes from the darkest days of the Musharraf regime over a year earlier.

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Mustafa Qadri: History Repeats Itself In Pakistan

Guardian: Comment Is Free

By invoking a Raj-era law against public protest, the government demonstrates its inability to handle the country’s real problems…

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Mustafa Qadri: Long March To Nowhere

As bickering politicians bring paralysis to Pakistan, will Washington give the army its backing?

It seems with each new week a fresh crisis is thrust upon the people of Pakistan. This year, in a little over two months, the nation has faced more traumas than most countries face in a generation. Last month authorities in the north-western Swat valley reached a peace deal with a religious group closely aligned to the Taliban. This week another peace deal was signed directly with the Taliban in the neighbouring Bajaur tribal agency after a series of successful if devastating operations by the Pakistani army.

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Will Pakistan’s Army Chief step into the political fray the country’s civilian leadership is currently embroiled in? That’s the question I ask in my latest piece for newmatilda.com:

A New Dictator For Pakistan?

Speculation is mounting in Islamabad that a military coup is on the cards, writes Mustafa Qadri. And Pakistan’s most powerful ally doesn’t seem to mind…

Pakistan is facing its greatest political crisis since the resignation of Pervez Musharraf as president last year.

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The Diplomat’s Middle East and South Asia correspondent, Mustafa Qadri, reports on Hamas’ future…

The latest edition of the excellent The Diplomat magazine, Australia’s only dedicated foreign affairs magazine, has an article by me on the future of the Palestinian Hamas movement following the recent Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. The article is available here via subscription.

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In January I interviewed a member of Lashkar-e-Toiba, the pro-Pakistan militant group believed to have been involved in the Mumbai attacks, for The Diplomat magazine. The interview has just been published in the latest edition of the magazine and is available online here.

JIHAD: THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

02-Mar-2009

Mustafa Qadri investigates the organisations believed by many to have been behind the Mumbai terrorist attacks

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My first piece in a series on Iran was posted on NewMatilda.com today:

What did Iran ever to do to us?

In the first of a series of articles leading up to the Iranian presidential elections in June, Mustafa Qadri looks at how Iran became the pariah of the West…

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The following article appears on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Unleashed website today:

Taming the Taliban

Mustafa Qadri

This month the world reacted with surprise and trepidation at the news that Pakistan had reached a peace agreement with religious groups closely aligned to the Taliban. The accord relates to the mountainous Malakand division of the North Western Frontier Province that borders Afghanistan. It covers the beautiful Swat valley, the onetime alpine honeymoon resort, that, since 2007, has been gripped by a Taliban insurgency.

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My latest article, on the peace deal between a pro-Taliban group and the Pakistan Government in the mountainous tribal area of Malakand was published in NewMatilda.com today:
WHAT WILL THIS ‘PEACE’ COST?
By Mustafa Qadri
Pakistan has agreed to entrench Sharia law in its North-West Frontier Province in exchange for peace, but locals are still at risk and [...]

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Here, published in NewMatilda.com today, is an analysis of the recent Taliban suicide attack on Kabul and the build of US troops in the country.

“It’s Like Fighting Quick Sand”

As Obama commits another 17,000 US troops to the flagging US war effort in Afghanistan, a commando-style attack by the Taliban in Kabul serves as a reminder of the challenges that lie ahead, writes Mustafa Qadri

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The following piece, on the recent peace agreement between the Pakistan Government and Islamic leaders in the northern Malakand district, was posted on the Guardian Comment is Free website today:

Peace or appeasement in Pakistan?

