Tracing the roots of the malaise

[Wounded Healer]

Tracing the roots of the malaise




By Qazi Faez Isa


THE Lal Masjid incident is symbolic of the malaise afflicting Pakistan and has the potential of tearing the country apart. Understanding the affliction and how it came to spread in the body politic is the first step before administering a prescription.

The roots of the malady can be traced back to 1979, the events of this tumultuous year proved defining in the development of Muslim societies.

On February 1, 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini, spearheading the revolution, returned to Iran after the Shah fled. On April 4, 1979, the military government of General Ziaul Haq executed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the elected prime minister of Pakistan. Whilst clergy rule in Iran had popular support, General Ziaul Haq’s anointment was a marriage of convenience between the military and the mullahs with little or no public support.

On November 20, 1979, Islam’s holiest site, the Kaaba, was taken over by heavily armed extremists, led by Juhayman al Otaibi. Juhayman alleged that the ruling Al-Saud dynasty had lost its legitimacy having become corrupt, ostentatious and westernised. Armed intrusion into the holy site was made in the name of Islam, despite Quranic strictures against violence and bloodshed within the area of Al Masjid-Al Haram in Makkah.

Shah Khalid secured a fatwa (religious opinion) from the ulema after three days permitting the use of arms in the holy place, but the Saudi Arabian National Guards failed to regain control despite many casualties. The Saudi government then called upon the Pakistani forces stationed in Saudi Arabia for assistance. In the ensuing battle, 250 people died and 600 were wounded.

The Pakistani military action proved successful. Juhayman was killed and his fellow rebels who survived were handed over to the Saudi authorities. Except for one all 123 militants were publicly beheaded and their executions were broadcast live.

The only person released was the influential Mahrous bin Laden (Osama bin Laden’s half brother) who had assisted the rebels in smuggling weapons into Makkah in trucks belonging to the Bin Laden family companies. Guns were smuggled into the area of the Kaaba in coffins, and bullets came wrapped in dates.

On November 20, 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini stated in a broadcast that the United States of America was behind the seizure of the Kaaba. On November 21, 1979, an enraged mob in Islamabad, after a five hour siege of the US embassy, destroyed it. That day all security personnel in Islamabad had been deployed to protect General Ziaul Haq, who was taking a bicycle ride.

Juhayman distributed pamphlets (printed in Kuwait) entitled ‘Saba Rasail’ (‘Seven Letters’) outlining the basic tenets of his violent and extremist ideology. A similar ideology was espoused by those in control of the Lal Masjid. Islamic teachings should be employed to expose these flawed ideologies. The 1979 Makkah events demonstrate that even a small unknown extremist group can hold a state hostage and rupture society.

In December 1979 the Soviet military invaded and occupied Afghanistan. The US, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia came together to fight the Soviets and the Moscow-backed Marxist regime. Jihadis or Mujahideens were recruited for the purpose. Washington provided the weapons and training, Riyadh funnelled the money and Islamabad the crucial ground and logistics support. The outcome was a resounding success for the Americans as the only competing superpower keeled over and sank.

However, Pakistan did not benefit from this historic moment. Instead, the country was inundated with guns and heroin, and some in the army became fabulously rich. General Zia and his coterie also sought to perpetuate themselves and commenced the transformation of state institutions and the political landscape, digging their heels into the peoples’ flanks after subjugating them.

Judges of the superior judiciary were required to take an oath of loyalty to General Zia. The independence of the judiciary was further corroded by creating a parallel system of courts, the three tiered Sharia courts. National unity and cohesion were ruptured by the duplicitous use of religion, and masquerading laws in Islamic terminology (Hudood, Qisas and Diyat Ordinances and Qanun-i-Shahadat Order), but which in fact parodied Islam. Zia divided society vertically and horizontally.The Constitution was amended and for the first time since the country’s creation, and contrary to all that the Quaid professed, separate electorates for Muslims and adherents of other faiths, were introduced.

National political parties were targeted whilst parochial, ethnic and regional parties were encouraged. Sectarian beliefs of citizens, too, became the business of the state. For instance, only those belonging to a particular sect were compelled to pay zakat. Zia’s religious mentors drew their religious inspiration from centres embedded in India, whose followers had openly opposed Jinnah and his Muslim League.

General Zia aligned himself with extremist forces to counter the challenge from mainstream political forces. He used the state’s security and intelligence apparatus to both support and create militant entities. He gave possession of the Lal Masjid land to the two brothers, who in the heart of the capital flouted the state and its laws. The brothers gained further strength when a stalwart of this government and son of the same army chief intervened to stop criminal cases being registered against them after illegal and prohibited weapons were discovered in their vehicle.

It was not surprising that Ejazul Haq was delegated to liaise with the two brothers, his father and he having created the phenomenon that they had become. GHQ, too, felt comfortable that the matter was attended to by the son of its former chief. But extremism spurned the favours that had been bestowed and Ejazul Haq failed miserably.

For Zia, the state always came second. Political forces were squashed whilst those brandishing guns (whether pseudo religious, ethnic, sectarian or tribal) were encouraged. This was without precedent; division and extremism is anathema to any state, government or authority. Extremism from the earliest times has plagued Muslim societies, but in our case the rulers themselves fed and encouraged it.

Members of a ‘puritanical’ Muslim sect, that came to be known as the Kharijis, would murder anyone, including the companions of the Prophet (PBUH), whom they thought were not following the ‘true path’.

Abdul Rahman ibn Muljam struck a blow to Hazrat Ali’s head, cleaving his skull, in the mosque of Kufah during Ramazan in the 40th year of the Hijra. Four years earlier, the third caliph Hazrat Usman ibn Affan was quietly reciting the Quran at home when he too was murdered by a Muslim.

The Kharijis resolutely stuck to their extremist views making no concessions; self-righteousness, narrow vision, an obdurate mind and a constricted heart resulted in unbridled hate. This is the same attitude that one finds reflected in the mindset of the Lal Masjid brigade and all those who seek compulsion in religion, forgetting Quranic proscriptions to the contrary.

Stratocracy not only runs Pakistan but has become its principal thinker and strategist, however, regrettably without the prerequisite knowledge of Islam and history. Skewed doctrines like ‘strategic depth’ that emanate from deep within the intellectual brain of the nation (the ISI) perish when put to the test. The extremist ideology and groups that General Ziaul Haq employed have begun to undermine the state. These very entities have come back to bite the hand that fed them. Former proxies are turning rogue; Zia’s instruments are now in business for themselves.

Extremists are committed to overthrowing the government and destroying Pakistan, but the government continues to live in a fool’s paradise and views the Pakistan People’s Party and the genuine Pakistan Muslim League as its enemies. Is it not time to openly invite the leadership of Pakistan’s two main political parties into the country to help develop national consensus against extremism and violence in all its forms (including its secular version that was witnessed in Karachi on May 12)?

Closeted in secret negotiations, bartering the state for personal benefits is abhorrent to the people. Citizens need to be involved and empowered to shake off the monster of extremism. Leaders with petty personal interests will not douse the suicide bomber’s determination to his cause.

The people of Pakistan want to know from General Musharraf, Shaukat Aziz, the military, ISI, et al, whether the legacy of General Ziaul Haq will continue to be honoured or will Pakistan and its people be placed first, since it has been irrefutably established that both are diametrically opposite.


http://www.dawn.com/2007/08/06/op.htm