MY Malaysian publishers, Fajr Symphony, hand over 1,000 ringet (R2,000) for the Al-Imdaad Foundation in Kuala Lumpur recently. From left: Dr Yunus Yasin, Mohamad Sidek Ahmad and myself. During my tour promoting the South East Asian production of “Notebooks from Makkah and Madinah” I gave a slide-show, including my latest[…]

WHEN on travel one can encounter interesting noticeboards.
This one was at the Islamabad Club. No jeans either.

AFTER thousands of kilometres and thirteen flights, it’s good to be back home. But not so good to hear Malema reducing political debate to its lowest common denominator. Zille might be many things , but a cockroach? For the ANC’s yapping little poodle this is a new low. Almost thought[…]

FLYING near Peshawar towards Islamabad 35,000 feet above the ground, the morning sun begins to rise over the dusty, wrinkled terrain below me. Striking foothills lead to jagged mountains. Somewhere in the haze to my west are the Khyber Pass, and the road to Afghanistan. It’s then that I see[…]

      Photos copyright Shafiq Morton. Reproduction with permission only.

SAY Pakistan and the eyebrows raise. Match fixing. Corruption. Taliban. Extremism. US interference. The list is a long one. But this week I go there to cover a humanitarian mission – the giving of aid to the 20 million people along the Indus River lowlands who’ve been rendered homeless by[…]

THE other day I was challenged as to why I hadn’t fervently chased after the story of the International Burn a Qur’an Day.  This event had been promoted by an obscure Floridian pastor, Terry Jones, a man renowned in the local Gainesville community for his gay-bashing and Islamophobia. This churchman,[…]

Media bills threatening to restrict press freedom will only stifle the grassroots where media diversity, much needed in South Africa, will have to take root. I THINK it was Aristotle who said that republics become democracies, and that democracies can become dictatorships. As a South African I’d hate to be[…]

I’VE just finished reading a book by the BBC journalist, Jeremy Bowen. Entitled “War Stories”, it deals with his career in hotspots such as Sarajevo, Salvador, Grozny, Lebanon and Iraq. Bowen has enjoyed an exciting career, and his book details his experiences as one of the BBC’s front-men. Like his[…]