The recent deal between religious leaders in tribal Pakistan and the government legitimates the Taliban insurgency…

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My latest piece, on the disruptions to NATO supplies through Pakistan, was published at NewMatilda.com today:

THE TALIBAN’S LUCRATIVE LINE IN LOGISTICS

The lifeline to the war in Afghanistan is under threat, writes Mustafa Qadri, as trucking companies are forced to bribe militants to get supplies in to the troubled region…

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My latest article, on US policy towards Afghanistan and Pakistan under President Obama, was published in NewMatilda.com today:

From War on Terror to Plain Old War

Early signs suggest an escalation of the Bush administration’s policies on Afghanistan and Pakistan under the new President, writes Mustafa Qadri

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I’ll be taking part in a discussion on ‘Just Wars in World Cultures’ at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London on Wednesday 4 February. The full details are…

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My latest piece on the tension between Islamabad and New Delhi following the Mumbai attacks was published on NewMatilda.com today:

My Nuclear Arsenal Is Bigger Than Yours

India is using the Mumbai attacks to flex its geopolitical muscle, writes Mustafa Qadri, as Pakistan risks further international isolation by denying its role in the violence…

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The following article, on the future of Hamas after the Israeli invasion of Gaza, was published in New Matilda today:

The end of Palestinian resistance?

With a ceasefire yet to materialise in Gaza, the future looks uncertain for Hamas, writes Mustafa Qadri

As Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip enters its third week, prospects for a ceasefire look as remote as ever. The UN Security Council passed a resolution calling on all parties to cease hostilities immediately and for Israel to end its blockade, but the resolution has had no immediate effect on the violence.

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The following article, on Israel’s continued invasion of the Gaza Strip, was published in NewMatilda.com today:

The World Gives Israel The Green Light

Israel has attacked Gaza with unprecedented barbarity — largely because it has a virtual blank cheque from its powerful allies, writes Mustafa Qadri

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The following article, on tensions between India and Pakistan following the November attacks on Mumbai, was published in the Guardian Comment is Free website today:

Are India and Pakistan heading for war?

Pressure is mounting on politicians in both countries to take drastic action in the wake of recent terrorist attacks

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The following piece, on Israel’s bombardment of Gaza that commenced on Saturday December 27, was published in Foreign Policy in Focus today:

GAZA ATTACKS: MURDER WITH IMPUNITY

Mustafa Qadri

It was about midnight last Sunday when my phone rang. “I’m not sure I will survive tonight, the Israelis are bombing us everywhere.” It was Mahmoud, a young resident of Rafah, a city in the Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt. We first met when I visited the troubled coastal territory after Israel dismantled its settlements there in September 2005. On December 27, just before midday, Israel’s powerful air force, the fourth largest in the world, commenced a deadly air assault on over 40 separate locations in the Gaza Strip. The strikes were as calculated as they were cold – the targets were almost entirely people and facilities vital to the Hamas government. In one of the areas hit, where police officers had gathered for a parade, body parts were strewn along a courtyard.

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Afghanistan and Pakistan Take Centre Stage
Called ‘the central front’ by Barack Obama, Pakistan and Afghanistan have endured another year of turmoil, writes Mustafa Qadri.
My latest piece for The Diplomat magazine is a review of the political and security situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan this year. It is available on subscription from their website here.

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The following review of “Responsibility to Protect” by Gareth Evans appears in today’s The Australian newspaper:

Broadening the debate on intervention

The Responsibility to Protect
By Gareth Evans
Brookings, 349pp, $39.95
“NEVER again” was the world’s reaction to the horrors of Hitler’s concentration camps: more than six decades later, those words ring hollow.

In this timely book, Gareth Evans, Australia’s foreign minister in the Hawke and Keating governments, charts international attempts to put an end to mass atrocities once and for all.

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The following article, on Israel’s influence in shaping state responses to non-state actor violence, appeared in the University of Western Australia’s New Critic magazine:

What can we learn from Israel?
Issue 9, December 2008 | Mustafa Qadri

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the birth of Israel and the dispossession of Palestine. Arguably the most ubiquitous political saga of the post Second World War world, nothing has been raised at the United Nations more frequently than the Palestine issue and Israel’s conduct in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).

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The following article, a year in review of the countries I’ve covered in 2008, was published in NewMatilda.com today:

Silver Linings in Short Supply

From the Holy Land to South Asia, violence remained a constant in 2008, reports Mustafa Qadri. Will elections in Palestine and Israel – and the inauguration of Obama – promote dialogue or further violence?

