SECOND OPINION: Sorry, your extremism is showing! — Khaled Ahmed’s Review of the Urdu pressHow is extremism born? Now that our great cricketer Saqlain Mushtaq says music is banned, the masses should gather and destroy all TV stations broadcasting music. This has been done in the past, by the Taliban in Afghanistan and Lashkar-e-Tayba in Muridke
On Tuesday last a seminar in Peshawar came to the unanimous conclusion that there was no extremism among Muslims and Pakistanis, and that the perception of it abroad was based on a misrepresentation of facts. Had the seminar read just one dayÂ’s Urdu press it would have thought otherwise. The Muslim mind has two qualities: extremism and denial, two concepts based on exaggeration and falsehood.
Quoted in Khabrain (17 March 2006) several clerics condemned LahoreÂ’s famous novelist and social worker Bushra Rehman for joining the Hindus to celebrate the festival of holi. Maulana Abdul Malik said that she should not have accepted a tilak on her forehead and thrown colour as that was tantamount to shirk for which she should do tauba.
PML women politicians too became pious. Mehnaz Rafi said that she should not have done the ritual of aarti. Qudsia Lodhi said she should not have worshipped. Nighat Parvin said she was no longer a Muslim. Bushra Rehman said that she did not give up her Islamic faith and added that all claims of tolerance were hypocritical in Pakistan.
This incident is shocking in the extreme because Begum BushraÂ’s condemnation came from women politicians who pretend not to be extremists. What would they say about JinnahÂ’s joining the Christians in their celebration of Christmas, which he did to the last moments of his life? That the PML women condemned Bushra is shameful because the party pretends to agree with Musharraf that Pakistan needs to shun extremism.
Talking to Nawa-e-Waqt magazine (12 March 2006) PakistanÂ’s greatest spin bowler Saqlain Mushtaq said that music was haram (banned) in Islam and therefore he never listened to music. He said that the only perfume he liked was the smell of ghilaf-e-Kaaba (cover of Kaaba). The best cities in the world are Makka and Madina although people say Lahor Lahor Ai. He said if Pakistan wanted to make progress it didnÂ’t have to go forward. It had instead to move backward about 14 hundred years.
Our sportsmen who provide us entertainment and relief from the rigours of extremist religious thought are joining the devil too. How does extremism spring? Now that Saqlain says music is banned the masses should gather and destroy all TV stations broadcasting music. This has been done before, by the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Lashkar-e-Tayba in Muridke.
According to Khabrain (14 March 2006) the town of Jatoi came to a standstill with fears of large-scale destruction after a contractor on the highway blasphemed against Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). The incident took place when a tractor driver crossed the barrier without paying the toll. The contractor ran after him and caught whereupon he took the name of the Prophet (peace be upon him). The contractor blasphemed in the presence of the students of a madrassa.
The news spread like wildfire and the cities in a radius of miles began to close down. People came out in Jatoi ready to destroy public property because of their love of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Students from all colleges blocked the traffic on all the roads. The police was activated and had registered a case.
The man who allegedly blasphemed should have been handled differently. Why block roads and threaten the lives of innocent people not connected with the incident? But much acclaim is showered on ashiqan rasul (lovers of the Prophet) so that more extremist behaviour is resorted to.
Columnist Nazeer Naji wrote in Jang (16 March 2006) that all countries of the EU were making changes in their immigration laws to make the entry of Muslims into Europe virtually impossible. Also new laws were on the anvil to keep an eye on the private activities of the Muslims already resident in the EU.
There may soon come a time when EU will not allow any Muslim to visit Europe and no European would want to visit Pakistan. Extremism on the roads of Pakistan therefore should be avoided. Most Pakistanis who were not given to extremism must secure the true spirit of Islam against the extremism and violence of a few among them.
Extremism among expatriate Pakistanis is rising in complete disregard of the legal and constitutional action Europe can take against them. People break all sorts of barriers to get to Europe, then adopt extremist conduct as a way of life.
Quoted in daily Pakistan (13 March 2006) the wife of Hafiz Saeed, leader of the banned Lashkar-e-Tayba, told a gathering of women in Lahore that Muslim women in Pakistan should tie bombs around their bodies to defend the honour of Islam. She said only thus would the honour of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) be protected in the world.
What more evidence does one need of extremism? And what more proof is needed about who is spreading it? If after this the UN Committee on terrorism in the Security Council places a ban on Jamaat Dawa what moral defence would Pakistan have of its decision to keep the organisation alive as a “jihadi option”?
According to Nawa-e-Waqt (18 March 2006) Jamaat Dawa, formerly Lashkar-e-Tayba banned by the UN Security Council as a terrorist organisation, made its show of strength in Lahore with a rally of 20,000 dedicated to the honour of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him). It called on the Muslims not to tolerate insult to the Prophet PBUH (peace be upon him) and refuse the slavery of the United States.
Chief of Jamaat Dawa Hafiz Saeed said that the Muslims should make a United States of Muslims and get out of the UN. Maulana Samiul Haq said that the Muslim ummah had woken up after the Danish cartoons. Hafiz Hussain Ahmad said that the Americans were trying to grab the resources of the Muslims. Hameed Gul said that the Muslims were at war because the West had attacked the honour of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Hafiz Idrees said that the flag of jihad will not be lowered. Mujibur Rehman Shami said that Muslim governments were no longer representative of the Muslim masses and had to be changed.
Hafiz Said is the last panjandrum of jihad that Pakistan has decided to go down with. Here is an example of how extremism can lead to terrorism. About the United Nations of Muslims, allow one to say that the OIC states could not get together enough money to fund the salaries of the Hamas government in Palestine, which is now on European and American dole. *
| Panjandrum. I had to look that one up. |