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April 17, 2007

Pakistan: Islamists Cripple The Nation - Part Two

This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared earlier today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.

Pakistan: An Ally In Crisis

Part Two (of Three)

The behavior of the students and imams at the Lal Masjid ("Red Mosque") complex grew increasingly more extreme after the kidnapping of women and a baby on March 26 and the imprisonment of two police officers on the following day. On March 30, after Friday prayers, the head of the mosque, Abdul Aziz, announced an ultimatum. He told the government that if sharia law was not enforced throughout Pakistan within one week, "clerics will Islamise society themselves." He also warned that students from his madrassa, the Jamia Hafsa, would also take direct action against "brothels". He said: "If we find a woman with loose morals, we will prosecute her in Lal Masjid."

The students from the mosque's two seminaries, Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Fareedia, were still occupying the only children's library in Islamabad. Abdul Aziz threatened suicide bombings if the students at the library were disturbed.

The capital's district administration threatened to "take action" against the madrassa students after April 3. On the same day that Abdul Aziz demanded Islamic law for Pakistan, the Council of Islamic Ideology warned that the government should take strong action against the mosque complex. On April 1 President Musharraf admitted that little action was being taken, for fear of being seen to be attacking a mosque and female students. He told religious scholars: "If I take an action against them, it will be considered a war between Islam and Kufr. Therefore, I appeal to you to persuade the madrassa girls and their leaders to behave before it is too late." With no decisive action, the situation worsened.

Abdul Aziz admitted to Dawn newspaper that he was supporting the Taliban both in Afghanistan in also in the Pakistani regions of North and South Waziristan, and that students from his madrassas were joining them. He said: "No doubt, our students are joining jihadis because we are teaching them jihad but we have not pressurised them to fight, rather they are doing it by their own."

The threats by the mosque leaders and students against CD and DVD stores selling Western material continued. Abdur Rashid Ghazi, the brother of Abdul Aziz and head of the Jamia Fareedia madrassa, went into hiding on April 3, while lawyers and Islamist parties continued their nationwide protests. Supposed supporters of Musharraf were physically attacked (pictured).

The Jamia Hafsa madrassa announced on Thursday April 5 that on Friday, on the deadline set by Abdul Aziz for Sharia Law to enforced, they would set up their own sharia court. Still, no punitive action was forthcoming. Even the leaders of the Islamist opposition coalition, the MMA, criticized the actions of the Red Mosque students and leaders. Bizarrely, they subsequently claimed that the government had manipulated the crisis in Islamabad to draw attention from its problems with the judiciary.

On Friday April 6, Abdul Aziz announced that he had selected ten Sharia judges for his Islamic court at the mosque complex. His brother Ghazi had reappeared from his hideout to deny claims that students had threatened traders. After Friday's Jumma prayers, Abdul Aziz formally inaugurated the Sharia court. He warned that "tens of thousands" of suicide attacks would take place if the court was shut down. 600 human rights activists marched through Islamabad that day, to protest the developments at the mosque complex.

On Monday April 9, the mosque's Sharia Court issued its first fatwa. In attention-seeking style, the subject of the fatwa was a minister in the Pakistan government. Nilofar Bakhtiar, the nation's tourism minister, had attended a paragliding session in Paris, as part of a fundraiser for victims of the October 8, 2005 earthquake. She had been photographed hugging her paragliding instructor. The "fatwa"claimed Bakhtiar committed an un-Islamic act, and the judges stressed the importance of women wearing the veil. The fatwa additionally stated: "Islam enjoins Muslim women to avoid leaving their homes unnecessarily."

The Pakistan government continued to appease the Islamist rebels, with Musharraf reportedly saying: "Talks should be the first priority and use of force the last resort." Satellite images showed armed men and "wanted criminals" patrolling the mosque compound. A petition was submitted to the Supreme Court on Monday, naming the two brothers for setting up the Sharia or "Qazi" court. They were said to have set up a "state within a state". The petition urged that no direct force should be made against the compound. The Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, confirmed that the government was trying to resolve the issue peacefully.