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The following piece, on simmering dispute over Indian-controlled Kashmir, was printed in NewMatilda.com today:

All Road Lead to Kashmir

The Indian Government has done well to paint itself as an innocent victim after the Mumbai attacks. But Lashkar-e-Toiba has its roots in the conflict over Kashmir, writes Mustafa Qadri

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Slides and Stories from Pakistan to Palestine
Special newmatilda.com event: Hear the stories behind the news about people and places often mentioned in the Western media but rarely understood
Mustafa Qadri is newmatilda.com’s Middle East and South Asia correspondent, based in the Pakistani port city of Karachi.
He returns briefly to Sydney with stories and images from [...]

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I was interviewed by Phillip Adams on ABC Radio National tonight on the recent Mumbai attacks, sentiments in Pakistan, and an interview I conducted with a Taliban commander from the Swat valley. You can listen to the interview here.

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The following piece, on last weeks attacks in Mumbai which killed over 160 people, was published in NewMatilda.com today:

Militants shatter ‘Brand India’

Mumbai’s attackers were targeting India’s image as an emerging global power as much as they were targeting foreigners, writes Mustafa Qadri

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The following piece, on Pakistan’s deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, was published on ABC Unleashed today:

Lone Chief still waiting for justice

It was cold and windy in New York two Mondays ago when Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court, accepted his honorary membership of the New York City Bar Association. It was certainly a departure from the hot, humid pro-democracy rallies where Chaudhry has been demanding an independent judiciary in Pakistan ever since being removed from the bench in November last year.

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The following article, on the recommencement of hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s blockade, was published in NewMatilda.com today:

Out Of The Spotlight, Gazans Continue to Suffer

Despite fewer deaths from hostilities since the June ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the situation on the ground in Gaza remains dire, writes Mustafa Qadri

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The following piece, on the earthquakes that hit Pakistan two weeks ago, was published in Reuters AlertNet today:

Earthquake adds to Pakistan’s humanitarian woes
14 Nov 2008 13:24:00 GMT
Written by: Mustafa Qadri

It was in the early hours of the morning on Monday 29 October when two earthquakes registering 5.2 and 6.4 on the Richter scale flattened villages in Pishin and the former resort area of Ziarat in Balochistan, a south-western province of Pakistan bordering Iran and Afghanistan.

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The following piece, on the Bush Administration’s policy of unilateral strikes on suspected militant hideouts, appears in today’s NewMatilda.com:
Not So Covert Operations
By Mustafa Qadri
In its last days in office, the Bush Administration is hurriedly escalating the so-called war on terrorism, writes Mustafa Qadri
The election last week of Barack Obama as President of the United States [...]

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“Terrorists for sale” The Diplomat magazine Nov/Dec 2008

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The following article, on a peaceful resolution of the war with the Taliban in Afghanistan, was published in today’s NewMatilda.com:

31 Oct 2008

Is It Time to Make Peace With The Taliban?
The once unthinkable is quietly becoming thinkable in Afghanistan, writes Mustafa Qadri

“You are with us, or you are with the terrorists,” declaimed President George Bush in his now infamous speech to Congress following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Now, the US is thinking of talking to the terrorists.

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The following article was published in the Guardian newspaper’s ‘Comment is Free’ website today:

Do the tribes really need more guns?

Arming tribal militias to fight the Taliban in Pakistan doesn’t solve the underlying problem

[Wednesday October 29 2008 21.00 GMT]

It’s back to the future with Pakistan’s latest response to the Taliban insurgency. With endorsement and limited training from the US, and Chinese-manufactured weapons, Pakistan will arm tribal militias, or lashkars, to fight the Taliban.

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The following article, based on my visit to parts of Pakistan’s tribal agencies, was posted on Reuters AlertNet today:

The Taliban’s war on women’s education

For well over a decade the Taliban have been known for their strong opposition to the participation of women in public life. Their rule over most of Afghanistan until 2001 was marked by a complete prohibition on women in the workforce or at educational facilities either as teachers or students….

