Freedom from Islam is entrenched inside Quranic teaching: “So let him who please believe, and let him who please disbelieve.”  It is hypocritical to force anyone to be a Muslim while his/her heart is somewhere else. Individuals are responsible for their choices, and for any consequences or future regrets. Patriarchy strips people from their individual responsibility; it is about time to treat Egyptians as mature adults....

The conflicts in the Arab world have taken a sectarian form. This is alarming and adds to the already existing divisions created by years of political strife. What is more alarming is that this phenomenon is spreading, fuelled by an irresponsible media and extremist clerics despite several initiatives to stop its spread....

“Today I find myself in a very vulnerable position as a mother of a 13-year-old girl and a widow expatriate without a sponsor. I am not sure how the laws will apply in this particular case but what if I fail to find a sponsor before the grace period runs out; someone kind enough to understand my dire straits and do the honourable thing of granting myself and my daughter unconditional sponsorship without unreasonable demands?...

Naya Pakistan is the new buzzword in the country. It is the campaign slogan of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, and it speaks to those who are seeking not only a new leadership but also new Pakistan. There is an expectation that with this election must come a Pakistani renewal that would be more in keeping with the original promise of Partition, instead of the present corruption, poor governance and the absence of any sense of security.....

The people of this city have been the victim of sectarian politics for 30 years. This is why Sunnis and Alawites have lived in a state of isolation and silent tension. And this is why each party resorted to its sect with extreme fanaticism. Thus it has become easy for the regime to ignite strife to manage the battle and “purge” cities and towns of the people who have lived there since their grandfathers have.....

“Let’s face it, there is an issue with Bahaais because if you don’t have a foreign passport, then you cannot have an ID because you cannot have Muslim, Christian or Copt written on the your ID, and in Egypt there is no such thing as an ID without a reference to religion, and Bahaai is not an accepted religion in Egypt,” Sayed-Shirazi said. “One can understand where people come from if they have issues renting to people who are not issued IDs by the government. You can’t really blame them. It’s a complicated matter,”....

Hate-related human rights violations are not new to our land. Hate-based organisations are allowed to form and function. Their funding is never questioned and functioning never put under surveillance. These organisations are branded with appealing names and use the emotive power of religion to fan hatred against vulnerable groups....

SECTS and sectarianism have been an enigma for almost all world religions, and the cause of much strife. Almost all religions comprise sects and sub-sects, which appear to be a historical phenomenon, quite common across history. More often than not, sects and sectarianism have posed a great challenge to world faiths, leading often to intellectual debates but also to physical entanglement....

As Shia community members continue to be slaughtered in cold blood, the callousness and indifference of authorities offers a damning indictment of the state, its military and security agencies. Pakistan’s tolerance for religious extremists is not just destroying lives and alienating entire communities, it is destroying Pakistani society across the board....

"The main thing is the mindset of the establishment ... to crush the Baloch people, to dominate them, to subjugate them," Bugti says. "They are more interested in the Baloch land and the Baloch, in whatever little way, is resisting that. You [can] call it an insurgency, call it a freedom fight, call it getting rid of slavery, which is everybody's right."...

A public meeting organised by a man who had just returned from Europe declared all Ahmadis living in the village liable to be killed. They were told to abandon their faith or leave the village. Mob rule followed. Ahmadis were persecuted in various ways. Some labourers were driven out of the village. After repeated complaints a police post was ordered to be set up in the village but political influentials got this decision rescinded....

Many among the refugees use angry language, attacking what they see as a Hindu country for denying them citizenship. “I am a Hindu”, says 35-year-old Vasant Das. This is Hindustan. How can I be living here illegally? The government of the biggest democracy in the world cannot take care of 480 people? And anyways, we never asked for partition. Muslims demanded it. So, ideally, Indian Muslims should shift to Pakistan”.....

The elections in Balochistan are bogus when even Mengal claims that the death squads’ open support by the establishment reigns supreme, and that is not the only impediment. Recently, at the Supreme Court hearing of the Balochistan target killing cases, Balochistan government’s counsel Shahid Hamid informed the court that around 18,000 claims were submitted by Dera Bugti’s displaced people for compensation, and that Rs136 million were issued by the government for the purpose.....

His knowledge of civilian life may also be limited because the gap between civil and military understanding of each other is fairly huge and real. We certainly need a meaningful civil-military dialogue and that certainly cannot happen with “iron curtains” — gagging conversation and spreading propaganda to malign people. Such an environment compromises rather than ensures security.....

The intolerance for other religions has steeped so deeply in our society that Christian house cleaners and helpers have to convert to Islam merely for economic purposes. For most Muslims, they are considered ‘untouchables’ and would not get a job in a society, thumping with Muslim population. The irony is that when these Christians convert to Islam, they are rated as ‘second class or ‘half-Muslims’ and are called ‘Muslas’...