Intolerance behind Sufis!

Since the deadlock between the government and Barelvi extremists of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan came to an end on Monday, November 27, one thing was loud and clear, the Pakistan Army refused to take action against “its own people”, as the chief of army staff said.

The civilian government had been trying to handle the situation since November 6, when the sit-in commenced, but was forced to request for army assistance to tackle the jihadi sentiments on the orders of the Islamabad High Court. However, the anti-Ahmadi rhetoric played by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz against the sitting Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa came back to bite them during the Faizabad Interchange sit-in. The army, instead of coming in to take hold of the situation 1953-style, chose to coach civilians about amicably handling Punjabis overdosing on the blasphemy law.

This incident has not only paved the way for the COAS to clear his name in the eyes of the largest sectarian group, but it also falls in place with the establishment’s plan to mainstream Islamic extremists as a political alliance.

Earlier, when Nawaz was deposed as per court orders, and by-elections were called in NA-120, one of the contestants was Qari Yaqoob Sheikh of the unregistered Milli Muslim League, technically a candidate of the Jama'at-ud-Da'wah, political wing of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Qari Yaqoob bagged 4.59 percent or a total 5,822 votes in the by-election. The launching of the Milli Muslim League was opposed by the PML-N, but their protests went unheard.

The other religious person, who was ahead of Yaqoob was Shaikh Azhar Hussain Rizvi at 7,130 votes or 5.62 percent of the total. Azhar participated as an independent candidate against Begum Kulsoom Nawaz of the PML-N; however, he belongs to Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan - an Islamic political party founded by Khadim Hussain Rizvi, the architect of the Faizabad sit-in.

Since the time Shaikh Azhar bagged third position in the strategic Punjabi constituency in the heart of Lahore, the party had been aggressively campaigning for getting a strong foothold in mainstream politics ahead of the 2018 elections. Tehreek-e-Labbaik holds Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, the convicted murderer of Punjab governor Salman Taseer, as innocent and his hanging unjustifiable. It has resorted to sloganeering and urged people to take to the streets to protest against the perceived persecution of Muslims in the Muslim majority country.

Originally, the demand of those sitting at Faizabad was to reverse the law pertaining to the finality of prophethood, which was accepted. To further gain momentum and support for the new party, Khadim Hussain had expanded the scope of demands during the protest and also called on the entire cabinet to hand in their resignations.

Faizabad Interchange, made in the 90s is the gateway between Islamabad and its twin city Rawalpindi, from where thousands of people commute to the federal capital on a daily basis. The blockade of the interchange by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan was strategic as it paralysed the twin cities for close to three weeks.

Since a vast majority of Sunni Muslims in Pakistan belong to the Barelvi school of thought, the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan founder Khadim Hussain is vouching on them to help him win a majority in Punjab. Especially under the 'namoos-e-risalat' banner. Under whose patronage is anyone's guess!
Milli Muslim League on the other hand, has slightly lesser supporters due to its Salafi leanings, often at odds with the shrine-going majority of the rural and urban population, and hence closer to the Deobandi school of thought. It is this similarity which has been helpful in raising the Taliban and now Daesh among the Deobandis of Pakistan and Afghanistan, largely funded by the Salafi Saudi regime.

The turf war between the Barelvis and the other major Sunni groups is old and both have been involved in target killings of mosque imams for taking hold of an area in different parts of the country. The recent fiasco in Islamabad seems to be an extension of the same. The stance of the security establishment in the matter and their refusal to confront the previously obscure, but majority Sunni group, is recognition of the need for perhaps a grand religio-political alliance.

The failure to make the Pak Sarzameen Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan work jointly in Karachi might have served as a precedent for the deep state in this matter. Bringing politicians to heel is a problem when it comes to following without question.

This grand alliance in Punjab will not only deal with the PML-N and divide the Punjabi vote bank, but also keep in check the volatility of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership, another right-leaning set of hooligans who brought the federal capital to halt in 2014. A poor precedent was set during the more than 120-day demonstrations staged by the PTI and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) simultaneously in 2014 when Islamabad was locked down for more than three months. Prior to that, the PAT protest in Model Town, Lahore in June 2014 had ended in violence and multiple deaths. A re-enactment of the PAT demonstration is perhaps on the cards too, as Tahirul Qadri landed in Pakistan on November 28.

This time around, the Faizabad sit-in however ended 'amicably' as the COAS brokered a six-point deal between the miscreants and the government which includes the resignation of Law Minister Zahid Hamid, inquiries and investigations against those involved in changing the wordings of the oath related to the finality of prophethood, and freedom for all those arrested during the operation against the instigators.