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The following piece on Peshawar, Pakistan’s besieged border capital, was published in today’s NewMatilda.com:

Tension in the High Fort

By Mustafa Qadri

Close to Taliban-controlled regions and under pressure from the US, Peshawar’s residents daily negotiate the contradictions of Pakistani life, writes Mustafa Qadri from the North Western Frontier Province…

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The following interview of Philippe Sands QC regarding his book ‘Torture Team’ appeared in Dawn newspaper (Pakistan) on 12 October 2008.

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The following review of ‘Torture Team’ by Philippe Sands QC appeared in Dawn Newspaper (Pakistan) on 12 October 2008.

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“A strategy destined to fail?” Guardian: Comment is Free 9 October 2008

A major new intelligence estimate by US defence establishment casts doubt on military strategy in Afghanistan.

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“Pakistan, United States: Brink of War?” Foreign Policy in Focus 2 October 2008

“As the United States steps up border raids into Pakistan, troops from both countries have commenced a deadly game of brinksmanship. Although aimed at asserting each other’s military presence along the Pakistan-Afghan border, the skirmishes risk outright hostilities.”

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The following piece, based on my extensive investigations, interviews and visits to a number of tribal regions in the North Western Frontier Province of Pakistan was published on Reuters’ AlertNet website today:

Civilians suffer as Pakistan army targets Taliban

01 Oct 2008 15:55:00 GMT

Written by: Mustafa Qadri

Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the [...]

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“Rural Pakistan’s silent victims” NewMatilda.com 29 September 2008:

“It’s as though someone has poured boiling tea on me…over and over again,” recalls Nazeeran, a woman from the village of Tehsil in south Punjab now fighting for her life at a refuge run by the Acid Survivors Foundation. Earlier this year she was doused in concentrated acid that caused severe burns to her face, shoulders and forearms. The acid continued to burn through her body for 10 hours, the time it took to finally obtain medical care at a hospital.

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“Who would do such thing a thing?” ABC Unleashed 29 September 2008

On Saturday 20 September twin suicide attacks turned a luxury hotel in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad into a desolate, black hulk liable to collapse at any moment. A giant crater, measuring around 20 feet deep and 40 feet across, replaced what once was an entrance lined with cars and fences.

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“Beyond violence in Pakistan” NewMatilda.com 22 September 2008

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US military strikes blunt Pakistan honour

Mustafa Qadri September 17, 2008

Early on the morning of Wednesday, 3 September, just before people were waking for the first of their daily prayers, a squad of US and Afghan commandos attacked the small village of Angoor Adda in South Waziristan, Pakistan.

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Pakistan’s Anti-Muslim Taliban

Mustafa Qadri | September 15, 2008

Tehreek-e-Taliban, the umbrella organization for Pakistan’s multiple Taliban movements, seeks to spread its strict Deobandi interpretation of Islam to all of Pakistan. “They don’t just want to control FATA [the Federally Administered Tribal Areas where they are based], but want to control the entire country,” says Ayesha Jalal, one of the foremost historians of Pakistan who recently wrote a book on the history of jihad in South Asia. The Taliban claims it fights in the name of Islam.

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“Next despot?” NewMatilda.com 8 September 2008
(Musharraf may be gone, but the people of Pakistan don’t expect vast improvements under their new President. Asif Ali Zardari likes power and he isn’t afraid to use it writes Mustafa Qadri.)

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“The Taliban’s War Against Muslims” NewMatilda.com 1 September 2008
(The Taliban claims to be a Muslim movement but most of its victims are Muslims, writes Mustafa Qadri from Islamabad)

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The following article was published in Amnesty International Australia’s magazine on 14 August 2008:
Israel’s other refugees

Israel is not the first country associated with African refugees, but the small Middle Eastern nation is increasingly being targeted by people fleeing war and persecution in Africa.

It is a developed country, and refugees do not experience the same level [...]

