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| Afghanistan/South Asia | |||||
| Al Qaeda kills its mentor? | |||||
| 2004-06-07 | |||||
| The author formerly worked with Indian intelligence On May 30, 2004, unidentified terrorists riding a motorbike shot dead Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, the chief of the hardline Deobandi Binori madrasa of Karachi and one of his sons and a nephew as he was returning to his house, located just across the road from the madrasa. As it normally happens in Pakistan after each such terrorist strike, there have been speculations galore in the media as well as amongst the public. Sections of the local media, including the prestigious "Daily Times" of Lahore, have projected it as a possible act of retaliation by Shia extremists for the suicide-bombing of the Haideri Masjid by Sunni terrorists in the beginning of last month, in which 18 Shias were killed. However, many colleagues of Shamzai in the Binori madrasa have refrained from blaming the Shia extremists for the assassination and condemned attempts to project it as the outcome of the growing Shia-Sunni divide in Pakistan in general and in Karachi in particular. They blame the US for the assassination and accuse the provincial administration of Sindh, in which the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) of Altaf Hussain now plays a predominant role, of acting as the stooge of the US and facilitating his murder by not providing him with effective security despite the fact that he was in receipt of increasing threats to his life since the beginning of this year.
The MQM are certainly capable of it, they turned Karachi into a war zone in the mid 90’s and were able to survive death squads sent against them by the government, in the days before they became allies with the establishment. They are a staunchly secular party who are one of the principal enemies of the Islamists, and were able to eject the Jamaat-e-Islami from Karachi for a while by killing enough of it’s members.
During his career, he had issued nearly 2000 fatwas. In the 1970s and the 1980s, his fatwas were mainly directed against the USSR, India and Israel. After Osama bin Laden formed his International Islamic Front (IIF) in February, 1998, his fatwas became increasingly directed against the US. After the US-led coalition started its so-called war against terrorism in Afghanistan in October, 2001, he issued a fatwa calling upon the Muslims of the world to join the jihad against the US. Shamzai was the mentor and godfather of Al Qaeda, the Taliban, the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and its militant wing the LEJ, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) and the Jaish-E-Mohammad (JEM). He was designated as the Patron-in-Chief of the JEM and was a member of the shoora of Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the JUI of Maulana Fazlur Rahman.
Shamzai was the principal exponent of International Islamism which holds, firstly, that the loyalty of a Muslim is first to his religion and then only to the country of which he is resident or a citizen; secondly, that Muslims do not recognise national frontiers and hence have the right and the obligation to wage jihad anywhere to protect their religion; and, thirdly, that the Muslims have the right and the religious obligation to acquire and use weapons of mass destruction to protect their religion, if necessary. These ideas strongly influenced the thinking of bin Laden. Since the beginning of this year, there have been reports of differences in Al Qaeda and the IIF over the action of some sections of Al Qaeda and the IIF in targeting the Saudi ruling family and its administration. Shamzai, who had close contacts with the Saudi ruling family and religious clerics and was in receipt of large funds from them, was reportedly increasingly critical of Al Qaeda leadership for allegedly weakening the jihad against the USA and Israel by targeting the Saudi authorities and thereby losing their support for the international jihad. Al Qaeda elements were accusing him of letting himself be bought by the Saudi authorities and supporting the pro-US apostate regimes of the Islamic world. Did these differences have anything to do with his assassination? If so, did Al Qaeda or the IIF have any role in his assassination? These questions are quite relevant, but remain without definitive answers at present. | |||||
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #5 Shamzai was the principal exponent of International Islamism which holds, firstly, that the loyalty of a Muslim is first to his religion and then only to the country of which he is resident or a citizen; secondly, that Muslims do not recognise national frontiers and hence have the right and the obligation to wage jihad anywhere to protect their religion; and, thirdly, that the Muslims have the right and the religious obligation to acquire and use weapons of mass destruction to protect their religion, if necessary. It is this one particular stance that must be disavowed by all imam's who wish to preach in Western countries (and perhaps the entire world). Failure to do so with convincing sincerity is adequate justification for wiping militant Islam (and quite possibly Islam as a whole) from the face of this earth. Anyplace that permits the preaching of this doctrine should rocket straight to the top of our Christmas list. It is nothing but a blatant declaration of outright war against secular cultures and should not be mistaken for anything else. This has zero to do with freedom of religion and everything to do with waging genocide. In making such a statement, Shamzai deliberately crossed the line between religion and politics. That is where the gloves come off. I makes me wish we did off this slimeball. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-06-07 2:42:18 PM |
| #4 Live by the sword, die by the sword--- metaphorically speaking, of course. |
| Posted by: Sgt. Mom 2004-06-07 12:34:18 PM |
| #3 On May 30, 2004, unidentified terrorists riding a motorbike shot dead Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, the chief of the hardline Deobandi Binori madrasa of Karachi and one of his sons and a nephew as he was returning to his house, located just across the road from the madrasa. Hs pissed off Osama or Omar? (We saw you playing chess through your widow. Tsk, tsk, tsk. . .) If they eat their own leaders, there are fewer leadres we have to find. What's bad is that with no leaders, everybody is an independent agent, and that makes things harder to track, especially if one of the independent crazies has access to a WMD. |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-06-07 12:18:18 PM |
| #2 If there ever was a poster boy for islam as a geo-political ideal, this shamzai guy is it. The targeting campaign perhaps? |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-06-07 12:13:50 PM |
| #1 During his career, he had issued nearly 2000 fatwas. This sounds like they may be counting fatwas from his AA moskk days, prolly should have an asterix uh astriks, one of these * by the record. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-06-07 8:53:13 AM |