Milli Muslim League lagged behind the Tehreek-e-Labbaik candidate, it was a major sign for those in the power corridors to realise their mistake of not recognising the bigger terror group hiding behind its tolerant Sufi-turbaned facade. How this will end, with Hafiz Muhammad Saeed walking as a free man now, only time will tell.

Where life is not sacred

Pakistan has lost more than 80,000 people in the war against terror. The country’s top intelligence agencies and the security establishment along with the Saudi-CIA coalition are to be blamed for this. Their not so savvy strategic maneuvers have failed and rather resulted in creating the monsters that now kill left, right and centre. But killings do not have an effect on this region as much as the thought of glory does.

You can sell the idea of ‘glory in death’ to the people of this region very easily since they grow up on the Greek Hero cult. From teaching children how those who are killed in battle are never really dead to conditioning women into believing they will have a better life in hereafter if they forget they are alive human beings, we thrive on the death of humans, their dreams, aspirations, and thinking ability. Our politics too is played on dead bodies. A better political party has more ‘martyrs’ and not many good living politicians. We have replaced the Greek hero with the word ‘shaheed’ (martyr).

Death is the other name of our religion. If you are Muslim, you must decide which kind to get the permission to live and then die to get access to the royal suite. If you are not Muslim, forget your basic human right to live, let alone live with dignity. It all boils down to living as a Muslim and dying while trying to make sure others are Muslim too.

This is the reason why, even though thousands of people are dead in this country, and many continue to lose their lives on a daily basis, we are not bothered. Those who die are either the bad people like Shias, Ahmedis, Christians, or Hindus, or the good people like Deobandis, Salafis, and other Sunnis. The bad people are of course dispensable being sub-human and the good people are the exalted ones, the eternal ones, the immortal shaheeds.

Lack of respect for the existence of life on earth and desire for the never-seen, never-proven next life is responsible for chaos in most of the countries where the religion of peace is sacrosanct, and Pakistan is no exception. It is why millions of people flee from the regions where this religion is sponsored by the state. But it seems that the roundness of earth is catching up with this escape route as well.

Fighters of the religion of martyrdom are now making life unsacred even in the bowels of secure zones. They are leaving no place to run. Their desire for glorious death is all consuming. From 80,000 Pakistanis, to 250,000 Syrians, their appetite for blood is insatiable. They want to kill, and will continue to kill unless those who follow the same death cult, do not start loving life on this planet.

For that, we need a rigorous rehabilitation process, since abandoning the drug of glory will not come easy.

As a starter, instead of cherry picking, they need to stop reading the parts in their book that sanction death to the infidels, maybe the need is to even eliminate such writings, or add them to the list of redundant verses. Their barbaric literalism needs to be caricatured perhaps a lot more than it is done now. Hopefully though not at the cost of a few more lives in places like the ******* ***** office.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa loves Pakistan army

This year in January, I wrote about Charlie Hebdo and then I stopped. I stopped because I felt unsafe. I thought of removing my writings from my personal blog because this country, where I chose to live, has no respect for me as a human, let alone as a free-thinking, outspoken, working woman. I did not blog for a long time. Not because there was nothing to write, but because I felt exhausted with dissent.

Is there any good left in Pakistan, I often ask myself, and before I find an answer, something bad happens ---again. In Pakistan, bad is on loop. You get done with the death anniversary of someone or some incident every month, and a new tragedy is added to the mourning list.

Last week on April 24, 2015, we lost T2F founder-director Sabeen Mahmud, who was allegedly shot by 'unidentified' assailants. Her crime, they say, is her involvement or show of solidarity with the Baloch, especially Mama Qadeer, who spoke about the missing persons of Balochistan at the T2F. It has been four days since Sabeen's murder. She has been buried and will probably be forgotten by the time the next tragedy hits us, but do we remember what we were doing in April last year after Hamid Mir was also allegedly shot by the ISI on April 19, 2014?

MQM-H protesting against Geo in front of 
the Jang Press at I.I. Chundrigar Road.

We were, as usual, divided in two groups. One who refused to accept that Hamid was shot by the intelligence agencies, and the other, who alleged that the only people to attack the journalist were the farishtas. Last year, on April 28, 2014, there were countrywide protests by Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi (MQM-H), Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), Anjuman Naujawanan-e-Islam, Pakistan Forces Lovers Forum, Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), and countless other groups, some even from Kashmir, against Geo TV and Hamid Mir. Their clout? One cannot accuse a Pakistani intelligence agency of shooting someone.