A senator from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (adjoining Afghanistan's border in North-West Frontier Province) offered to hold a jirga or tribal council to negotiate between the government and the mosque. Members of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q), the party formed by Musharraf in 2001, continued to talk with the leaders of the mosque. Despite this, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the younger of the two brothers, warned that there were guns in the compound, and they would be used, but he would not comment on intelligence reports about explosives being stored there. He said: "If it comes to a do-and-die situation we will use our right to self defense."

The protests against Musharraf's sacking of the nation's senior judge, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry continued, and on Friday April 13, Abdul Aziz claimed that "Our doors are open for negotiations, but we will not abandon our stand to impose the Islamic system in the entire country." While talks with the head of the PML-Q party continued, sittings at the Red Mosque's Sharia Court were suspended.

On Saturday April 14, Musharraf said: "The country is passing through the worst ever critical moment and is facing two major threats of religious extremism and sectarianism." Abdul Rashid Ghazi continued to demand sharia, as well as the rebuilding of seven illegal mosques which had been demolished in January, triggering the library occupation, which still continues. Rumors that the authorities might employ female commandos to storm the mosque complex began to circulate.

On the same day, eight students from Abdul Rashid Ghazi's madrassa, the Jamia Fareedia, stormed a video shop in Islamabad, and burned CDs. Five people were arrested for burning items in the open at the Bhara Kahu Bazaar. Three of these were students from the Lal Masjid complex. A van, registered in Peshawar and belonging to the mosque complex, was also impounded after the incident.

While such activities were happening in the capital, so-called Taliban were threatening traders in Peshawar, North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). This province adjoining Afghanistan has seen hundreds killed in fighting over the past few weeks. In Khar in NWFP, 20 men were beaten by "Taliban" for gambling on bird races.

One of the leaders of the Islamist MMA declared that the actions by the madrassa students at the Lal Masjid were damaging the reputation of all madrassas in the nation. The leader of Wafaqul Madaris Al Arbia Pakistan, the largest madrassa board in the country also condemned the Red Mosque student's activities. The Wafaqul practices the extremist form of Islam known as Deobandi, which was followed by the Afghan Taliban's leaders. It has control of 10,000 madrassas throughout Pakistan. Though they supported implementation of Sharia Law in the nation, the board members claimed that they were against fighting the government directly, as the Red Mosque students were threatening. The Wafaqul cancelled the registration of the Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Fareedia madrassas.

Another Islamist group, the Jamat-ud-Dawa, condemned the government for threatening to mount an attack upon the madrassa/mosque complex. The group's founder, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, had also founded terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. The US designated Jamat ud-Dawa as a terrorist entity in April 2006, but Pakistan refused to follow suit. The group's headquarters in Mudrike in Punjab province have been used to traffic Christian children as slaves.

On Sunday April 15, a mass rally, attended by tens of thousands of people, took place in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city. The protest condemned the actions of the Lal Masjid and the students at its two madrassas.

Meanwhile, Abdul Rashid Ghazi threatened on Sunday that the mosque complex would stop any sale of alcohol in Islamabad.

The three students who had been arrested on Saturday for burning CDs in the street were jailed. The owner of the shop was also jailed for burning some of his stock in the open.

The issues at the Lal Masjid, taking place in the capital of Pakistan, are of great importance. The mosque has links with the Pakistani Taliban in North-West Frontier Province. Here, a much greater battle has been waged for some years, and senior Al Qaeda leaders are known to have taken refuge here. Since last March, the Pakistani Taliban took over parts of Waziristan, and have been steadily increasing their influence. Though the Lal Masjid students threaten the stability of the capital, the Islamists in NWFP are threatening the stability of the alliance between the US and Pakistan.

To be concluded in Part Three.

Adrian Morgan

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Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at April 17, 2007 12:03 PM

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