Maulana Syed Mohammad Ashraf Kachochavi is the General Secretary of the All-India Ulama & Mashaikh Board (AIUMB), a Sufi sect that came from nowhere to take Moradabad — and the Muslim world — by storm last week. Soft-spoken and gentle, with long robes and a flowing beard, he fits the part of the Sufi cleric to perfection. Yet on stage at the Sufi Maha Panchyat, he roared like a lion, hurling...

-The Hindu   It speaks to the deeply divisive times we live in that Team Anna activist and Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan was savagely assaulted in his own chamber — and in the full glare of television cameras — for the “crime” of saying something that his attackers disapproved of. In the past, intolerant groups who seem to have no problem breaking the law with impunity, have targeted writers, artists, journalists,...

-The United Nations   The United Nations educational agency has embarked on a new partnership to train thousands of school principals, beginning in Kenya, Ghana and India, that has the potential to benefit up to 10 million children in the future. The initiative by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Varkey GEMS Foundation, a not-for-profit education organization, is known as the “10,000 Principals Leadership Programme.” “This partnership is an excellent...

-The Hindu   The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Saturday said the problem of communalism would remain until political parties “eschewed all forms” of communal politics and backed communal violence legislation. Suggesting the need for a law to combat communal violence, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat told the National Integration Council (NIC) that the legislation should ensure swift punishment to perpetrators. He wanted the law to provide for compensation and rehabilitation of victims...

A high-level meeting on racism, scheduled to take place later this month under the auspices of the General Assembly, is threatening to split the world body and trigger a North-South confrontation. Expressing unfounded fears the meeting might turn out to be anti- Israel, several Western states, including Canada, Germany, the United States, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Austria, have indicated they will not participate in the meeting. The boycott...