TERROR IN PAKISTAN: Just Who Is Not A Kafir?

The Islamic faultlines in the state widen with extremists attacking minority sec ts By Amir Mir War On The Kafirs The broad Sunni-Shia division does not explain all of it Most Sunnis adhere to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence. Only 5 per cent of the countrys population belongs to the Ahle Hadith sect or Wahhabis. The Sunnis are subdivided into the Barelvi and Deobandi schools of though t The Deobandis and Wahhabis consider the Barelvis as kafir, because they v isit the shrines of saints, offer prayers, believe music, poetry and dance can l ead to god Barelvis constitute 60 per cent of the population. Deobandis and Wahhabis together account for 20 per cent Another 15 per cent are Shias, again considered kafir and subjected to re peated attacks Since 2000, the Sunni-Shia conflict has claimed 5,000 lives Others considered kafir are the religious minoritiesChristians, Ismailis, Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Ahmadias, etc, who account for 5 per cent of the populati on So, 20 per cent of the population effectively considers the remaining 80 per cent as kafir *** When two suicide bombers exploded themselves in the shrine of the revered Sufi s aint Hazrat Data Ganj Baksh in Lahore, the ensuing devastationin which at least 5 0 people were killed and scores injuredrendered meaningless the promise of Pakist an founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah to the Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947. J innah had said, You may belong to any religion or caste or creed...that has nothi ng to do with the business of the state. You are free, free to go to your temple s; you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this s tate of Pakistan. These stirring words were then perceived as an explicit assuran ce to the religious minorities of their rights in a country where Muslims consti tute over 95 per cent of the population. Six decades later, as Pakistan remains trapped in the vortex of violence, even t he Muslims are in desperate need of assurances such as Jinnahs. Mosques and shrin es of saints are targeted regularly, votaries of different Muslim sects are subj ected to suicide bombings, and just about every mullah seems to enjoy the right of declaring anyone who he thinks has deviated from Islam an apostate, a non-Mus lim, whose killing is religiously justifiable. In the darkness enveloping Pakist an, it wont be wrong to ask: who isnt a kafir or infidel, beyond even the religiou s minorities of Christians, Sikhs and Hindus? Shrapnel from every explosion strains the social fabric, tears its rich tapestry , and undermines the traditional forms of devotion inherited over generations. T ake the twin suicide bombings of the Data Ganj Baksh shrine of July 1, which has been blamed on the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) even though it has vehementl y denied its involvement. This Sufi shrine defines the spirit of Lahore, which i s often called Data ki nagri (Datas abode). Here lies buried Syed Abul Hassan Ali Hajvery, popularly known as Hazrat Data Ganj Baksh, whose shrine is mostly visi ted by members of the Barelvi sect of Sunni Muslims. The shrine, famous for myst ical dancing by devotees, is a Lahore landmark. However, the adherents of the Deobandi school of thought, to which the Taliban b elongs, are opposed to the idea of Muslims visiting Sufi shrines and offering pr ayers, a practice known as piri-faqiri. The Deobandis deem piri-faqiri to be her etical, a gross violation of Islamic doctrine; ditto mystical dancing. The Deoba ndis, therefore, consider the Barelvis as kafir whose neck can be put to sword,

