Owen Bennett-Jones

Owen Bennett-Jones

  • Briefs

    FJMU approves vacancies  By Our Correspondent LAHORE A meeting of Fatima Jinnah Medical University syndicate held under the chairmanship of...

  • The editor’s job

    When Pakistani media outlets report on sectarian violence should they name the groups responsible for mounting a particular attack? Or should they...

  • On blaming the West

     Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Ayman al-Zawahiri must wake up each morning looking forward to switching on the news. Virtually every day brings stories...

  • Islamic State in 2016

    In his 24-minute end of year audio message Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi told his followers that the caliphate was doing well and that the Russian and US...

  • Denials

    Louis Heren, a former deputy editor of the Times of London, wrote in his memoirs that he found it useful, when considering comments made by...

  • Cases of law – and politics

    The investigation into the murder of Imran Farooq and the money-laundering investigation into the MQM have both taken a long time. For five years...

  • Rule by fear

    Few doubt that there’s more to come. The attacks on Paris will be followed by others in different European cities. The Islamic State has made no...

  • An interesting mailbag

    My last column for The News triggered a set of unusually thought-provoking responses which merit further discussion. The article argued that in the...

  • Patriotism and the Pakistani

    When Akbar S Ahmed’s film ‘Jinnah’ was released back in 1998 the country’s cinemas soon filled up with Pakistanis curious about their answer...

  • Atonement

    When British Prime Minister David Cameron went to Jamaica earlier this month he ran into a diplomatic and political problem. His host, Portia...

  • Nawaz’s failed benchmarks

    Shortly after Nawaz Sharif’s election victory in 2013 some western and Pakistani journalists and policy analysts were sharing a meal in Islamabad...

  • What October brings

    The crunch moment in the MQM cases is fast approaching. Now that the British police have questioned the main suspects in the Imran Farooq case,...

  • Parenting terror

    With Britain exporting young jihadis to front lines all over the world, TV viewers in the UK have become used to seeing the parents of these young...

  • Rich, privileged and in power

    With so many violent conflicts around the world, it sometimes seems that the differences between people are becoming ever wider and starker....

  • The way we view the world

    Perceptions of international politics are hardwired. And by and large they are predictable. Much as we all like to think that we reach our own...

  • Documents and priorities

    The battle of the documents is over - but still little understood. Two key documents relating to the MQM were leaked in the last couple of weeks....

  • Religion and the state

    What role should Islam play in the state? There are various models on offer. At the far end of the spectrum is the view of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi....

  • UK asylum policy change

    Two previously unreported asylum appeal cases in the UK shed new light on changing British attitudes. In both cases Pakistani asylum seekers, one a...

  • The Bin Laden questions

    Four years after Bin Laden’s death even his bookshelf has the power to fascinate. And as the interest in Seymour Hersh’s latest London Review of...

  • Vulnerable to fraud

    So, the British general election is over. David Cameron won a surprise overall majority, the pro-independence Scottish National Party took 56 of 59...