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The Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline is a proposed natural gas pipeline being developed by the Asian Development Bank. If the project is successful, the pipeline will transport Caspian Sea natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan into Pakistan and then to India. The 1,040 mile pipeline will run from Turkmenistan’s Dauletabad gas field to Afghanistan. From there it [...]

As sections of the media and governments worldwide congratulate themselves for telling Israel off for shooting civilians on the Mavi Maramara earlier this week, I am struck by the absolute lack of outrage at that hideous by-product of America’s robotic assassinations: the incidental deaths of women and children. In the course of the war on [...]

I opened The Independent this morning to find a photograph of someone I once knew staring back at me. An entire decade has passed since we last set eyes on one another, but this article by Johann Hari brought memories flooding back. Not because his article resonated with me, mind you, but because his narrative [...]

Why all the killing? I really cannot comprehend it at all. A bomb planted in a Peshawar marketplace extinguishes the lives of 91 in an instant as it rips through everything in its path; 200 more are left injured. Just a matter of hours earlier 150 are slaughtered in Baghdad. Islam holds that indiscriminate violence [...]

Do you know, I’m getting rather tired of the near constant chatter that husbands and wives are enemies? The mockery of marriage amongst work colleagues, perhaps, is only to be expected, where phrases like “getting tied down” abound; the night before one’s wedding described as “the last night of freedom”. To encounter the enmity of [...]

Up to 300 civilians have been killed and more than 1,100 injured in heavy fighting between government troops and fighters from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in northern Sri Lanka. Jacques de Maio, the head of Red Cross operations for South Asia, said: “People are being caught in the crossfire, hospitals and ambulances have been [...]

Who said Muslims were pacifists? I have never heard a Muslim say such a thing. In fact, the only religious community I have encountered personally who take an anti-war stance are the Quakers. My father is now an Anglican priest, but his passionate faith did not prevent us from spending our childhood climbing all over tanks, artillery and fighter planes at military museums and air shows.

I have before me a copy of The Telegraph—it isn’t mine; my grandmother left it with us after her visit today—and there is a photograph and a headline on the front that occupy me. I keep on returning to the dining table to sit hunched over it, studying the photograph and the words that accompany it.

Two articles to remind us who the victims really are: ordinary folk like you and I, just trying to live ordinary lives. Just people. People, like you and I.

Behold, your Lord said to the angels: “I will create a vicegerent on earth.” They said: “Will You place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood? Whilst we celebrate Your praise and glorify Your Holy Name?” He said: “I know what you know not.”

This weekend I intended to tidy my study, which is indisputably the messiest room in our house. Unfortunately, as often happens, I soon found myself side-tracked from the task and absorbed in reading a document that had no obvious place amongst my piles of bills and letters. It turns out it may not have been the most appropriate reading material for a Sunday afternoon, because now imagined images keep flashing before my eyes, causing me to weep.

If you go to the website of particularly attractive Linux distribution today, you will discover a curious message at the foot of every page: ‘Would you kill for your God? God does not exist! [ Face it! ] [ One more! ]‘ ‘Face it!’ provides a link to a documentary by Richard Dawkins entitled, ‘Root of all Evil’ which has been uploaded to YouTube. ‘Once more!’ provides a link to a presentation labelled, ’10 questions that every intelligent Christian must answer’.