no question asked. A week before July 1, the TTP had sent a letter to the Data Ganj Baksh administr ation threatening to attack the shrine, claiming its status was equivalent to th at of the Somnath temple in Gujarat, India. The symbolism inherent in the compar ison wasnt lostthe Somnath temple had been repeatedly raided by Sultan Mehmood Gha znavi, the idol destroyer, who believed his marauding attacks would sap the fighti ng spirit of the Hindus. The attack on the Data Darbar was, similarly, aimed at demoralising the Barelvis, besides striking at the root of Lahores religious and cultural ethos. The Daily Times pointed out, For 1,000 years, the city has been s ustained by the cultural openness and tolerance that Data gave us. For 1,000 yea rs, the shrine has fed Lahores hungry, clothed its naked and given shelter to the shelter-less. All that was brought to a halt when the night jackals in straitja ckets struck like the cowards they are. Pakistans Islamic pluralism is now the ta rget. This isnt the first time Barelvi Muslims have been targeted. On April 12, 2006, for instance, a Barelvi conference organised to celebrate the perfectly orthodox occasion of Prophet Mohammeds birthday at Nishtar Park, Karachi, witnessed a sui cide bombing that claimed 70 lives. Last year, the Taliban attacked the shrine o f the 17th century Sufi saint-poet, Rehman Baba, who is said to have withdrawn f rom the world and promised his followers that if they emulate him, they too coul d move towards a direct experience of god. He also believed god could be reached through music, poetry and dance. But then music and dance are unacceptable to t he Deobandis, and the Taliban extensively damaged the shrine of Rehman Baba with explosives. Soon, they used rockets to ravage the mausoleum of Bahadar Baba, an d then directed their wrath against the 400-year-old shrine of another Sufi sain t, Abu Saeed Baba, both located near Peshawar. Renowned Islamic scholar Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, a member of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), which furnishes legal advice on Islamic issues to the Pakistan government, laments, Labelling others infidel and kafir has become a preferred ta sk of the mullahs. Its clear that every sect considers others heretical, kafirs a nd dwellers of hell. Even verses of the Quran are wrongly used to disprove other s faith and sects. In a way, a minority of Pakistans population has taken to declaring the rest as k afir. Look at the figures95 per cent of the Pakistani population are Muslim, of w hich 85 per cent are Sunni and 15 per cent Shia. But for the five per cent belon ging to the Ahle Hadith (Wahhabis), the Sunnis prescribe to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence. They are further subdivided into the Barelvi and Deobandi school s. Most agree on the following composition of Pakistans population60 per cent Bare lvis, 15 per cent Deobandis, 15 per cent Shias, 5 per cent Ahle Hadith, and the remaining 5 per cent constituting Ahmadis, Ismailis, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Parsis, etc. This means only 20 per cent of Pakistanis (15 per cent o f Deobandis plus 5 per cent of Ahle Hadith) strictly consider the remaining 80 p er cent as kafir, even willing to subject them to death and destruction. Renowned Pakistani writer Khaled Ahmed points to the irony: Within Sunni Islam, t he Deobandis and the Barelvis are not found anywhere outside India and Pakistan. The creation of these two sects was one of the masterstrokes of the Raj in its divide-and-rule policy. He says the Deobandi school took roots in India in 1866 a s a reaction to the overthrow of Muslim rule by the British. This school believe s in a literalist interpretation of Islam, and apart from Wahhabis, considers al l other sects as non-Muslim who must be exterminated. Thats why they work side by side, from politics to jehad, says Ahmed, adding that though the Barelvi school o f thought is the dominant jurisprudence in Pakistan, it is not as well politicall y organised as the Deobandi school. It was the Deobandi-Wahabi alliance, says Rehman, which pressured President Gen Zia-ul-Haq to declare the Ahmadis as non-Muslims. At a stroke of the pen, thus, a Muslim sect was clubbed with other religious minorities. Under the Constitutio n, they cant call themselves Muslim or even describe their place of worship as a mosque. Wary of disclosing their identity publicly, the Ahmadis were dragged int o the spotlight following devastating attacks on two of their mosques in Lahore that killed over a hundred people.

