Wajahat Ali

The tempestuous relationship between the United States and Pakistan is akin to a sordid soap opera featuring a fickle, selfish lover and her unpredictable mistress prone to volatile tantrums.   The ensuing violence and instability paralyzing Central Asia is their inevitable progeny. Recently, a top US diplomat warned that Pakistan poses a bigger security threat … Continue reading “The Pakistani Monster”

On Inauguration day, Muslims and citizens worldwide optimistically and anxiously began purging the sordid memory of the disastrous and obtuse arrogance of the Bush administration. Even Obama, the "chosen one," cannot completely cleanse the collective stain of the "Bush Era" that squandered global good will with two failed wars, a belligerent rhetoric of "clash of … Continue reading “Obama and the Muslims: An Inauguration of a New Era?”

Waltz with Bashir, an autobiographical “animated documentary” from Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman, examines the repressed memory and guilt of an IDF soldier’s participation in the horrific 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre of Palestinian refugees, while simultaneously offering a sobering reminder of Israel’s current, brutal military offensive in Gaza. The audience accompanies Folman on this unique, … Continue reading “A Waltz With Injustice”

Moral relativism, political double talk, and a military juggernaut blind to its violence against an occupied people highlight the most recent, tragic conflagration in Israel and Palestine. In justifying Israel’s most brutal and bloody salvo against Gaza in decades – which has so far killed nearly 400 Palestinians and wounded more than 1800 – Israel’s … Continue reading “Unfair and Unbalanced: The US Response to the Gaza Crisis”