Source & Credit: Daily Dawn | Pakistan
Add'l Credit: Mohammed Abbasi | Blog
By Irfan Hussain | June 12, 2010
I was going to write about something else this week, but when I read the reaction of sundry clerics to Nawaz Sharif’s statement that “Ahmadis were my brothers and sisters and were assets to Pakistan”, I thought I should salute him for his political courage.
Showing solidarity for the oppressed is a sign of decency, a commodity in short supply in today’s Pakistan.
Among other things, the spokesman for the Wafaqul Madaris asked the Muslim League leader not to “defy religion for petty political gains”. Some Deobandi clerics said that the recent Lahore attack on Ahmadis was a plot to undo anti-Ahmadi laws. So are they accusing some Ahmadis of killing their own people?
In many cases, police have found a link between various terrorist groups and mosques, but we are never told if the mullahs in charge have been interrogated. It is all too possible, however, that the police back off due to the connections these clerics have with religious groups and parties.
An Indian religious figure, Mufti Habibur Rahman Ludhianwi, has joined this hysterical chorus and declared that no Muslim can have any relationship with an Ahmadi. Who is this character to pronounce on who can be friends with anybody they choose? It is this kind of rabid hatred and mistrust of everybody who does not conform to the brand of the faith we do that is isolating Muslims around the world.
Writing this from the UK, I was asked by several English friends why Ahmadis were being targeted in Pakistan as they could not understand why they were considered heretics. Above all, they could not grasp how a difference in belief could result in such terrible violence and prejudice. Frankly, nor can I.
But let me share some good news with readers: when I wrote about the Lahore massacre and in support of Ahmadis last Saturday, I braced myself for a volley of abusive and outraged emails. In the event, I am happy to report that out of some 90 or so emails, only a couple were angry and threatening. The rest welcomed my column; many Ahmadi readers were actually grateful, much to my embarrassment. I wrote back saying how ashamed I was at the treatment their community received in Pakistan.
Normally, I never quote from my own articles, but to underline how Ahmadis continue to be targeted in Pakistan, here is what I wrote nearly a decade ago (‘Another day, another atrocity’; Dawn, Sept 1, 2001):
“Earlier this week, this newspaper reported yet another atrocity against Ahmadis. A mob of zealots in Sheikhupura district had been goaded by mullahs from the Sipah-i-Sahaba and the Khatm-e-Nubuwat parties to attack a peaceful group of Ahmadis watching a religious TV transmission in their ‘place of worship’ which was burned down by the frenzied mob. “As usually happens in such cases, those locked up in ‘protective custody’ were the victims, not the criminals. In fact, it is still not clear whether the police have even registered a criminal case against those instigating the fanatics and those who participated in the attack. Apparently, what infuriated the worthies of Syedwalla village was the fact that the Ahmadis were watching the televised address of their spiritual leader, Mirza Tahir.”
Currently, the Punjab government is still in denial about the presence of large and growing numbers of local terrorists on its soil. Here is what TheEconomist said recently:
“Extremists have had a base in the province since the late 1980s, when Punjabi veterans of the anti-Soviet Afghan jihad returned home and Pakistan’s ISI spy agency decided they could be put to use against India. Many suspect that Punjabi groups are still accorded some kind of protection by the ISI, though the agency denies it.
“Ministers and officials in the province draw a distinction between the Punjabi groups, whose activities they say are sectarian or directed mainly at India and whose avowed agenda is therefore not domestic violence (killing minorities apparently does not count), and the Pakistani Taliban, which is attacking the Pakistani state…”
This attempt to draw a line between terrorist groups who are active against our neighbours and those who attack domestic targets is a meaningless exercise in sophistry. The fact is that religious extremism is fuelling this violence, and it is impossible to distinguish between the motives of these gangs.
The Economist also notes the active presence of the virulently anti-Shia Sipah-i-Sahaba, as well as the Jaish-i-Mohammad and the Lashkar-i-Taiba in Punjab. The latter is widely believed to be behind the Mumbai atrocities of November 2008.
The inaction of the Punjab government in facing up to the magnitude of the problem is reminiscent of the blind eye turned by the religious MMA alliance towards the Taliban threat in the tribal areas as well as the settled districts in the erstwhile NWFP it ruled under Musharraf. Over five years, the power and the influence of these jihadis expanded steadily due to the benign attitude of the provincial government in Peshawar. Now, as the government finally tackles the cancer in the tribal areas, we are witnessing a similar rise of this threat in south Punjab.
Although traditionally, Nawaz Sharif’s faction of the Muslim League has been close to fundamentalist groups, the Punjab government needs to take a close look at what’s happening. Their leader must talk sense into the Punjab chief minister, his brother Shahbaz Sharif. While the extremists have not seized complete control of the districts they operate in, it won’t be long before they begin calling the shots, as their brothers-in-arms do in the tribal areas. According to an Amnesty International report, four million people have been abandoned to the tender mercies of the Taliban and their affiliated groups by the federal government.
Apart from the Punjab government, large sections of the media are in denial about this threat. Indeed, home-grown terrorist groups have many cheerleaders among our TV chat show hosts. Until we all wake up to this threat, it will continue to grow. It won’t be long before those of us who do not sport long beards will become targets.
irfanhusain@gmail.com
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