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March 31, 2007

Pakistan: "Moral" Muslim Women Kidnap And Tie Up Baby

A bizarre situation has been unfolding in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, this week. The issue was created by fanatical Muslim women from the Jamia Hafsa madrassa. The women from this madrassa believe themselves to be upholders of Islamic law and have no sense of the civic responsibilities that living in a "democracy" entail. Islam, of the uncompromising, violent and intolerant Taliban variety is the agenda of the staff and students at the seminary.

There is currently a situation of crisis in Pakistan, made worse since the removal from office of the country's leading judge, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, earlier this month. According to the Musharraf government, the judge was dismissed for alleged misuse of office. Lawyers protested the action, which led to police confrontations in various cities. Chaudhry was severe in taking action against government actions which he deemed to be wrong or in breach of human rights.

In Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban have taken control of some regions with the approval of the Musharraf government, fighting has broken out. The tribal people of the region have been in a conflict with the foreign Al-Qaeda/Taliban fighters who live in the region of South Waziristan since March 19. Last week, 160 people were killed in this fighting. This Friday, conflict in Wana, the "capital" city of South Waziristan led to the deaths of 56 people.

On Sunday, March 25, members of the banned Tehreek Nafaz-e-Sharia Muhammadi (TNSM) made an announcement that if their jailed leader, Maulana Sufi Muhammad, was not released within 72 hours, there would be at least 100 suicide bomb attacks across Pakistan. Sufi Muhammad had been a vociferous supporter of the Taliban. In 2001, he had mobilized 10,000 volunteers to fight against the US forces in Afghanistan.

The threats of suicide bombings were made by Maulana Abdul Haq, Maulana Dost Muhammad and Maulana Safiullah. A week earlier, a tribal council or jirga in the Mamoond area ordered that anyone sheltering foreign terrorists would be hanged. Mamoond is a former stronghold of the TNSM.

On Monday March 26, six people were killed in a shootout which took place in a school in Tank, near the Afghan border. Tank is situated in South Waziristan in NWFP. Police had tried to prevent Islamist militants from conducting a speech in support of armed Jihad. This led to a gun battle in which five militants were killed, along with one police officer.

Tensions between Islamists of the 6-party coalition of fanatics, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal or MMA, and the government have been progressively worsening for more than a year. In February 2006, the MMA parties led protests against the Danish cartoons. At the end of last year, the altering of the Hudood laws incensed the MMA, and they threatened to remove their 65 members from the National Assembly.

The Hudood Laws had been introduced on February 10, 1979 by the dictator General Zia ul-Haq, with the connivance of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party. Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of this party, is currently the head of the MMA coalition. The MMA objected to any altering of the Hudood Ordinances as these were based on sharia.

Any woman who had been raped ran the risk of being jailed for adultery under the Hudood laws. Only if she could provide four male Muslim witnesses to the rape would she be exonerated. The necessity for a rape victim to be tried under the Islamic law was amended in November last year. The protection of Women Bill, 2006, allowed a rape case to be treated under secular law. As a concession to the Islamists of the MMA, adultery became illegal under secular law, with a jail sentence of five years' maximum. Though draconian, it is better than Hudood - for zina or illegal intercourse, the Hudood laws specified 100 lashes, imprisonment, and/or the death sentence by stoning. No-one had been stoned, but many women were jailed, even though they had been raped.

The MMA dominate the Regional Assembly of North-West Frontier Province. On November 2006, this regional government voted in a bill which would have introduced a sharia-monitoring unit, under the control of a religious inspector called a Mohtasib who would have the wages and status of a judge.

Musharraf's government suggested shortly afterwards that it would be considering moves to repeal the 1986 blasphemy laws, another legacy of General Zia ul-Haq's Islamist military dictatorship, which lasted from 1977 to 1988. To insult Mohammed can invoke a mandatory death penalty. Naturally, Islamists are fiercely opposed to any changes to the blasphemy laws.

Against this background, the actions of the Jamia Hafsa madrassa, taking place in the heart of the capital, highlight the tensions taking place in wider Pakistani society, between a modern democracy based on a rule of law and Islamism, based upon the 7th century dictates of the Koran. The Jamia Hafsa madrassa is taking drastic actions at present, to draw attention to itself and its desire to destroy Pakistan's fragile democracy and introduce Islamism.

The Jamia Hafsa madrassa is attached to the Lal Masjid or "Red Mosque". During the dictatorship of General Zia ul-Haq, the former head of this mosque, Maulana Abdullah was close to the dictator. Maulana Abdullah had made fiery preachings about armed jihad.

The mosque, situated in the central Aapara area of Islamabad, is also close to the building of Pakistan's secret service, ISI. Several ISI members worship at this mosque. Maulana Abdullah was assassinated inside the mosque in the 1990s, and his sons Maulana Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rashid Ghazi now run the Lal Masjid and its madrassa. Maulana Abdul Aziz, the senior of the two, and the one said to be better versed in Islamic scripture, heads the Jamia Hafsa madrassa. Ghazi runs the Jamia Fareeda madrassa, which is part of the same complex.

In late January, 3,000 members of the madrassa took action against plans by the Capital Development Authority, which had said it wished to demolish 80 mosques which had been built illegally in Islamabad. As a result, students from the Jamia Hafsa stormed the only children's library in the capital. Armed with Kalashnikovs and staves, these (mostly) women students demanded that the CDA rescind its decision and refused to leave the children's library. The leaders of the Lal Masjid announced that if the women were evicted from the library, there would be suicide bombings. The children's library is still under occupation.

