Prof Muqtedar Khan: Pakistan needs to rethink its approach towards India

Prof. Muqtedar Khan was born in 1966 in Hyderabad Deccan, India. He is a professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware. He is the founding director of the Islamic Studies Program there. He was a senior non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution from 2003 to 2008. He was a senior fellow of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding from 2011-2014 and is a senior fellow of the Center for Global Policy since 2014. " He earned his Ph.D. in international relations, political philosophy and Islamic political thought from Georgetown University in May 2000. He advocates independent thinking, and says that it is the inability of Muslims to sustain a dialogue with time and text which sometimes makes Islamic teachings appear anachronistic or intolerant. He has testified at hearings hosted by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the US House Armed Forces Committee. A fellow of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, he has been the president, vice-president and general secretary of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists. In October 2008, Khan received the Sir Syed Ahmed Khan Award for service to Islam from Aligarh Muslim University. He has a YouTube channel (   / profmuqtedar  , which hosts some of his lectures, sermons and video commentary on Islam and global affairs. He is critical of radicalism and conservatism in Islamic thought and of Western foreign policies, racism and Islamophobia in the U.S. and the West. According to Khan, "America is without doubt one of the greatest countries in the world. Because it assumes we are moral beings and capable of doing good -- we are free. And because America assumes we are mature and capable of self-governance -- we have democracy." "When I look at Islamic sources, I find in them unprecedented examples of religious tolerance and inclusiveness. They make me want to become a better person. I think the capacity to seek good and do good inheres in all of us. When we subdue this predisposition towards the good, we deny our fundamental humanity". In a Washington Post article, Islam Says Otherwise, he told Bin Laden to "go to hell": "Before we rush to condemn America we must remember that even today millions of poor and miserable people all across the world are lining up outside US embassies eager to come to America, not just to live here but to become an American. No Muslim country today, can claim that people of other nations and other faiths see it as a promise of hope, equality, dignity and prosperity." He has written, “I remember telling my wife; maybe I will be our Henry Kissinger, the first Muslim to become the Secretary of State. Then came Bin Laden and his bloody men and along with the World Trade Center, American Muslim dreams and aspirations came crashing down.” **************************************************** Shakil Chaudhary is an alumnus of Government College, Lahore. Subsequently, he studied international relations at Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad and media at the London School of Economics. He has worked for several English-language newspapers. He has written a critically acclaimed bilingual book, Handbook of Functional English (Ferozsons), to help those who wish to improve their English skills. Prof. Tariq Rahman, one of the finest linguistic scholars in South Asia, has praised it in these words: "This book is an excellent guide for the South Asian user of the English language. It gives examples of both the British and American varieties of English and provides guidelines to avoid the common errors of most Pakistanis when they write and speak English. It is also a comprehensive guide for pronunciation, vocabulary, editing and all other aspects of English usage. It has been written with great care and attention. I recommend it to students, editors, writers and other users of English in Pakistan." Shakil has conducted many workshops on communication, writing and critical thinking skills. He is a former president of the Progressive Writers Association, Islamabad (2021-2022). If you want to see his most popular videos, here are the links to them.    • Why didn't Jinnah implement Islam in Pakis...      • Prof. Hoodbhoy: Pakistan is not a normal c...      • Shahid Siddiqui: The partition ruined Indi...      • Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed: Muslims Started the C...   You are welcome to follow him on Facebook and Twitter.   / shakil.chaudary     / shakchaudhary