23% of the world's population is Muslim

According to a new report issued by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Muslims number 1.57 billion, which is 23% of the world population of 6.8 billion people.

According to the study, Indonesia has the largest Muslim population (203 million), followed by Pakistan with 174 million, India with 161 million, Bangladesh with 145 million and Egypt with 79 million.

Over 300 million people, representing a fifth of all Muslims, live in non-Muslim-majority countries (India being the prime example).

Russia has the largest Muslim population in Europe, with 16 million. In the Americas, the United States has the largest Muslim population, with 2.5 million (0.8% of the US population), followed by Argentina (0.8 million; 1.9% of the population) and Canada (0.7 million; 2% of the population).

The Pew study is based on approximately 1,500 sources.

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Gülen schools promote moderate Islam in Pakistan

The Fethullah Gülen movement, led by a Turkish neo-Sufi, has been gaining international prominence in recent years due to its promotion of interfaith dialogue and moderate, apolitical Islamic practice. Apart from dialogue meetings with representatives of other religions, such as priests and rabbis, one of the movement's main activities is a network of schools that now covers over 80 countries.

The Gülen movement now has seven schools in Pakistan, where they are becoming increasingly popular with parents because of the way they promote Islam without preaching intolerance. Only one official, government-approved course on Islam is taught at the Gülen schools in Pakistan. However, the teachers encourage the practice of Islam in the student dormitories, and themselves act as an example of peaceful, practising Muslims. This is an approach that large numbers of Pakistani parents have been receptive to, given their frustrations with collapsing government-run schools, private Western-style schools that do not adequately teach Islam, and Islamic seminaries that are often tied (at least on the level of perception) with intolerance or even violence (New York Times).

I wonder how the recently opened Gülen school in Montréal is doing.

Al-Qaeda commander reportedly killed

According to a pro-militant website, a top-level Al-Qaeda commander, Abu Laith al-Libi, was killed earlier this week in the North Waziristan Agency of Pakistan. According to a Pakistani newspaper, Libi died in a US air strike. The US suspected Libi of being behind several suicide bombings in Afghanistan (BBC).

Suicide bomber kills 50 worshippers in Pakistan

A suicide bomber detonated his weapon in the midst of worshippers celebrating Eid al-Adha at a mosque near Peshawar, Pakistan on 21 December, killing at least 50 people and injuring around 100. He was apparently to be targeting the Aftab Ali Sherpao, a former interior minister unpopular in some quarters in Pakistan due to the military campaign he waged against Islamist rebels (BBC).

If the perpetrators bomb fellow-Muslims on Eid, what remains to be said about the state of their morals?

Afghans oppose the Taliban, want NATO to stay for now

The results of a poll conducted in Afghanistan between October and November 2007 indicate that Afghans oppose the Taliban and support both President Hamid Karzai and his American backers, along with their NATO allies. The poll, commissioned by the BBC World Service, ABC News and the German network ARD, involved interviews with 1,377 Afghans from different parts of the country.

Some results (taken from this PDF):

54% of Afghans believe their country is headed in the right direction. The biggest factor in this view is "good security". For those who believe Afghanistan is headed in the wrong direction, the biggest reason is problems with the economy.

According to 30% of Afghans, the biggest problem currently facing Afghanistan is "security/warlords/attacks/violence". According to 26%, the Taliban is the biggest problem.

"Security from crime and violence" was the biggest priority for the largest number of Afghans (28%). "Getting U.S. troops out of Afghanistan" was the topmost priority for only 3% of Afghans.

15% of Afghans rate work done by the current Afghan government as excellent, and 44% rate it as good.

26% of Afghans rate work done by Karzai as excellent, and 37% rate it as good.

8% of Afghans rate the role of the US in Afghanistan as excellent, and 35% rate it as good. 21% rate it as poor.

84% of Afghans want the current government to continue ruling the country. 4% would rather have the Taliban rule.

52% of Afghans believe that the Taliban is the biggest danger to the country. 10% think the US is.

Asked their opinion about the 2001 US invasion which toppled the Taliban government, 35% of Afghans rated the intervention as very good, and 40% rated it as mostly good.

20% of Afghans strongly support the presence of US troops in Afghanistan today, while 51% support it somewhat.

25% of Afghans strongly support the presence of NATO and ISAF forces in Afghanistan today, while 42% support it somewhat.

1% of Afghans strongly support the presence of foreign "Jihadi fighters" in Afghanistan, while 13% support it somewhat.

1% of Afghans strongly support Taliban fighters, while 4% support them somewhat.

Asked whom they blame the most for the violence seen in Afghanistan today, 36% fo Afghans named the Taliban, 22% named al-Qaeda and "foreign jihadis". 16% named the US or George Bush, and 3% blamed NATO and ISAF member-states.

