Commentators are discussing a "next phase" or re-ignition of the war on terror in the wake of the Boston bombings. They are also raising questions about what the Chechen identity of the two alleged bombers means. Many are attempting to understand their ethnic identity as a signal that this was...

Richard Clarke described Pakistan as a nation of "pathological liars" on the Bill Maher Show last year. He also called Pakistanis "paranoid." In the public mind there is little apart from suicide bombings, terrorism, violence and corruption associated with Pakistan. Commentators freely call Pakistan a "nursery for terrorism." Every news...

It was love at first sight
--and it was true
with the breathless passion
that the years could not dim
and like a faithful lover
I have returned again and again

Half a century ago
Cambridge had that effect on me
as...

The attack came at night. Fifty young Kurds returning from Iraq were within sight of the Turkish border when rockets began to explode around them. It was late December and freezing cold. "Five or six took refuge behind the rocks. They all died..." said Servet Encu, one of the 15...

A young, rail-thin, and gaunt Somali woman, cradling her starving child in her arms, looks straight into the camera. Her eyes are dead; she has seen too much suffering. "Where are the Muslim countries?" she asks. "We are dying."

The image is haunting, and her words keep coming back, though...

The month of Ramadan, in which millions of Muslims are fasting throughout the world, reminds us of our need to reach out to the divine with compassion and love in our hearts. We want to love God and be loved by Him. But by creating a relationship in love, we...

I grew up in a household that echoed to the poetry of Rumi, Ghalib and Iqbal. My mother loved Persian and Urdu poetry. Even as a young boy, when I could not fully understand what these poets were saying, I felt their impact in my heart because of my mother's...

Amid a surging fear of Muslims -- Islamophobia -- in our nation, it is time for all of us to improve our understanding of Islam and our relationships with Muslims -- if not because it is right to do this morally, then because it is in our best interests nationally.

The following is a personal appeal by Ambassador Akbar Ahmed to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Grand Ayatollah Ali Hoseyni Khāmene'i, to show Islamic compassion during Ramadan, the month of fasting, and free the three young American hikers who have been held in Iran for over a year. The appeal...

If you were a Swati and lived in that idyllic land and were suddenly forced to leave your home to seek shelter outside the district, and then saw the destruction of your beloved home first by the violence of the Taliban and then the violence of the Pakistan army in...

Muslims are for Americans what the Russians were for Churchill: "A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." While the post-9/11 period brought an interest in the Qur'an and its language, the gap between Islam and mainstream America has steadily widened. It remains more urgent than ever for the...

General Stanley McChrystal has all but admitted defeat in Afghanistan. Unless he gets an additional 40,000 troops, the game is up. Unusually for a commanding officer in the middle of a war, the US commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan has gone public with his thoughts. Equally unusual, he is...

While grappling with ideas for a book on American identity (Journey into America, Brookings Press, forthcoming) I've been trying to figure out what actually defines an American and would be grateful for any assistance by readers of this column.

The primary definition involves the legal citizenship of the...

Oscar Wilde, Bernard Shaw, P.G. Wodehouse, Fredrick Barth, Ibn Khaldun, and Rumi. These were some of my constant companions through the ups and downs of my life in the civil service of Pakistan. From lonely postings in Waziristan to challenging ones in Baluchistan, I enjoyed the wisdom and humanity of...

Seated a few yards in front of President Obama as his invited guest at the White House on Friday, March 27, I heard him describe the areas I had been in charge of--including Waziristan--as "the most dangerous place in the world."

Obama was laying out what I suspect will...