President Musharraf responded to these threats of women suicide bombers by saying: "No law has been enacted contrary to Quran and Sunnah in the country nor any bill be passed prejudiced to Islam." He said that the government would soon be bringing in legislation to empower women, and increasing quotas for women in work and education.
On Sunday, March 25, the head of the Jamia Hafsa madrassa, Maulana Abdul Aziz, announced that he intended to broadcast Islamist FM radio in the capital. Initially, he said, the radius of broadcast would be 7 square kilometers (4 sq miles), but would be raised to a 40 kilometer (25 mile) radius.

The following day, Monday March 26 the fanatical burka-clad women from the Jamia Hafsa madrassa went on the rampage at centers in the capital where videos were being sold. On this day, they went a step further, and decided to take vigilante action against an alleged "brothel".

The news of the raid upon the brothel is carried by Time, the BBC, Stratfor, AKI, The Australian, Zee News and Spero.

The women from the Jamia Hafsa madrassa were convinced that a building near their seminary was a brothel, and that was run by a "madam" known as "Aunty Shamin". About 30 women, assisted by 30 men, descended on the "brothel" and kidnapped Aunty Shamin.

According to Abdul Rashid Ghazi, brother of Maulana Abdul Aziz and deputy administrator of the Jamia Hafsa madrassa: "Our students launched a campaign against the vulgar video films in the city. They approached shopkeepers and advised them to remove all vulgar films from the shops. One of the store owners pointed out that a brothel is operating in the area and it should be the priority."

"So we investigated the matter and further took confirmation from the journalists who cover crimes. Then we asked the concerned police station to take notice. The police confirmed its presence but said that they are very influential therefore the police cannot shut it down. Our students went to the brothel along with the neighbours and asked the woman (Shamim Aunty) to close it down but she abused the students so they detained her."

According to Ghazi, the students found naked girls in the"brothel" and "used condoms". However, not only did the women students abduct AUnty Shamin - they also abducted her daughter, her daughter-in-law and the old woman's six-month old baby.

The following day, as women teachers left their homes to teach at the madrassa, police tried to arrest the, claimed Ghazi. "They were not ready to move against a prostitute because of pressure from high up but they can arrest innocent lady teachers, so our students immediately took to the street and detained some policemen in reaction."

Tasleem Bibi and Seyeda Bibi were the arrested teachers, who were detained with Qari Aziz and Maroof, two militants. Two policemen had been seized in retaliation by the madrassa students.

Ghazi said: "Maulana Abdul Aziz announced that if the government is so corrupt that it can arrest pious and innocent lady teachers for an owner of a brothel, the waging of Jihad is compulsory."

On March 28, the two policemen were freed, but the women from the alleged brothel, along with the baby, were still being held hostage. On March 29, the women and child were released, after they had been forced to read out a "confession". They had been given the option, apparently, of confessing their guilt before cameras, or being subject to a court case. There had been a third alternative - to face an Islamic court set up by the fanatics at Maulana Abdul Aziz mosque and madrassa complex.

What makes this behavior more disgusting, is that the six-month old baby had also been tied up with rope. In front of reporters "Aunty Shamin" (pictured) said; "I apologise for my past wrongdoing and I promise in the name of God that in future I will live like a pious person."

Later she retracted the statement, avowed her innocence of any immoral behavior and claimed that the Islamist fanatics had forced her to make the statement. She said: "I don't think Islam allows anyone to beat a woman and drag her through the streets like a dog. They tied me, my daughter and daughter-in-law and my six-month-old grand-daughter up with rope."

The actions of the Lal Masjid and the madrassa have been one of the worst threats to democracy and security in the country. Already ISI, which is said to have members with links to the mosque, is suspected of causing the "disappearances" of people, and also colluding with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The Lal Masjid and the Jamia Hafsa madrassa are said to be respected by both Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

According to AKI there have been alleged links between the Lal Masjid and the suicide bombers who attacked London on July 7, 2005, killing 52 people and themselves.

Fired up by the publicity granted to their acts of blatant lawlessness and defiance of the constitutional democracy, the head of the mosque/madrassa complex, Abdul Aziz made an announcement yesterday after Friday prayers as the Red Mosque. He said that the government has one week to impose Sharia law, or else "clerics will Islamise society themselves... If the government does not impose Sharia within a week, we will do it."

There are also rumors that the Jamia Hafsa madrassa students will be drawing up a "hit-list" of brothels and gambling dens during this week, followed by a drive against these targets. Abdul Aziz said: "Jamia Hafsa will hold a conference on April 5-6 at Lal Masjid, where ulema will finalise a strategy against brothels and gambling dens."

The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) a leading body of "moderate" religious leaders who have worked previously with the government said on Friday that the government should take firm action against the Islamist organizations. A source said: "The CII made this recommendation to the government after students of the Jamia Hafsa madrassa challenged the writ of the government by starting an unofficial 'anti-vice' campaign in the federal capital."

A meeting was held by senior figures within the CII hierarchy, which decided to issue a formal condemnation of sectarianism, religious extremism and lawlessness.

Tariq Azeem, the government's State Minister for Information, suggested that madrassas should be moved out of the capital. He told reporters that the government would provide land and money to assist such relocation.

The district administration of Islamabad has said that it will "take action" against the Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Fareedia madrassas within days. It firstly wished to wait until a meeting concerning the president and the affair of the deposed Supreme Court justice had been held. This meeting is due to happen on April 3, and therefore, such action against the Islamists will take place on April 4 or thereafter.

The police have already registered a case against Abdul Rashid Ghazi, vice principal of the Jamia Hafsa mosque. Muhammed Tariq, a police oficial said: "We will definitely arrest them."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at March 31, 2007 8:10 PM

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