42% of Afghans think the Taliban have grown stronger over the past year.

60% of Afghans believe that the government should negotiate a peace settlement with the Taliban.

74% of Afghans think that attacks against US forces in Afghanistan are not justified.

77% of Afghans think that attacks against non-American NATO or ISAF forces are not justified.

91% of Afghans think that attacks against the Afghan police or army are not justified.

94% of Afghans think that attacks against officials of the Afghan government are not justified.

42% of Afghans believe that US forces should leave the country only after security is restored there.

43% believe that non-US NATO and ISAF forces should leave only after security is restored in Afghanistan.

Only 3% of Afghans think the Taliban have a "very strong presence" in their area, while 7% think they have a "fairly strong presence".

By contrast, 11% of Afghans think that US/NATO/ISAF forces have a "very strong presence" in their area, and 39% think they have a "fairly strong presence".

3% of Afghans think that "foreign jihadis" have a "very strong presence" in their area, and 11% think they have a "fairly strong presence".

35% of Afghans are very confident and 47% are fairly confident that the Afghan government can provide security in their area.

1% of Afghans are very confident and 7% are fairly confident that the Taliban can provide security in their area.

12% of Afghans are very confident and 40% are fairly confident that US/NATO/ISAF forces can provide security in their area.

2% of Afghans are very confident and 10% are fairly confident that "foreign jihadis" can provide security in their area.

69% of Afghans believe the Pakistani government allows the Taliban to operate from its territory.

62% of Afghans believe the cultivation of opium is "unacceptable in all cases".

84% of Afghans think their government should "kill off" the poppy crop.

69% of Afghans have a very unfavourable view of the Taliban, while 15% have a somewhat unfavourable view of them.

76% of Afghans have a very unfavourable view of Osama bin Laden, while 11% have a somewhat unfavourable view of them.

48% of Afghans have a somewhat favourable view of the US, while 17% have a very favourable view of it.

38% of Afghans have a somewhat favourable view of the UK, while 11% have a very favourable view of it.

49% of Afghans have a somewhat favourable view of Germany, while 22% have a very favourable view of it.

38% of Afghans have a somewhat favourable view of Iran, while 14% have a very favourable view of it.

63% of Afghans have a very unfavourable view of Pakistan and 16% have a somewhat unfavourable view of it.

Musharraf blames extremists for emergency

Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf has blamed "the activities of extremists" for the difficult state Pakistan has found itself in, which, in his view, necessitates the state of emergency currently in force there. He also accused "some members of the judiciary" of "working at cross purposes with the executive and legislature in the fight against terrorism and extremism" (BBC).

Now the problem with this way of describing things is that it completely takes the blame off the executive, headed by none other than Musharraf himself. His prevarication with dealing with the extremists is what got Pakistan into this mess in the first place, in my view (not to mention the creation of the Taliban by Pakistan in the first place).

It's not by concentrating more and more power in the hands of a dictator that one deals with a dangerous situation confronting a country. To succeed in the fight against Talibanisation, Pakistan needs consensus. Imposing virtual martial law is highly unlikely to produce one. I think it's time for Musharraf to admit his failure and hand the country back to the civilian politicians.

Two women beheaded in Pakistani tribal area

The bodies of two beheaded women have been discovered near the city of Bannu in Pakistan's North Waziristan Agency. A note found nearby accused the women of "acts of obscenity", a reference to prostitution. The district police suspect Islamist militants of having carried out the attack (BBC).

Once again, this sort of brazen act highlights the need for the Pakistani government to take charge in areas like North Waziristan. At present, the government seems incapable of protecting its own citizens; what is needed is not a bloodbath like at the Red Mosque, but a step-by-step strategy to integrate the so-called Federally Administered Tribal Areas into the rest of the country, in a way that preserves the quasi-autonomy of the region while making it hard for militants to operate there with impunity.

German police pursues ten terror suspects

After arresting three Muslim men accused of plotting terrorist attacks on several targets in Germany, the German authorities are looking for ten more people suspected of helping the three with their planning.

According to Monika Harms, a German federal prosecutor, the three men, who include two Germans and a Turk, had trained in Pakistan, and obtained 700 kg of explosives. They were allegedly planning to attack locations used by Americans, including the Frankfurt Airport (BBC).

As it is, many Germans don't have a very high opinion of Muslims. And now this. What were those three thinking (if indeed the accusations have some merit to them)? It is precisely this sort of thing that gives ammunition to those who would restrict the civil liberties of minorities, so these three people, as well as the other ten, if they are guilty, were endangering innocent people in more ways than one.

India blames Pakistani, Bangladeshi groups for bombing

The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, has blamed unnamed "terrorist organisations based in Bangladesh and Pakistan" for the recent bombings in Hyderabad, which killed 42 people.

