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I have become more moderate, says Masroor Nawaz Jhangvi
[DAWN] Masroor Nawaz Jhangvi said he has become more moderate and distanced himself from his previous anti-Shia rhetoric after winning a regional assembly seat.Jhangvi's December election to the Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard 2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers 3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... provincial assembly caused a stir in due to fears his political ascent would increase sectarian divides in Jhang, a dusty town with a history of violence between its resident Shia and Sunni communities. The 29-year-old is also on a list of people with suspected ties to holy warrior groups. Jhangvi's assassinated father, Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, was a fierce anti-Shia holy man who founded the now proscribed Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain ...a Sunni Deobandi organization, a formerly registered Pak political party, established in the early 1980s in Jhang by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. Its stated goal is to oppose Shia influence in Pakistain. They're not too big on Brelvis, either. Or Christians. Or anybody else who's not them. The organization was bannedin 2002 as a terrorist organization, but somehow it keeps ticking along, piling up the corpse counts... . He was killed in 1990. The banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... , which has carried out some of the worst sectarian attacks in Pakistain's history, was named after his father. "Responsibility has fallen on my shoulders, now I am representative of all the people of Jhang," Jhangvi told Rooters in an interview last week during an hours-long tour of his home town. "I consider everybody to be human, and I want peace in Jhang and in Punjab," Jhangvi added. The proscribed Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) strongly backed Jhangvi during the election but the bearded holy man denies being a member of the group. In the Punjab assembly, Jhangvi has joined the far right religious party Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability... -Fazl (JUI-F). Jhangvi distanced himself from sectarian video clips by saying they were several years old. But when asked if he regretted making inflammatory comments about Shias in the past, Jhangvi smiled and said "no comment". One prominent Shia resident in Jhang said Jhangvi did not run a sectarian campaign and has portrayed himself as a de-radicalised figure, even managing to win some Shia votes in the Dec 1 election. "Time will prove whether it is genuine deradicalisation and a departure from the past or whether it's based on political expediency," added the resident, who did not wish to be identified. Posted by: Fred 2016-12-22 |
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