But Muslim status doesnt insulate even mainstream sects from murderous attacks. Ask the Shias, whose Muharram procession in Karachi was bombed in December 2009, ki lling 33. The Deobandis regard Shias as kafir, claiming their devotion to the cl erics and grant of divinely inspired status to them as heretical. The history of Sunni-Shia conflict is as old as Islam, but this has become increasingly bloody in the last decadeover 5,000 people have been killed since 2000because of the war in Afghanistan. Since Iran had backed the Northern Alliance there, the Deobandi s have taken to retaliating against the sect in Pakistan. They also accuse the S hias of assisting the Americans to invade Iraq. Says historian Dr Mubarak Ali, One consequence of the war in Afghanistan is the f racturing of Pakistans religious patchwork quilt. Whereas once the faultlines lay between the Shias and Sunnis, these have now spread to the Barelvis and Deoband is, who are both Sunni. Since the Barelvis are moderate and against the Taliban, the Deobandis look upon them as the states stooges, who as heretics should be put to death anyway, Ali argues. Perhaps the complicity between the state and the Deobandis deterred the latter f rom targeting the Barelvis till now. Lawyer and columnist Yasser Latif Hamdani s ays, There is this potent mixture of Pashtun nationalism and Deobandi Islam. Some how, there is something intrinsic to the very nature of Deobandi doctrine which the Pakistani military establishment is promoting to advance its so-called geost rategic agenda. Yet, simultaneously, under US pressure, the state had to crack do wn on the TTP, which, in pique, has taken to wreaking vengeance on the hapless B arelvis. As long as powerful sections in the establishment persist with their goal of bri nging the Pashtun Taliban back to power in Kabul, they will continue, says colum nist Imtiaz Alam, digging the grave of a democratic Pakistan. Sectarianism and jeh adi terrorism will be its consequent wages, he insists. No doubt, the enraged pe ople of Lahore took to the streets protesting against the attack on the Data Dar bar, but whats of greater urgency is that the state must do some really deep thin king. Source: Outlookindia.com URL: http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamWarWithinIslam_1.aspx?ArticleID=3239 Forward to a friend Print

COMMENTS ~Traveller~ Islamic nation is in acute identity crisis. In fact most religions are, but Isla m stands out more prominently because somehow latter is being practiced to varia ble extent by its followers whereas most contemporary religions have gone on bac k burners in day to day life of their practitioners. This is not after all a ver y bad sign rather this is a potent indicator that Islam is alive and relevant ho wsoever individualized or distorted the practitioners may spell it.

Juhi, Boston Mr. Amir Mir has done a great job of pointing out that it is only a very small p ercentage of population in Pakistan (in fact, elsewhere as well), who are trying to define Islam and force it down other people s throats by such targeted acts of violence, against the cultural ethos and Islamic heritage of more than thousa nd years. This also points to the need for websites like NewAgeIslam.com to show these alt ernative moderate views on Islam which actually the majority of Muslims believe and practice. Most Muslims are not in the job of labelling other people kafirs, they would rather earn a good living and most of all, would need security of lif e and freedom of religious practise.

Ghulam Mohiyuddin Pakistan has become a house of discord. Their only salvation may lie in becoming a secular state and making religion a personal or private affair. But can they do it? Not likely.

Lee Jay Walker JUHI states ".......against the cultural ethos and Islamic heritage of more than t housand years." In Afghanistan and Pakistan the cultural ethos and heritage belonged to Buddhism and Hinduism. However, after the complete eradication of Buddhism and Hinduism, and other fait hs, in Afghanistan, we now have the reality of Islam in all its backwardness. Pakistan is now going down the same road because once this land which belonged t o "mother India" was multi-religious and you will have had Buddhist and Hindu pl aces of worship all over what is now Pakistan. However, since this land became Pakistan you have seen "the light of Jinnah" col lapse and today you have Islamists who want to turn this nation into "year zero. " Could it be that Islamization means backwardness? Lee Jay Walker http://themoderntokyotimes.wordpress.com

Syed Md Sanaullah Well written article. I fully agree with it. When I was a child I also used to t hink that only Sunnis are true Muslims and others are kafir (I mean not true Mus lims). And when I began to learn Islam I started to read the Holy book Quran an d began to consider on Islam and then I found out that the humans who believe in one God and his messengers like Prophet Mohammad, Isa, Musa, Ram, Krishna Bud dha, Ibrahim, Adam and some other prophets .In fact people are killing in the na me of Islam each other. I think they are killing Muslims, killing Islam and maki ng Islam week. Indian Muslims are not doing as Pakistani Muslims are killing eac h other in the name of Deobandis and Wahhabis.