Meanwhile, Indian President Pratibha Patil has indicated that the intention of the bombers had been to harm harmony between Hindus and Muslims in the city (BBC).

Is the Indian authorities' tendency to blame most terrorist attacks on Pakistani -- and recently Bangladeshi -- groups a symptom of the fact that they do not possess adequate knowledge of terrorist groups possibly operating within their own country? In other words, why did it have to be Pakistanis or Bangladeshis, and not Indians?

The very idea that terrorists from Pakistan and Bangladesh supposedly cooperated in this attack is kind of hard to take given the sheer distance between the two countries. On the other hand, operatives representing unsavoury groups in the two countries may have met up in India, in which case someone was possibly harbouring them, and that someone might be an Indian group. So any way you look at it, blaming Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups looks like a copout.

Pearl widow accuses Pakistani bank of role in murder

Mariane Pearl, the widow of Daniel Pearl, the American journalist who was murdered by extremists in Pakistan in 2002, is suing the Habib Bank in a Pakistani court for allegedly transferring money for the al-Rashid Trust which, according to her, is linked to her husband's killers.

According to Mrs Pearl, Daniel Pearl was killed in a house belonging to one of the trustees of the al-Rashid Trust (BBC).

If the bank was indeed involved in transferring money for the al-Rashid Trust, let's hope Mariane Pearl can get justice in a Pakistani court.

There is also the question, though, of whether the bank knew whom it was dealing with. To what extent is it possible for a bank to check on the activities of the trustees or board members of every organisation it has dealings with?

About 50 killed in Islamabad mosque raid

Abdul Rashid Ghazi, a cleric at Islamabad's Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), has been killed by Pakistani army troops in a crossfire with militants holed up in the mosque, according to Javed Iqbal Cheema, a Pakistan Interior Ministry spokesman. About 50 militant supporters of the mosque were killed in the fighting, and the head imam, Maulana Abdul Aziz, was arrested as he tried to flee the mosque disguised as a woman on 4 July.

About 50 women and children were removed from the mosque by the soldiers.

An additional 70 militants either surrendered to Pakistani forces, or were captured by them.

The standoff between the Pakistani government and the mosque, which had lasted for several months, escalated when supporters of the mosque kidnapped seven Chinese people who, according to Lal Masjid clerics, had been running a brothel (BBC).

This seemingly brings to a sad end the story of the Lal Masjid's defiance of the authorities in Islamabad, which Notes on Religion reported on several times previously. I argued before that Musharraf ought to do something about the mosque, but it is troubling that it came to a bloodbath of this sort.

UK anapologetic over Rushdie knighthood

In the face of criticism by Iran and Pakistan, and concerns expressed by Iraq, Britain has defended its decision to bestow a knighthood upon Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, among other novels.

As British Home Secretary, John Reed, put it, "We have a right to express opinions and a tolerance of other people's point of view, and we don't apologise for that."

He also defended Britain's record in protecting the feelings of minorities, saying "We have to be sensitive, but I think that we take the approach that in the long-run the protection of the right to express opinions in literature, argument and politics is of over-riding value to our society" (BBC).

I agree that free expression is extremely valuable, and is one of the things that makes countries that guarantee it pleasant to live in. However, there is, of course, the question of balance: at what point does one person's freedom of expression cause unnecessary pain to another? All in all, I think Britain has got the balance right, unlike some other Western European countries.

NWFP Christians ask govt for help

Christians in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) have asked the government for protection after receiving an unsigned letter threatening unspecified consequnces if the Christians do not convert to Islam. The letter was delivered to the house of Michael John, a Christian MP, in Charsadda. About 500 Christian families live in the town.

Pakistani authorities have deployed policemen to protect the NWFP's Christians, but representatives of the minority say that the patrols are few and far between (BBC).

Evidently, those who sent the letter, if it is genuine, have forgotten God's words, as revealed in the Qur'an: "Let there be no compulsion in religion" (2:256). The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) also reportedly said, "Whoever hurts a dhimmi [a non-Muslim living under the protection of a Muslim state], I am his adversary, and I shall be an adversary to him on the Day of Resurrection" (Al-Khatib).

Militants destroy CD and movie shops in Pakistan

Over a dozen CD and film shops have been destroyed in explosions in Tangi and Charsadda, in the North West Frotier Province (NWFP). It seems that the bombing campaign was carried out by militants convinced that the shops contravened Islamic principles (BBC).

I wish the militants engaged in this sort of thing would understand what effect their blind hatred has on perceptions of Islam around the world. As Pervez Musharraf's failed military campaign in the NWFP shows, the solution to the problem may well lie in the region itself. The common people of the NWFP ought to turn these gangs out of every hiding place of theirs.

