Hello and Salaam Alaikum,

I am an Indian born in Pakistan; a Punjabi born in Islam; an immigrant in Canada with a Muslim consciousness, grounded in a Marxist youth.

I am in pain, a living witness to how dreams of hope and enlightenment can be turned into a nightmare of despair and failure. Promises made to the children of my generation that were never meant to be kept. Today, the result is a Muslim society lost in the sands of Sinai with no Moses to lead us out, held hostage by hateful pretenders of piety.

Our problems are further compounded by a collective denial of the fact that the pain we suffer is caused mostly by self-inflicted wounds, and is not entirely the result of some Zionist conspiracy hatched with the West. I write as a Muslim whose ancestors were Hindu. My religion, Islam, is rooted in Judaism, while my Punjabi culture is tied to that of the Sikhs. Yet I am told by Islamists that without shedding this multifaceted heritage, if not outrightly rejecting it, I cannot be considered a true Muslim.

I am a liberal Muslim who was born in Pakistan in 1949. My parents moved to that young country from Bombay, India very soon after the sub-continent was partitioned by the departing British as parting gift.

Since the 1960s as I have worked against the forces of Islamofascism, best reflected in the agenda and ideologies of  the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab World, the Jamaat-e-Islami in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent and the ruling Ayatollahs in Iran.

My activism twice landed me in jail as a political prisoner, first in 1968 by the military government of Field Marshal Ayub Khan and then again in 1970 by the dictatorship of General Yahya Khan.

After graduating from the University of Karachi in 1970, I have been a journalist, starting as a  reporter in the Karachi SUN and today am a columnist in the Toronto SUN. I also host the “The Tarek Fatah Show” on Toronto’s CFRB NewsTalk1010 and blog at the Huffington Post. In between I worked as a producer for Pakistan Television (PTV)  in Lahore, Pakistan and an advertising copywriter at Mecca Advertising in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

My case against Islamism has been made in the book Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State (Wiley 2008) where I suggest that instead of pursuing the goal of an illusive ‘Islamic State’, Muslims should try to attain a ‘State of Islam.’ The book was short-listed for the prestigious Donner Prize.

My second book, The Jew Is Not My Enemy: Unveiling the Myths that Fuel Muslim Anti-Semitism was published by McClelland & Stewart in October 2010 and went on to win the Helen & Stan Vine Book Award.

Karachi, the city where I was born and lived for 29 years, is also the place where I met my wife Nargis Tapal in 1970. We are happily married for nearly 35 years and have two daughters, Natasha and Nazia.

Now about the black and white picture at the top of this page. Yes, you guessed it right. That is me in the middle, flanked by my two older sisters, Fauzia (on left who lives in Amsterdam) and Farida (on right and lives in Karachi). Behind us are Mum and Dad, who have both passed away. I have a younger brother Mahmood who is not in this picture as he was not born yet.

The black & white snap was taken in 1952 on the beach of Manora Island, a naval base just off the coast of Karachi and site of the RIN (Royal Indian Mutiny) rebellion in 1946.

The other picture was taken at an event celebrating our family’s ten years in Canada in 1997. I am flanked by my daughters Natasha (right) and Nazia (second from left) with my friend and life partner Nargis Tapal (on far left).

Natasha Fatah is a producer at CBC Radio’s flagship cross-country program As It Happens, and writes a regular column Minority Report for CBC.ca

If you care to befriend me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter, simply click the appropriate icons on the right and join me in my journey. And if you still care to read more about me, you may want to visit this Wikipedia page.

Cheers and Khuda Hafiz

Tarek Fatah