Taj Hashmi

STRANGER THAN FICTION

Professor of Security Studies at Austin Peay State University. His recent publications include Global Jihad and America: The Hundred-Year War Beyond Iraq and Afghanistan.

Removal of Nawaz Sharif and the future of Pakistan

We know, since the assassination of the first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan in 1951, no Pakistani Prime Minister has been able to complete his or her full term in office. However, someone's stating this becomes clichéd or worn-out unless one discerns the different circumstances leading to each removal and dismissal.

7y ago

Two disasters, two countries, two peoples

Surprisingly, “baby boomers” (born between 1946 and 1960)—the generation that took part in the Liberation War—and “millennials” (born between mid-1980s and early 2000s) of Bangladesh (both supposed to be articulated, brave, and liberal), to put it mildly, also seem to be apathetic and opportunistic, even during times of national emergencies.

7y ago

Trump's Riyadh rendezvous

Although there's no reason to take Donald Trump's erratic behaviour, and his ambivalent and unsavoury assertions seriously, we can't ignore what he staged in Riyadh in the name of defeating Islamist terrorism on May 21.

7y ago

What's so “interesting” in Bangladesh today?

Interest-ingly, “interesting” is an English expression, which may hide one's actual opinion about something one considers “interesting”.

7y ago

A gambit and a war crime

There are contrad-ictory opinions about who on April 4 used chemical weapons, which killed more than 80 civilians, including children in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun in Syria.

7y ago

ISIS threats in Bangladesh - Denials and Delusions

It has happened again! In the wake of the latest round of terror attacks in Bangladesh, with ISIS claiming credit for it, authorities in the...

7y ago

Another regression therapy for Bangladesh?

A recent move by the Government to allow child marriage under special circumstances is tantamount to excluding many Bangladeshis from the benefits of growth and development.

7y ago

Corruption in Bangladesh: Perceptions vs. reality

The country has already become a lower middle-income country. So far so good! However, these indexes don't always tell us the whole truth about the states of governance, corruption, poverty, inequality, and most importantly, frequent violations of human rights across the country.

7y ago
February 18, 2016
February 18, 2016

The witch-hunt against Mahfuz Anam

Ever since this ridiculous debate cropped up – soon after Mahfuz Anam's TV interview with Munni Saha on February 3 – on The Daily

February 7, 2016
February 7, 2016

It's not a debatable proposition

IT'S unbelievable but true. Some people still believe Bangladesh needs “development” first, before its transition to democracy!

January 20, 2016
January 20, 2016

From Cairo to Cologne, and Damascus to Dhaka

Men not only molest uncovered/Westernised women at home, but also molest hijab- and even burqa-clad women in various Arab countries.

January 4, 2016
January 4, 2016

Politics, terrorism, and the state of denial

While Islamist terrorists have re-emerged recently, killing bloggers, writers, foreign nationals and Shias, and attacking an Ahmadiyya mosque, with impunity, one wonders how leaders, intellectuals, and ordinary people in Bangladesh can afford to waste time and energy in partisan politics!

December 20, 2015
December 20, 2015

Should Bangladesh provide mercenaries to the Saudi coalition?

What the Saudi Defence Minister Mohammad bin Salman al-Saud declared on last Tuesday (December 15) about the formation of a

November 16, 2015
November 16, 2015

Sad but not surprising at all

THE terrorist attack in Paris on November 13 has rocked the whole world. Some people have already started calling the attack the “French 9/11”.

November 14, 2015
November 14, 2015

TRIBUTE - MINTU BHAI

Time flies. This November 10th was the tenth death anniversary of Enayetullah Khan ("Mintu Bhai" to his younger friends and admirers)...

October 31, 2015
October 31, 2015

Tony Blair's “apology” makes no sense

What is evidently cynical and self-gratifying in the so-called apology are in defence of the West's periodic invasions of countries in the Third World since the end of World War II. Blair's blaming the so-called “faulty intelligence” for the 2003 Iraq invasion is not only a flimsy fig leaf, ominously, it is also an attempt to defend the ongoing Western involvement in Syria in the name of saving innocent lives from Assad's military.

October 24, 2015
October 24, 2015

THE REAL BOGEYMAN

Locating an easy scapegoat, the “businessman-politician” is no option at all. The problem of bad governance has nothing to do with some businessmen's entering the arena of politics – as MPs or ministers – but in the state of impunity and unaccountability the dysfunctional state ensures to the ruling party cronies and close associates / relatives of the ruling elite.

October 7, 2015
October 7, 2015

Creating disorder in Bangladesh

While attempts are being made to create disorder and insecurity in Bangladesh by killing foreign nationals – politicians are busy playing a no-holds-barred blame game against each other.