Afrah Jamal

First Published in Daily Times / Saturday, August 11, 2012 Republished in AhmadiyyaTimes There was some chatter about a certain coffeehouse this Ramzan on both twitter and facebook. The random post that triggered the wrath had alleged that a posse of females were refused a place to pray en-masse inside the premises. Many agree that little cafes that serve coffee in cramped quarters are not obligated to patronise requests that will inconvenience other customers. Others gleefully scream ‘blue murder’ scrambling to retrieve the Islamic Republic part of Pakistan to bolster their case. Since religion is a contact sport, the new arena was readied for some fireworks. The social media resounded with ‘Down with aforementioned coffee house’ for a few days, offset by a ‘Chalo chalo coffee ke liye chalo’ (Let’s go for Coffee). Was the café in any real danger? Yes. No. It is hard to say. A few hundred irate consumers threatening to stage a sit-in appear harmless. But they cannot guarantee th...

Published in Muslim World Today Nov 09 Not too long ago a bomb went off in Peshawar. The next day fool proof security sprung into action in Lahore. It was around the time Hillary Clinton’s entourage was spotted in town; life had come to a crippling halt and death stalked the student community. Pakistan remains vulnerable but for a brief while the city of Lahore was reminiscent of the green zone, the kind in Baghdad, supposedly an oasis of calm in the midst of chaos, enabling our guests to visit historic monuments and lecture at universities. Pakistanis know better than to take days with zero body count as an indication of success or the exceptional security arrangements in place for visitors as the norm. They also consider guided tours to be peace time luxuries. Ms. Clinton’s rare experience (flawless security) has not been replicated since. Deadly bombings followed by some excellent rhetoric about manning up, on the other hand have continued. Terrorism has a very steep learning ...