The protesters refused to accept that the security agencies of Pakistan could be rogue or even have any rogue elements operating covertly. Their slogan? "We love Pakistan Army: Jamaat-ud-Dawa". We can guess the rest. A humble letter accompanying a metal pellet.

Last year's tags: Christianity, feminism, Islam, men, Pakistan, patriarchy, religion, temptation, women, academics, Army, colonialism, elitism, feudalism, generals, imperialism, India, military, archaeology, architecture, bye-laws, culture, heritage, Moenjodaro, Pink Floyd, Pink Floyd in Pompeii, PPP, Sindh, Sindh Festival, UNESCO, injustice, leftists, liberals, rights, secular, workers, Karachi, Parachinar, Quetta, Shia, Sunni, takfiri, Deobandi, Balochistan, British, Kashmir, nationalism, separatists, colonizers, English speaking, sub-continent, academia, employ-ability, employment, higher education, jobs

Media encouraging vigilantes

It seems Samaa TV takes the cake for being the most ridiculous and sick channel, even worse than GEO when it comes to monopolizing public sentiments about any controversial issues. The Pakistani electronic media often indulges in different tactics to have higher TRPs, for which it keeps stooping lower and lower.

The following is a clip from Maya Khan’s program on Samaa TV, Subha Sawerey, where a bunch of women from different walks of life visit public parks and chase 'dating' couples. They use their own personal moral sticks to measure the rightness and wrongness of such dating and harass dating couples. This attitude was wrong and presumptuous on so many levels, that one cannot even fully comprehend it. Foremost being the idea, that any man or woman hanging out together, early in the morning have to be on a date. They could not be friends hanging out together, they could not be sitting their for a discussion or to just enjoy the fresh air, they have to be 'dating'.

The clip starts with dehumanizing sentences like, “Kuch nazar aaya, koye nazar aaya?” (Did you see something or someone?) And some guy saying, “In jagaon par bohat kuch hai,” (There is a lot in these places) as if they are not talking about dating couples, rather objects who are not flesh and blood. As if that was not insulting enough, the women run in different directions saying, “Wo dekho, wahan aik hai,” (Look there’s one [couple]) It is not only disappointing but worrisome to see these women chasing young men and women who are already so oppressed in the society. Another worrisome aspect is the way they blame mostly the women for their behavior. Their comments and words reek of misogyny and hatred for women. It is one of the most perfect examples showcasing the generation whose minds were mutilated by the Zia regime.

One can be a liar, cheater, ‘rishwatkhor’, but as long as one wears a burka and keeps their pants above the ankles or at least condemns the liberals, they can wear the label of being the pious. Interestingly, the double standards of this moral brigade become very much apparent, when Maya Khan lies about the mic and camera being turned off while talking to one of the couples. It shows the double standards we have as a society. It was disgusting to watch her lie so blatantly; however, most people of the ‘ghairat’ brigade will not even notice that. They would only praise this stupid moral brigade.

This sort of behavior might end up prompting people to start taking matters in their own hands. Let’s not forget the incident of the Sialkot brothers, Salman Taseer, countless mob lynching incidents of Ahmedis and Shias all over Pakistan. Public vigilantes in Pakistan are becoming more and more of a problem. The Pakistani legislation is not as much to blame as the people themselves who resort to such moral policing and that too in public areas. Programs further encouraging the already prevalent riot mind set in the Pakistani society are dangerous and should be held responsible. Let us not forget that it was also Samaa TV’s Meher Bukhari who instigated hate against Governor Salman Taseer, resulting in his death at the hands of a fanatic Muslim.

For complaints against Sama TV follow the link: http://www.pemra.gov.pk/feedback/

Well well, what matters it! believe that too

And do you think that unto such as you

a maggot-minded, starved fanatic crew

God gave the secret and denied it me

Well well, what matters it! believe that too

(Umer Khayyam by Robert M)

A while ago I read an article about our habit of terming suicide bombers and extremist mentally ill. The article said it is not a mental illness because putting it under this term limits our treatment options, and actually also makes us sympathetic to some extent. The writer was talking about the Palestinian children who grew up watching jihad propaganda and all. In case of Pakistan, kids grew up listening to justifications for killing women in the name of honour or anybody else in the name of religion. The law itself provides for such crimes to be committed with minimum penalties and sentences.

