CSS Forums - Lal Masjid Cleric's Speech

[B]Editorial
THE NEWS, APRIL 24, 2007[/B]

[B] Time to get tough on Lal Masjid issue[/B]

The latest statement by the Lal Masjid clerics seem to contradict recent reports of a resolution to the stand-off between their students and the government. However, given the past conduct of the clerics and the government's spineless behaviour during the whole sordid affair, this was perhaps only to be expected. Remarks by the khateeb that no understanding will be reached unless the razed structures (initially built on encroached land) were reconstructed on their original sites and unless Shariat was declared in the country mean that the situation is back to square one. Now, one hopes that the government handles the situation in a more dignified and courageous manner.

Previous reports had suggested that PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had come to an 'understanding' with the clerics of Lal Masjid, which revolved, quite unacceptably, around the government backing away from its earlier policy of demolishing structures built by madressahs on encroached government land. Furthermore, the government, through the PML-Q chief's intervention, severely diluted its own previous stand on the issue since at the very outset he made public statements that the government did not plan to use force against the Jamia Hafsa and Lal Masjid vigilantes. Anyone who has studied even basic conflict resolution would have told Chaudhry sahib that this is precisely not the thing to say when one wishes to enter -- as the government, one thinks, would -- into negotiations from a position of strength. In such a situation, the government should have let it be known to the other side from the very beginning that it was willing to use the option of force if the clerics did not back down from making illegal demands. No such thing happened. In fact the government capitulated, with reports suggesting that land for building two mosques had already been made available to the clerics.

As these 'negotiations' went on, the demands of the clerics and the antics of their 'students' increased day by day. According to various eyewitness accounts and anecdotal evidence provided by residents of Islamabad, incidents of madressah students going about telling women to dress modestly or threatening music and video shops began to increase sharply. On the outskirts of the capital, some such shops were even attacked and thankfully the police made a few arrests. However, what became of those detained vigilantes is not clear, but what happened afterwards was a further chapter of shame as far as the government is concerned. As if it were a conditioned response, the Lal Masjid clerics said that those behind this attack had nothing to do with their madressah and, lo and behold, without any semblance of investigation or independent inquiry, the PML-Q chief chipped in saying that he took the Lal Masjid clerics at their word. In this particular regard, one is constrained to wonder why the PML chief would do this unless of course the whole idea was to play out a game, as they say, of 'noora kushti' (i.e., giving the impression that something real and meaningful is taking place when in fact everything is staged).

The PML-Q chief's willingness to take the clerics at their word is puzzling for good reason. Since the beginning of this sordid episode, which has now culminated in the federal capital being held hostage by extremists and on the verge of Talibanisation, the Lal Masjid clerics have said a lot of things and then conveniently denied them. Their demands, in return for vacating the children's library and withdrawing the threat of using the Jamia Hafsa students as a moral enforcement brigade, have only increased with the government's dilly-dallying. For instance, the demand initially was to rebuild the structures that had been demolished, which has now become a demand that the government "enforce Shariah" in the country.

A bit of what the Lal Masjid khateeb has been saying on this can be gauged from what he said on FM radio on April 12: [B]"I warn you that no place will be safe in the country if any operation was carried out against Lal Masjid. There will be suicide blasts in the nook and cranny of the country and the rulers will never be able to control the situation…. Don't underestimate our strength. We have weapons, grenades and we are expert in manufacturing bombs. We are not weak. We are not afraid of death…. We are being maligned by [the] media and the NGOs for waging jihad against obscenity. Nobody realises that we are the true custodians of Islam…. Oh my brothers. I request you to throw out satanic things from your house. TV is the biggest evil that the west has created to spoil our religion. I am requesting the God-fearing Muslims to torch their TV sets. In a few weeks time, our boys and girls will be visiting your houses and preach you to burn your TV sets…. They [the president and prime minister] will have to fire the immoral Nilofar Bakhtiar who has brought shame to the Muslims. They should hand over Nilofar Bakhtiar to us. She will have to offer toba (repentance) and spend three months with the female students of Jamia Hafsa. I am sure she will return as a devout Muslim after receiving our training…. The government should abolish co-education. Quaid-e-Azam University has become a brothel. Its female professors and students roam in objectionable dresses. I think I will have to send my daughters of Jamia Hafsa to these immoral women. They will have to hide themselves in hijab otherwise they will be punished according to Islam…. Sportswomen are spreading nudity. I warn the sportswomen of Islamabad to stop participating in sports or my daughters of Jamia Hafsa will punish them in public. Our female students have not issued the threat of throwing acid on the uncovered faces of women. However, such a threat could be used for creating the fear of Islam among sinful women. There is no harm in it. There are far more horrible punishments in the hereafter for such women." [/B]

What can one say in response to this, except that this is hardly the time and the place for the government to be showing leniency in this regard, lest people think that this really is all stage-managed for the benefit of some people.