Terrorists attack Banlgadeshi railway stations

A new terrorist organisation that calls itself "Jadid al-Qaeda" has set off simultaenous bombs at railway stations at the Bangladeshi cities of Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet. The bombs were placed in cotton bags at the stations. They resulted in a single casualty: a rickshaw driver was wounded in Chittagong when he opened the bag containing one of the bombs.

Jadid al-Qaeda had left metallic plaques inside the bags claiming responsibility for the attacks. The plaques also contained threats against the minority Ahmadiyya Muslim sect, and warnings to Bangladeshis to stop working for NGOs, which, in some cases, receive foreign funding (BBC).

You'd think that this cowardly group, in its search for a scary-sounding Arabic name for itself, would at least double-check its grammar. "Jadid al-Qaeda" makes no grammatical sense in Arabic.

All that these bombs have succeeded in doing was to injure the poor, innocent rickshaw driver. How is he related to NGOs?

The lunatic bombers, who aim to kill innocent people in the name of Islam, should understand that Bangladesh is not the right country for them. Their type lost all legitimacy by siding with Pakistan in 1971. The newfound extremists are merely setting themselves up for destruction.

American students meet Muslims worldwide

Four students at Washington, D.C.'s American University, among them three non-Muslims and one Muslim, have accompanied Prof. Akbar Ahmed on an "anthropological excursion" around nine countries with large Muslim populations, from Egypt to Indonesia.

Ahmed (a former Pakistani diplomat) and the students met Muslim students, preachers and political activists, some of them with anti-Western views. They were surprised to find even the Muslims opposed to Western policies to be warm and welcoming on a personal level, and open to discussion and debate. For their part, many of the Muslims they met were astounded at the visitors' descriptions of the freedom of worship Muslims enjoy in the United States (Christian Science Monitor).

Of course, this tour was not entirely unique: a substantial number of American students go on study abroad programmes in Muslim countries; other young Americans work as interns with local NGOs with these countries, or serve with organisations such as the Peace Corps. However, this "excursion" was rather unique in its scope: nine countries visited, a large number of Muslims encountered, a large number of meaningful conversations and exchanges entered into.

I hope more such exchanges take place, in both directions. Muslim students would also have a great deal to learn from touring Western countries and having discussions of this sort with Western students, as well as political and civil society leaders.

Pakistani madrasa girls' parents concerned

The parents of several girls studying at Jamia Hafsa, the madrasa that has recently been at the centre of religious vigilante activity in Islamabad, are concerned both about their daughters in particular, and the madrasa's activities in general.

As Abdul Wahhab, the father of a Jamia Hafsa student, put it, "I believe that our religion teaches us to stop a vice when we come across it but at the same time, I don't agree with what the madrassa administration is doing. I believe these things should be handled in a peaceful manner. Our religion lays emphasis on peace" (BBC).

It appears that the girls themselves are being used as pawns in a game being led by the radical Lal Masjid (Red Mosque). It is high time for the Pakistani government to intervene peacefully and make sure the girls can continue their education in a place that would not encourage them to pursue street militancy.

Vigilantes assert themselves in Islamabad

According to Pakistan's leading English-language daily newspaper, the country is undergoing "creeping Talibanisation", a phenomenon that is no longer confined to outlying, semi-autonomous regions like Waziristan, but has reached Islamabad.

A group of female religious school students has taken over a children's library located near their school, the Hafsa Madrasa, and the government has failed to respond. Emboldened, the has annexed the library. Further, vigilante groups linked to a pro-militant mosque called Lal Masjid (which has connections to the Hafsa Madrasa) have started threatening shopkeepers selling audio-visual material. The vigilantes are apparently patrolling the area around the mosque, batons in hand, while the authorities are reluctant to restore the government's writ over the federal capital, fearing that a confrontation may get out of hand (Dawn).

After the coup d'état which brought him to power, President Pervez Musharraf, desperate to give his regime a degree of legitimacy, decided to stifle the popular opposition (Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto's parties), and to artificially strengthen the Islamist parties. Before him, the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, helped create the Taliban. Before that, President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, another military strongman, cloaked himself in religious populism. Pakistan is still reaping the harvest, not to mention Afghanistan.

Yet that's not the whole story. Not all religious parties are alike. Under Begum Khaleda Zia, Bangladeshi religious parties were sometimes in government as coalition members, yet, as far as I know, no vigilante groups wandered around Dhaka telling video stores to shut down.

Perhaps the explanation lies in the fact that, while the Bangladeshi Islamist parties, such as Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, were members of a democratically elected coalition government, working in partnership with one of the most popular parties in the country, the Pakistani Islamist parties are pawns in Musharraf's hands. As such, there is little to keep them away from fanaticism. That, in turn, may legitimise fanaticism among unaffiliated groups such as the Lal Masjid gangs.