As Tunisians are we in a position to be able to enjoy freedom? Are we in a position to introduce democratic conditions? Can we really respect others? Or are we having a revolution only in order to return to the old times? The Islamists want to force us to dress according to their rules; otherwise they threaten to kill us. We're not even allowed to discuss religion or morality openly anymore!....

Mohammad said: "I have left behind no Fitnah more harmful to men than women." This is a recurring theme in all major religions. There is a Jewish prayer that says: "Blessed are you, Lord, our God, ruler the universe who has not created me a woman." In the Bible, there is one verse that says: "Her filthiness is in her skirts" (Lam.1:8-9). There are of course many examples of religion's misogynist perception of women…..

Is there a solution? Yes, we need to redefine Pakistan. The Two-Nation Theory brought the country into existence, but it cannot hold the country together, not any more. What we need now is a constitution that gives exactly the same rights and opportunities to all of its citizens independent of their ethnicity or religious affiliation, and a mechanism that can enforce the laws that matter most, those of life and personal security to its citizens. …

Eltahawy takes pride that though she became an activist, a frequent TV talking head opining about the Arab Spring, she has remained a writer. Indeed, she was recently signed by the distinguished publishing house Farrar, Straus & Giroux to write a book about her experiences and the plight of women in the Mideast, including her opposition to female genital mutilation. (Her working title is Headscarves and Hymens.)…

For some time now, the proponents of international Wahhabism have been working on a plan to establish a Wahhabi zone of influence that extends right across the entire Sahel region, from Niger, northern Nigeria and Mali through to Senegal. This represents a huge threat to our brand of Islam, which has always lived in harmony with local cultures....

The onus is on us. You can't fight fascism batting on the back foot. You've got to hit it out of the park. I put harsher responsibility on Indian Muslims because they are free, living in a democratic society. If they want to know what it's like to live under Islamic rule, they can see what`s happening in Pakistan....

The book was my own effort to equip myself to talk about and engage with the nation’s fastest growing religion, to offer a snapshot of one of its most influential institutions, and to tell the stories of the students and scholars who have taken up the challenge of this experiment in American education....

Some scriptures are in conflict with each other, or are in conflict within themselves in that you may have one part of the scripture promoting peace and the other part of the scripture being extremely violent, and this has been noticed in the studies of the scriptures of the world’s religions…..

The ordinary soldiers were executing orders. They were very cruel, but they were being used as well. They were told that we were terrorists who had been trained not to feel pain. If I was to meet them today, I would tell them that what they did was wrong, but I would forgive them. But the politicians, the generals in charge – I will never forgive those people. I believe they need to stand trial....

Mohammad says he also supports Saudis going to fight in Syria. Dozens of Facebook pages memorialize Saudis killed in Syria. Late last year, a judge in one Saudi city told young anti-government protesters that they should be fighting jihad in Syria, not demonstrating at home. Reached by phone, Abdurrahman al-Talq, father of one of the defendants, recalls what the judge said….

As I said before, Sufism is everybody’s cup of tea. I am one of those who got into it because I was concerned about where I was coming from — unless you belong somewhere you don’t get that feeling of rootedness. Then your sensibilities get a different type of shape. Slowly, I found Sufism seeping into everything that I did, through music, through poetry… I found Sufism through my rootedness —...

People in Shahbag are indeed asserting the importance of secular politics. This is evident in their slogans and in the absence of informal obeisance to this religion or the other, which take place in many other 'secular' scenarios. Apart from brief Namaz [prayer] breaks, I noticed nothing that had any particular stamp. What was interesting that most of the assemblies were not talking of 'true Islam' or 'true Hinduism'....

We are waiting for them to bring about change - women are ready but men have fallen into the trap of religious fundamentalism. It suits them in certain ways to keep women suppressed, i guess. Activists are trying to help. There are some organisations that provide help and assistance such as the Pannah group, War against Rape and Rozan. ....

A Wahhabi cleric in Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Mohamed al-Arifi, issued a fatwa that permits fighters to marry few hours with girls as young as 14. What we know is that there are girls being attracted to go to Syria for jihad, and therefore we must stand up against this problem. When news first emerged about young people going to Syria for jihad, many slandered the media and the figures who called for attention to this point, and accused them of lying....

The president was heckled and his address to Parliament on Monday was repeatedly disrupted. We passed a Bill to abolish his party as it doesn't have the required number of members - 10,000 - to exist as a legitimate political party. This angered him. The majority of parliamentarians do not recognise him. Nasheed's arrest has been carried out in retaliation to our party's relentless campaign…