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| India-Pakistan |
| Second opinion: Our meaning of Allahâs Army |
| 2004-02-06 |
| The idea of war under Islam is at the root of our belief. We have many meanings of jihad but one central meaning is fighting in the way of Allah. Many of us think that only defensive war is allowed in Islam and that covert or proxy wars are not permitted. Others think that aggressive war âto remove injusticeâ is also included. Here we are on interpretive territory. The idea of Islamic war joins us with other Muslims in other countries although this introduces complications into the discussion because nation-states cut into the concept of the âummahâ or one transnational supra-nation. Major (Retd) Amir Afzal wrote in âNawa-e-Waqtâ (28 December 2003) magazine that the Pakistan army should apologise for its misdeeds and make itself into Hizbullah (party of Allah) and then convert the population of Pakistan into Hizbullah and use the big weapons with great care. All the foot-soldiers should be converted into shroud-wearing mujahideen ready to make night raids against the enemy. The entire nation should have one gun each and become a great flood of warriors to make Pakistan a castle of Islam. This is the most frightening flight of imagination on the part of an army officer. How should the army convert itself into Hizbullah? The last time it tried to do so, in 1995, it was caught in the act and one Zaheerul Islam Abbasi was put in jail for it. He later did create Hizbullah! Along with him was indicted Qari Saifullah Akhtar who was let off by the military court for some reason, one possible one being his jihad in Afghanistan and Kashmir. He was chief of Harkatul Jihad al-Islami which was later based in Kandahar because 80 percent of the members of the Taliban government belonged to it because of the connection with Afghan jihadi leader Maulavi Nabi Muhammadi with whom the Harkatul Jihad al-Islami was aligned in its early phase. After leading forays into Chechnya, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Qari Saifullah Akhtar fled back into Pakistan to escape American bombing and was later whisked off to the Middle East by his Arab connections. According to daily âPakistanâ (29 December 2003) a number of political parties in Bangladesh parliament were getting together to bring a resolution for the apostatisation of the Qadianis in Bangladesh. The move was backed by the Khatm-e-Nabuwwat committee of the country which threatened to launch a violent drive in the country against the minority community. The Committee gave till 9 January 2004 for declaring the Qadianis non-Muslim. The Qadiani-baiting was an old West Pakistan disease while East Pakistan remained free from it mainly because East Pakistan was dominated by educated leaders. Mujib founded Bangladesh as a secular state but that experiment failed and the constitution was tweaked once again into accepting some of the dark instincts of the Muslims. One army general introduced the article about Bangladesh being an Islamic state; another put in the 8th Amendment more or less like General Zia of Pakistan. Now the next step is to be taken by declaring the Qadianis non-Muslims, followed most probably by the killing of the few Qadianis that live in the country. The closing of the Bangladeshi mind is a tragedy. The world might help by taking in the population of the Qadianis still living in Bangladesh. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |