One major political party also chose to exploit the issue and continued to do so at both the constituency and national level, ignoring the counsel of several commentators that this was akin to playing with dynamite. You can start this fire but when it gets raging you cannot extinguish its flames. If there is one thing that we seem to be utterly committed to, it is to never learn from history. And our own recent history in particular. Whatever the justification, the policy of nurturing religious militancy has cost us dearly. The images of our brave martyrs, uniformed or otherwise, and their loved ones are a slap-in-the-face reminder if one was indeed needed. All contestants must know that while stoking divisive flames, religious, sectarian or ethnic, may well bring them gains, the temporary advantage of following such a path will lead to hellish consequences. Reference: Need for a campaign code by Abbas Nasir May 12, 2018 https://www.dawn.com/news/1407200/need-for-a-campaign-code
However, one man who has humiliated himself in this tragic situation is Ahsan Iqbal’s opponent from the Narowal district, Abrar ul-Haq, the musician-turned politician and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader. In a bizarre attempt to use this attack on one of the most senior and dignified statesmen in the country for point scoring, Abrar ul-Haq offered the minister treatment at his Sahara hospital in Narowal in a tweet as distasteful as it could get. This wasn’t all. Abrar while talking to a TV channel in the aftermath of the attack resorted even to veiled threats to the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) leaders, saying that the people had been calling him and justifying the attack, and then told the PML-N leaders to stay cautious. It isn’t the first time that Abrar ul-Haq has explicitly tried to woo the extremist right-wing vote-bank. In November 2017, when a number of Labbaik goons had surrounded Ahsan Iqbal’s house in Narowal and in turn had been baton-charged by the police, Abrar in a video message had not only justified the vandalism of the Labbaik activists but had gone on to issue sermons for the PML-N leadership, especially naming Ahsan Iqbal, saying the party leaders were ruining their afterlife. Reference: PTI leader humiliates himself after murder attempt on Ahsan Iqbal https://www.nayadaur.tv/2018/05/pti-leader-humiliates-himself-after-murder-attempt-on-ahsan-iqbal/
The point here is simple: a young man, semi-schooled, indoctrinated, who can’t find employment but can become the president of the youth wing of TLYRA and can come up with Rs. 15,000 for a pistol and Rs. 1,800 for purchasing 50 rounds for his weapon. Pakistan’s history, post-1979, is a testimony to the fact that ‘blasphemy’ is a nuclear option. Unfortunately, almost all major political parties have resorted to it for petty politicking. None seems to realize that starting this fire will engulf everyone. It has also been hyped by unscrupulous charlatans and televangelists. This has reached a point where any semi-schooled man looking for a place in Jannah can take it upon himself to kill whoever he deems to have presumably insulted Islam’s Prophet. But more than that, it is, to quote Mencken, the grotesqueries, chicaneries and theological buffooneries practiced by unethical clerics and large segments of their cretinous followers that is the problem. Perish the thought that others will condemn this act by Abid Hussain. As I write this, there will be many who would be preparing themselves for performing what they think is a sacred task. The accused told the police he was asked by Data Sahib to kill minister Iqbal. According to him he also saw other holy personages in his dream. There, we now have a good test case for psychologists and their Jungian mishmash. Incidentally, the accused also went to Dubai but returned after a month because he didn’t like the “mahol” (environment) there. So, here we have some initial observations. Let’s hope we draw the right lessons from them. Reference: Petty Politicking and the Blasphemy Nuke http://newsweekpakistan.com/petty-politicking-and-the-blasphemy-nuke/ by MAY 08 2018 BY EJAZ HAIDER
Orya Maqbool Jan shower praises on Khadim Hussain Rizvi
1. (C) Summary: While politicians and religious leaders have sought to establish inter-religious peace in Gojra village after the August 1 burning of eight Christians, human rights activists have urged the government to reconsider the blasphemy law, which sparked the killing of a Muslim businessman in Sheikhupura August 4. In an August 6 meeting with A/PO, members of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan warned that the government must punish the perpetrators, and suggested modifying the blasphemy law that allows such incidents to occur. Maulana Abdul Khabeer Azad, the imam of Lahore's Badshahi Mosque, related that he spent the week in Gojra encouraging interfaith reconciliation. He underscored that extremist Brelvi group Sunni Tehreek first sparked the riot, though an Ahl-e-Hadith mosque encouraged the violence. End Summary. Reference: PROSECUTIONS AND PEACE PROMISED IN STRIFE-TORN VILLAGE 2009 August 10, 10:59 (Monday) Canonical ID:09LAHORE165_a https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09LAHORE165_a.html
Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad says that Supporters of Mumtaz Qadri (Salmaan Taseer's Killer) would vote for Imran Khan
The US gave money to a Pakistani Muslim group that organised anti-Taliban rallies, but which later demonstrated in support of an extremist who killed a leading liberal politician, the US Embassy in Pakistan said Wednesday. US government website Usaspending.gov shows that the group, the Sunni Ittehad Council, received $36,607 from Washington in 2009. A US diplomat said that the embassy had given money to the group to organise the rallies, but that it had since changed direction and leadership. He said it was a one-off grant, and wouldn't be repeated. He didn't give his name because he wasn't authorised to speak about the issue on the record. The grant was first reported by the Council of Foreign Relations on its website. The Ittehad council was formed in 2009 to counter extremism. It groups politicians and clerics from Pakistan's traditionalist Barelvi Muslim movement, often referred to as theological moderates in the Pakistani context. The American money was used to organise nationwide rallies against militants and suicide bombings, the embassy official said. The demonstrations received widespread media coverage, and were some of the first against extremism in the country. The rhetoric at the rallies was mostly focused on opposing militant attacks on shrines, which Barelvis frequent but are opposed by Deobandi Muslims, Pakistan's other main Muslim sect. In 2011 and also this month, however, the council led demonstrations in support of the killer of Salman Taseer, a governor who was killed a year ago for his criticism of anti-blasphemy laws. The displays have appalled Pakistani liberals and stoked international fears that the country is buckling under the weight of extremism. Taseer's assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, is a Barelvi. He claimed he acted to defend the honour of Prophet Mohammed. Reference: US aided Pakistan group which supported extremists January 11, 2012 https://www.dawn.com/news/687293
Meet Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad and his Sectarian Friends - 1
Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad is a Friend of Sectarian Terrorist Malik Ishaq
1. (S) Summary: A well-placed Deobandi religious leader told Principal Officer in a meeting on March 18 that extremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba (SSP) was increasing its activities in the central Punjab city of Faisalabad, the province's second largest, in collaboration with elements of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and a splinter group from the banned terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). The cleric reported that SSP had recently launched a pamphlet campaign across the city in which it called for people to take steps to enforce Islamic law including: (1) cease business and social activities at the five daily calls to prayer, (2) remove all sources of ""vulgarity"" such as televisions, cd players, and radios from their homes, (3) seek dispute resolution through local imams rather than the courts, (4) take Friday rather than Sunday as the weekly holiday, and (4) strictly enforce purdah for female family members. The pamphlet states that it comes from SSP with support from the TTP and specifically praises ""the enforcement of Sharia in Swat"" and recommends it as a model for Faisalabad. Reference: 2009: Was Qaddafi funding Sipahe Sahaba? May 25, 2011 https://www.dawn.com/news/631599
Abrar-ul-Haq of PTI wants Pakistan to respect Pir Afzal Qadri
Abrar-ul-Haq of PTI wants Pakistan to respect Pir Afzal Qadri. Yet Again.
Abrar-ul-Haq of PTI wants Pakistan to respect these Scholars like they respect our Mothers
Moral of the Story: In simpler terms, in Ahmad Raza’s endeavours, we see Islam entwined with the local cultural moorings evolving through the historical process. What Ahmad Raza failed to guard against was the exclusion and takfir. In his famous fatwa Husam al-Haramain ala Manhar al-Kufr wa’l Main (The Sword of the Haramain at the Throat of Kufr and Falsehood), which was written in 1902 but became public in 1906, Ahmed Raza denounced several individuals in the early twentieth-century India. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian was the first on Ahmad Raza’s lists of kafirs (infidels). He was followed by some eminent Ulema from Deoband denomination like Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, Muhammad Qasim Nanautawi, Ashraf Ali Thanvi and Khalil Ahmad Ambethwi whom he described as Wahabis. Among the twelver Shias and the organisation of the Ulema known as the Nadwat al-Ulama, he accused some specific people of kufr. This is the situation right now when two Barelvi factions are trading fatwas, calling each other kafir. One shudders to think about the prevalent situation invested with the possible likelihood of sub-sectarian violence among the Sunnis. Reference: Religious modernism and Barelvi creed by Tahir Kamran December 3, 2017 http://tns.thenews.com.pk/barelvi-creed/