The Pakistan Penal Code in this regard covers Qatl-i-amd (Culpable Homicide, which varies geographically) Sections 302, 324, 337 and 338, which accommodate killers who commit the crime in the name of honour. It is defined as: “{offence committed in the name or on the pretext of honour} means an offence committed in the name or on the pretext of karo kari, siyah kari or similar other customs or practices.” The punishment for such people is minimum five years, which gives a lot of leeway for offenders in getting away by terming almost any murder an honour killing. Hence, the justifications and support this act receives is also large.

With such provisions in the law, one must not wonder if the collective psyche of the nation instead of condemning such acts actually condones them. Women have been the most targeted under these laws, for reasons starting with the man wanting to take another wife and not being able to afford two at a time, to property matters where a brother kills his sister or sisters/mother to be the sole benefactor.

The recent case for Veena Malik, a Pakistani actor, is clearly testament to the misogynist psyche where women are not only considered as a property, but also their body a ‘safe’ for the ‘honour’ of the entire country. The medias’ role in this scenario instead of being open minded and supportive has been hypocritical and extremely biased. Especially the right wing media groups like Jang, Geo, and most prominently Express 24/7. Instead of forwarding support, the whole episode has been given a religious colour, which of course is one of the best ways to instigate a reaction.

These issues need to be addressed on a serious note, especially by the secular media. Instead of keeping the messages subtle and ambiguous, due to religious and social restraints, the message should be clear and in your face. The secular media as well as civic society and other secular and liberal groups should take a stand for the lady and stand by her. Not wait for her to be a target like Salman Taseer, this time for something as petty as the choice of clothes and a few stolen hugs with a guy.

The Mosque business

Currently the USA is not just reaping what it sow in Afghanistan, but also facing the same extremism over the issue of the Park 51 Muslim community centre project.

And although strategically it may be a wonderful idea to promote Sufism as opposed to the Salafis, there still are countless aspects that need to be kept in mind within Sufism, including the various orders, which can either be classified as Sunni or Shi'a. Moreover, remembering the rivalry between the Barelvis and Deobandis/Wahabis is important, while keeping in mind the violent aspect of Sufism.

The USA is without anticipating the repercussions putting two opposing Islamic schools of thought at loggerheads. Whether it is out of nobility or a genuine desire to promote peace between the Muslims and all other religions and ideologies, the proposal to patronize a Muslim cultural center would bring the same problems to the US that Pakistan is already facing.

For many the Muslim community center has been so blown out of proportion, it seems people have nothing better to do but to either support or oppose it. However, it is not as simple as that. It appears that this project has quite understandably exposed the extremist streak in the country.

Having evolved in a highly charged religious and sectarian environment almost every sect in Pakistan owns a political or militant wing to counter a rival sect.

And although the most famous are the Salafis and Deobandis for their militancy, the Shias and the Barelvis are not far behind in countering persecution any more. The only difference between all the political and militant wings of these religious sects is, some are blatantly violent and some are sneaky.

Under the leadership of Muhammad Saleem Qadri the Barelvis established the ‘Sunni Tehreek’ in 1990s, which was aimed to promote the interests of the Barelvi Sunnis, especially against the Deoband and Ahl-e-Hadith (Wahabis).

Several members of the Sunni Tehreek have died over the years facing the wrath of the former Sipah-e-Sahaba (now Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat) and the banned Lahkar-e-Jhanvi, while the Sunni Tehreek has also retaliated in kind.

Only in Karachi countless targeted killings of Pesh Imams and various religious scholars have been exchanged between the two schools of thought, as they both consider the other as ‘Kafir’ (infidel), and fights over the ownership of mosques often take place.

With all the rivalries different Islamic schools have with each other, locations of mosques for different sects are extremely important. The best location means, better outreach, increased donations, higher enrollment at Madrassas and more say in the development of the neighborhood. After that what matters is the size of the mosque, the bigger it is, the easier it will be to swallow up the smaller entities around it. Basically, it is not just a mosque but a business that the ‘mosque mafia’ is best at.

With such staunch rivalry between the Barelvi and Deobandi, it would be no wonder if after a few years, the heart of downtown Manhattan would become the center stage of urban warfare between these two schools of thought. As many mosques originally built by the Barelvis have been taken over by the Deobandis in Pakistan.

Many people may consider this opinion far-fetched, but when one compares the number of incidents in Britian and the United States since September 2001, it would be revealed that the Jihadists are well-organized and have infiltrated deep into the system.

Therefore, State sponsorship of the Barelvi school of thought would give rise to the same rivalries; and may emerge as something similar to the martial religion concept, that would wreck havoc in the long run.