On Aug. 14, 165 million Pakistanis celebrated their country’s 60th anniversary as an independent nation state. The festivities were tempered, however, by the widespread realization that the country is experiencing its most serious political crisis since Gen. Pervez Musharraf seized power in 1999. The decision by Musharraf to dismiss Chief Supreme Court justice Iftikhar Chaudhry on March 9 precipitated the situation. The president claimed he acted after learning of unspecified misconduct performed by Chaudhry. Most observers, however, view Musharraf’s move as an attempt to eliminate a potential impediment to his securing another five-year term as president. Musharraf assumed the presidency [...]
SHYMKENT, Kazakhstan — While seven political parties are campaigning to win seats in Kazakhstan’s lower house of parliament, common Kazakhs remain largely indifferent to the election, believing the results aren’t likely to bring change from a government whose commitment to democracy is lately in doubt. Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev dissolved the parliament’s lower house, the Mazhilis, June 20 and called for new elections. Ninety-eight deputies of the Mazhilis will be elected Aug. 18 in accordance with a system of party-list proportional representation that allocates seats among parties winning at least 7 percent of the vote. (The remaining nine seats of [...]
The plans of an Islamic association to build an imposing “Central Mosque” in Cologne are the subject of ongoing controversy in Germany. The mosque design features a giant 35 meter high dome flanked by two 55 meter high minarets. Much of the initial public opposition to the mosque project was organized by “Pro Cologne”: a political movement that local authorities have classified as “right-wing extremist” — a common euphemism in Germany for neo-Nazi groups. Last May, however, the controversy over the Cologne mosque project took on a new dimension when the renowned German journalist and historian of the Third Reich, [...]
