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November 26, 2005

Pakistan: Maulana of Haqqania Abandons Islamic Alliance

Of all the madrassas in Pakistan, none is as notorious as the Haqqania. Located in Pakistan's rugged Northwest Frontier Province, near the border with Afghanistan, it is the alma mater of Mullah Omar and other Taliban alumni. According to Chicago Tribune in a 2004 report,

boys can be seen locked in a courtyard for most of the day, rocking back and forth, memorizing the Koran and staring at a white wall. They are not allowed to talk to or look at each other. They do not understand the Arabic language they memorize, the teachers say.

Centuries-old textbooks are still in use, and the school's leader, Sami ul Haq, speaks with pride of Mullah Omar and his followers.

"I was pleased they became the rulers of Afghanistan," Sami says. "They restored law and order there. They respected human rights. They respected women's rights. They completely eliminated heroin and drug use."

Haqqania has been called the "University of Jihad". Founded more than fifty years ago, the Haqqania, or the Darul Uloom Haqqania is a madrassa of the Deobandi school of Islamic fundamentalism.

Maulana Sami ul-Haq (the title Maulana means one who is a supreme authority in the Koran) is a member of the Pakistan Senate. He is called in some circles the "Father of the Taliban". Until recently, he was also the founder and a member of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Ama (MMA). This group was a coalition of six Islamic religious parties.

An interview with ul-Haq published on Thursday in ADN Kronos asked him why he was seen sitting alongside President Musharraf at a meeting about earthquake aid. Al-Huq insisted that he still retains his staunch opposition to Musharraf, but is now opposed to the MMA for its "deceptive policies and double standards".

AKI: What was the main reason for your split from MMA?

Sami: Both Qazi (Sheikh Qazi Hussain Ahmad, President of the Jamaat-e-Islami) and Fazalur Rahman (JUI - Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam, the party al-Huq belongs to) distributed all (parliamentary) seats among their family members, and even then they both started fighting with each other. Last month in the local polls, Jamaat Islami and JUI supported the Awami National Party and Peoples Party respectively, against each other, which was ample proof that the MMA is dead but they are not ready to bury its corpse.

AKI: Is there any chance that the Taliban phenomenon could reemerge from the Pakistani Madrassas (religious schools) as it happened in the mid-1990s when the movement was born?

Sami: There is no such threat from Pakistan's madrassas. Though it is a fact that the Taliban are Afghan Nationals and they are still studying in Pakistani madrassas. It is also a fact that they are unanimously against foreign aggression, but there is not the right environment under which they could start their movement from Pakistan.

67-year old Sheikh Qazi Hussain Ahmad announced at a meeting in Nowshera on October 3, five days before the earthquake, that he would bring on an Islamic revolution and overthrow Musharraf at the end of Ramadan. His threat has not materialised. His party and the others from MMA boycotted the recent earthquake donor meeting.

Sami ul-Haq is a skilled politician, and perhaps is wise to be dissociating himself from Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI). But his political intentions are clear.

In an interview last March for the American PBS he expressed disapproval of what he sees as Musharraf's attempts to secularise Pakistan. He stated that Pakistan was founded on religious Islamic principles, and should become more Islamic. He does not seem to approve of a civil war, which would be JeI's solution, but noted ominously that the motto of the Pakistan army is "Faith, Conviction and Jihad".

President Musharraf has promised to come down hard on "extremist" organisations and also madrassas. In an article published in India Monitor on Thursday by William Dalrymple, the noted author visited the Darul Haloom Haqqania madrassa (pictured), and spoke to Sami ul-Haq.

On the issue of the Taliban reforming, which ul-Haq dismissed in the ADNK interview, Dalrymple states that the Maulana "still proudly boasts that whenever the Taliban put out a call for fighters, he would simply close down the madrassa and send his students off to fight."

Dalrymple asked about Musharraf's "crackdown" on extreme madrassas, and ul-Haq replied: "That is for American consumption only. It is only statements to the newspapers. Nothing has happened." Ul-Haq was asked if the atmosphere was difficult.

"We are in a good, strong position," replied Sami. "[President George W] Bush has woken the entire Islamic world. We are grateful to him."

Sami smiled broadly: "Our job now is propagating Islamic ideology. We give free education, free clothes and books. We even give free accommodation. We are the only people giving the poor education."

Sami paused and his smile faded: "The people are so desperate," he said. "They are fed up with the old ways in Pakistan, with the secular parties and the army. There is so much corruption. Musharraf only fights Muslims and follows the wishes of the West. He is not interested in the people of Pakistan. So now everyone is looking for Islamic answers - and we can help provide that. Only our Islamic system gives justice."

Perhaps the most politically skilled of Pakistan's Islamist leaders, and certainly one of the most influential, Sami ul-Haq is not a man to be as easily dismissed as other Islamists in the country. In the events unfolding in Pakistan's political landscape, ul-Haq is the man to watch.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 26, 2005 8:18 PM

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