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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Lashkar-e-Taiba’s medical wing |
| 2004-05-10 |
| All this sounds very noble, except for the fact that Jamatud Dawah controls the Lashkar-e-Taiba. The ad-Dawah Medical Mission is the most important project of Jamatud Dawah, the assumption being that doctors make the best preachers It was probably the first time in Pakistan’s history that around 600 doctors and students of medical colleges from around the country gathered in a mosque (in Lahore) and shared their knowledge about the recent medical researches and possibilities of providing medical assistance to the poor and needy at their doorsteps for two days. There were lessons on the Quran and Hadith in between these sessions. During these lessons, the speakers, including Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, Hafiz Abdur Rehman Makki, and Abdus Salam Bhutvi, talked about different Islamic themes and asked the attentive and receptive audience to follow the Islamic tenets in their private and professional lives. The occasion was a different kind of conference -- the first Islamic Medical Conference. The first Islamic Medical Conference on May 1 and 2 was organised by the Jamat ud Dawah’s department of Khidmat-i-Khalq and held at the Jamia Masjid al-Qadsia in Lahore, the new headquarters of the Jamatud Dawah. This article sheds a different light on the Lashkar’s recruitment of doctors, since they are meant to act as combat medics on the fields of Jihad, although obviously that doesn’t preclude them from helping other sick or injured people in Pakistan. Jamatud Dawah’s department of Khidmat-i-Khalq has been quite active over the last couple of years. In addition to providing medical assistance, it is implementing a large number of social welfare projects such as digging wells and providing stitching machines to widows around the country. Its monthly budget during the last 14 months has averaged more than Rs 3.5 million, almost twice as much as it was spending previously, the official sources of the Jamat claim. The ad-Dawah Medical Mission is Khidmat-i-Khalq department’s most important project. Jamatud Dawah, or its predecessor Markaz Dawat wal Irshad, has always been interested in providing medical facilities to the poor. It founded the Taiba Hospital in Muzaffarabad in the early 1990s to provide medical assistance to the needy, including refugees from the Occupied Kashmir. The hospital has grown to be a 26-bed hospital. According to official sources of the Markaz, around 9,000 outdoor patients visit this hospital every month to get free of cost or very inexpensive medical support. In spite of being a charity, it is considered to be the best private hospital in Azad Kashmir. The Jamatud Dawah also founded another hospital at the Markaz Taiba in Muridke. The official figures of the Markaz claim that around 2,000 students study at the Taiba Educational Complex at the Markaz Taiba in Muridke. Every month, around 6,000 patients get free of cost or inexpensive medical support from this hospital, the sources claim. A new building to house a 100-bed hospital is being built at Muridke. And since much like it’s education system, Pakistan’s health system is in a state of collapse, they will have plenty of people to influence. According to Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the department of Khidmat-i-Khalq is planning to expand its area of operations even outside the country. "It has already sent relief goods worth 1.88 million to the Iranian city of Bam after an earthquake hit it. It has been sending relief goods and meat of the sacrificial animals to Afghanistan and Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. It offered to send relief goods to help the people in Bhoj in the Indian Gujrat after an earthquake devastated the region but the Indian government declined the offer. It is currently planning to extend its relief operations to the stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh in the coming months," he said. The basic objective of the first Islamic Medical Conference was to extend dawat (proselytise) to the medical community of Pakistan to join the Jamatud Dawah in its mission of khidmat-i-khalq. Hafiz Abdur Raoof further said that the participating doctors and medical students can further the mission of the ad-Dawah Medical Mission by working for just for one hour at any one of the ad-Dawah medical hospitals and dispensaries. The doctors are not supposed to offer treatment just for bodily ills; they also offer dawat to all their patients. They ask their Muslim patients to become better Muslims and non-Muslim patients to convert to Islam. There is no apparent coercion as the provision of medical assistance is not conditional on accepting the dawat of the ad-Dawah Medical Mission. Like in other sectors, the Jamatud Dawah has been active among medical students. The association these students build with the Jamatud Dawah as students continues forever in most of the cases. For instance, Dr Ahmed Daud, an eye specialist and the vice-chairman of the Ad-Dawah Medical Mission became associated with the Markaz Dawat wal Irshad when he was a student at the Allama Iqbal Medical College in Lahore. He never wavered in his commitment to the mission of the Jamatud Dawah since then. This story supports a comparison I have been thinking about between Hezbollah and Lashkar-e-Taiba. Both are running elaborate social welfare systems, while maintaining a militia of thousands and a terrorist structure. They both have cells spread throughout the world, and operate as the proxies of the intelligence agencies of either Iran or Pakistan. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #13 The Abbasids built a large number of hospitals and pharmacies mainly in Baghdad, including the hospital built by Al -Rashid on the western side of Baghdad by physician Gibrael bin Bakhtiihu, Al Sa'edi hOspital built in the eastern I1 side during Al Mu'tad Caliph reign, the Muktadir hospital built by Al Muktadir In 306 A.H. 918 A.D., the Hospital of the, Lady built by his mother at Al Zamiya; Hospital of Ibn al Furat built by his minister Abu al Hassan Ibn Al Furat, .etc: This was an attempt to find places where patients may be treated and are placed under observation for record which IS the II basis of modern hospitals. Muslim doctors had new medical views and theories for the treatment of numerous diseases. Among other innovations they used caustics in surgery; they prescribed cold water to stop bleeding; they treated nasal tumours, and removed cancerous breasts; extracted bladder stones; performed eye and hernia surgery; removed embryos with a machine; used traction for broken bones and anaesthetics. They also distinguished between measles and smallpox. The state regulated medical practices and physicians; pharmacists were tested during the times of Al Mamun and al Mu'atasim. Caliph Al Muktadir banned medical professionals from practice except after examination. Each medical practitioner takes the Muslim doctor's oath which underlines the confidentiality of the patient and his treatment to, preserve the honour of the profession.   "I free myself from the Holder of the souls of the wise, the lifter of the Zenith of the sky, the creator of upper , movements if I withold an advice or inflict a harm; if I offer an inferior thing when I know what is superior. You should be : decent and should listen to people to the end as much as you can. If you miss that, you are the loser. Allah will be the witness on both you and me and hears what you say. Whoever breaks his covenant (with Allah) will be the target for His judgement, unless he quits His earth and sky." - EMPHASIS ADDED - |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-05-10 3:49:07 PM |
| #12 LH you know pork chop is traif why are you wearing one around you're neck? |
| Posted by: Fury 4 2004-05-10 3:40:33 PM |
| #11 Lh, bottom line? I'd rather not be in one of their hospitals, though, thank you. |
| Posted by: Jen 2004-05-10 12:53:15 PM |
| #10 1. there seems to be some kind of "oath of a muslim physician" floating around, but it seems to be a modern one. 2. I assume that Pakistan and other muslim countries have the difficulties with modern medical care that all less developed countries do, including western background countries in Latin America. It may well be that the problems with ECONOMIC development are rooted in muslim culture, but thats a different thing. 3.My understanding is that the adoption of Western medecine, to the extent feasible, is rarely controversial. (Mbeki in SA, and the idiots in Kano State, duly noted) 4. My point is that the Greek medical tradition was very much a part of the medical tradition in the Islamic world. True, that doesnt give them Pasteur, or vaccination, or zillion other advances - just makes the point that what makes Western medicine superior is essentially modern, and is a legacy of the enlightenment and succeeding periods, NOT of the Wests Greek heritage. |
| Posted by: Liberalhawk 2004-05-10 12:49:30 PM |
| #9 But Lh, that was a very, very lonnnnnngggggg time ago. |
| Posted by: Jen 2004-05-10 12:38:58 PM |
| #8 The jews have the oath of Maimonides, which differs in some particulars from the oath of hippocrates, and is even preferred by some non-Jewish physicians. As Maimonides lived and practiced in the Arab world, I'd be surprised if the Muslims dont have their own oath for physicians, from the same period. It should be noted that Medicine was an area of muslim achievement in the middle ages, and an area where the West learned from Islam. |
| Posted by: Liberalhawk 2004-05-10 12:38:12 PM |
| #7 Liberalhawk, if you're going to be technical, I suppose I meant Western vs. non-Western in terms of medical training and qualification and using an oath that originated with an ancient Greek, Hippocrates. Can't see Pakis using the Hippocratic oath, unless they borrowed it from the British. |
| Posted by: Jen 2004-05-10 12:34:20 PM |
| #6 Arabs are generally identified by language spoken. They dont speak arabic, ergo theyre not arabs. As for backwards, there are urban secular pakis - thats why we get our juicy quotes here from the Urdu press, Paklands extensive English language press is a different story. And even the non-english speaking Punjabis, etc generally dont do the celebratory gunfire thing - thats more a Pashtun thing. |
| Posted by: Liberalhawk 2004-05-10 12:31:55 PM |
| #5 they seem to identify well with the arab world though, ignoring ancestry, what makes them not arab? they seem the same too me, backward folk with rolling eyes and the occasional gunsex celebration |
| Posted by: Dcreeper 2004-05-10 11:54:53 AM |
| #4 The above article is about Pakistan, NOT about an Arab country. arab != muslim |
| Posted by: Liberalhawk 2004-05-10 9:13:12 AM |
| #3 Who knows what qualifies someone to be a "doctor" in the Arab world? I haven't noticed an outstanding quality to their medical care. And the Hippocratic Oath is a Western tradition and probably not an Arabic one. |
| Posted by: Jen 2004-05-10 2:56:39 AM |
| #2 the assumption being that doctors make the best preachers Doesn't this automatically violate their oath to "do no harm?" This is right up there with Rantissi being a pediatrician. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-05-10 1:57:14 AM |
| #1 Nice job Paul. Your a warrior. This is a strange deal by western standards. Doctors, who needs doctors when paradise is just a..... |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-05-10 1:45:44 AM |