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The following review of ‘Torture Team’ was published in The Australian newspaper on 23 August 2008:

Torture Team: Deception, Cruelty and the Compromise of Law
By Philippe Sands
Allen Lane, 272pp, $49.94

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“Sultans of Spin” The Diplomat magazine Sept/Oct 2008
(Article on Hamas media strategies based on interviews with Hamas officials and Israeli analysts)

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“The Olympics: the harmony of tyranny” ABC Unleashed 27 August 2008
(On the more negative effects of the Olympic Games)

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“Musharraf’s end: new beginning?” Foreign Policy in Focus, 22 August 2008
(On Pervez Musharraf’s resignation as President of Pakistan)

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“End of the Musharraf era in Pakistan” Guardian - Comment is Free, 19 August 2008
(On Pervez Musharraf’s resignation as President of Pakistan)

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“A bloodless end” NewMatilda.com 19 August 2008
(On Pervez Musharraf’s resignation as President of Pakistan)

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“Will Musharraf finally fall?” NewMatilda.com 11 August 2008
(On the increasing speculation on Pervez Musharraf’s future as Pakistan President)

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“A tale of two impeachments” Guardian - Comment is Free 8 August 2008
(A comparison of the impeachment proceedings against Pakistan’s President Musharraf and US President George Bush)

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“Going in circles” altmuslim.org 7 August 2008
(On Islam, blind faith and the importance of considering different perspectives)

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“A long wait for justice” NewMatilda.com 4 August 2008
(On the state of Pakistan’s lawyers’ movement)

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“One wall Obama won’t be breaching” NewMatilda.com 29 July 2008
(On Barack Obama’s speech in Berlin, Germany and his omission of Israel’s separation wall in the West Bank)

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The Occupation permeates every aspect of Palestinian life. Invariably, this makes the population acutely political in a way that is quite different from our blissfully apolitical Australian society.

Even in Ramallah, a liberal bastion for foreign aid workers and bureaucrats in the West Bank, you can see the ubiquitous sight of Israeli military outposts with their signature red and white communications towers. In Nablus, one of the centres of Palestinian militancy, several streets bear the imprint of Israeli tank treads. Not even the roads in Palestine have escaped the Occupation.

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“Will Israeli Settlers’ Violence Finally Be Prosecuted?” Alternet.org 16 July 2008
(On the general impunity given to Israeli settlers who commit violence in the West Bank)

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“Mindless violence or endless cycle?” OnlineOpinion.com.au 9 July 2008
(On the bulldozer attack on West Jerusalem by a Palestinian Israeli citizen)

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“Guilt by association” NewMatilda.com 7 July 2008
(On the punishment of NGOs coordinating their activities in the Gaza Strip with Hamas)

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“Israel’s new wave of refugees” NewMatilda.com 30 June 2008
(On the recent influx of African refugees to Israel)

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“A nationa imprisoned” Dawn Newspaper 20 June 2008
(On the 41st anniversary of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Includes interviews with fighters from Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine)

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THIS month marks the 41st year of Israel’s continued occupation of the Palestinian territories. For ordinary Palestinians the occupation has turned Gaza and the West Bank into a giant prison. “[This] occupation put[s] you in a cage, a cage on your life and on your mind so you never feel safe,” says Mahmoud, an activist with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

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“The house right across the street was hit. It’s not like World War II but it’s a long term, ongoing kind of action that is causing a lot of insecurity and tension and anxiety. So people are traumatised even though there’s no colossal damage … of course [there's] the bombs that Israel sends to Gaza. But that doesn’t change the fact that you can’t find one person in Sderot who’s not been traumatised in one way or another by this endless conflict.”

I recently visited Sderot, the Israeli town one kilometre from Gaza that is routinely targeted in rocket attacks. You can read the entire report here.

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The vilification of Islam, particularly in the West, has developed into something of a pseudo-intellectual industry.

My first piece for Online Opinion has just been posted here.

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Locked into the mantra of preserving its Jewish character, Israel refuses to comprehend the extent to which it has forsaken the memory of the oppressed for the fruits of the oppressor.

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel. Here is my take on what Israel represents in the 21st century.

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“She told me, ‘I don’t want anyone to know you’re Arab. I don’t want anyone to know I rented the flat out to Arabs.’ I told her, ‘I’m not going to hide my identity.’ She said, ‘No, no you don’t have to hide.’ I said, ‘Okay, I want to put my name on the door.’ She said, ‘No, no, not that.’”

NewMatilda.com has commissioned weekly pieces while I’m in Israel and Palestine over the next two months. Click this link to read my first entry.

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Lost in the contrived debate over whether Islam is compatible with democracy is a far more important set of questions: what does democracy mean to different societies - not just Westerners or Muslims, but to the Chinese, Tibetans and so on?

Does it matter that no Western government offered material support to the people of Pakistan as they sought to depose their dictator over the past several years?

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That is a question I ask in my most recent piece on Pakistan, published today in NewMatilda.com:

On the afternoon of Tuesday 25 March, Yousaf Raza Gilani was sworn in as Pakistan’s 26th Prime Minister.

The ceremony was noteworthy for a number of reasons. For one, Gilani took his oath from President Musharraf, the same man who had him jailed on corruption charges seven years earlier. Gilani spent the next five years in prison for his troubles. Now Gilani’s coalition government is very publicly seeking to remove Musharraf from office.

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My latest piece, on Musharraf’s clamp down on dissent in Pakistan, has been published in this week’s New Matilda:

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The relative lack of critical analysis of the United States’ military aid package to favoured Middle East nations reveals a great deal about contemporary measures of peace and security (Report, August 1). How, exactly, does a $20bn military aid package foment peace? The US offers yet another golden handshake to regimes, Jewish and Arab alike, [...]

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The respected international relations theorist and former United States Department of State employee Samuel Huntington explains the significance of the West as agent of civilisation:

“The West has, in short, become a mature society entering into what future generations, in the recurring pattern of civilizations, will look back to as a “golden age,” a period of peace resulting in… “the absence of any competing units within the area of the civilization itself, and from the remoteness or even absence of struggles with other societies outside.””

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My most recent piece is an interview with a friend from Gaza:

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In June of this year I had a letter published in The Guardian regarding the British sailors caught by Iran in disputed waters. A friend has just told me that the letter was also published in The Australian. The version in The Australian goes like this:

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Musharraf’s dismissal of the Pakistani Chief Justice reveals the true face of the War on Terror.

Friday, or ‘Jumma’ as it is known to Muslims, is the holiest day of the week. It is usually a day of rest and reflection. It was on a Friday, 9 March 2007, that President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan told the country’s senior most judge, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry of the Supreme Court, that he was being dismissed due to allegations of misconduct. Little detail of the alleged misconduct was made public by the Government. What information is known of the allegations came from an open letter to the Chief Justice from a noted pro-Government lawyer and television presenter, Naeem Bokhari.

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Imagine if a bunch of Iranian sailors were captured between the high seas and British territorial waters (A peculiar outrage, March 30). The media would say they had no right to be there in the first place. They would certainly be paraded on TV. The prime minister would condemn this act of aggression by Iran. And Iran would profess that it was unlawful for Britain to detain its sailors, who were merely undertaking a routine exercise on the high seas. This scenario appears absurd because one cannot think of a circumstance where the Iranian military would be roaming around waters in western Europe. And that absurdity is at the heart of the present situation.

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It seems that every so often a new terrorist mastermind emerges who is to be hunted down and brought to justice. Now it seems these masterminds also offer blanket, if remarkably convenient confessions. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is the latest individual to fit this description. Mohammed has allegedly confessed to being the mastermind behind the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States and to beheading American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.

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On 3 February 2007, the United States brought new draft charges against David Hicks for his alleged involvement in terrorist activities. The charges are still draft because they have still to be ‘approved’ by the authority overseeing the Military Commission established to prosecute him.

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