Opinion Editorials, July 2007
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Red Mosque, Lal Masjid, Incident and Beyond
By Mokarram Hossain
ccun.org,
July 14, 2007
Since last few days, Lal Masjid (red mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan) issue is the talk not only in Indian subcontinent but also around the Globe. Who are responsible for this bloodshed? Only Ghazi brothers? Madrasa education? Dictator Musharraf? Western Interests for ’great game’?
Many
believe this incident has far reaching implications in Indian subcontinent
geopolitics and for Islamic education. Western media and cohorts of
Musharraf merely say, its a
result of intolerant, backdated Islamic
education and acts of some ‘bigots’. In this sense, Abdul Rashid Ghazi
and his adherent are solely responsible. Kidnapping foreigners and law
enforcers, use of women and children as human shield, try to impose
self-styled Sharia law, are dogmatic acts for which ‘mad mullahs’ should
be punished. Nobody can take the law in its own hand in the name of Islam.
These visionless so-called extremists want to impose Islamic Sharia in
Islamabad and surroundings. How funny! Who gives them mandate to do that?
These activities of theirs not only tarnish the peaceful and tolerant stand
of Islam but also justify the Western media propaganda that Islam is not
compatible with democracy, rule of law
and human rights. Western media gets one more timely issue to wage crusade
against Islamic education in the subcontinent.
The
scene is merely created by some ‘mad mullahs’ and extremist ‘foreign
fighters’ may not be the fact. There are stories behind the story. First
of all, we can say, the standoff of the Lal Masjid did not develop within
few days.
It
started in January 2007. The government cannot absolve itself of the
tragedy. If it wanted, the matter could have been resolved at the beginning.
General Musharaf wants to achieve some
short term goals by elevating
the standoff to the Zenith but the men behind the machine who back the
General may consummate some far reaching goals.
The
military dictator wants to bring the issue to it’s peak and detonate it at
the time when he needs. Yes, tyrant gets honeymoon time, while he
is dealing with Lal Majsid issue
in Islamabad, ARD(Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy), a
conglomeration of major
democratic forces in Pakistan, is
conducting a series of meetings with different opposition political parties
in London (Daily Dawn, 8 July 2007). Timely, he gets an issue to
divert the people attention from the opposition parties ongoing
anti-military regime movement.
Is Govt really serious to resolve the issue peacefully at the early stage or later?
If
it wanted to solve the dead lock peacefully, they could easily block the
essential supplies of the Masjid
i.e. foods, electricity, water etc for several days even several
months. Using these tactics and other modern intelligent ways, they could
flush out the so-called ‘foreign fighters’. We saw lot of situations
where all out blockade and 'wait & see' strategy solved many problems
without bloodshed. In case of Lal Masjid, we didn’t see such type of
peaceful use of power instead of using some modern machinery against its own
people.
How
did it possible to pile up arms and ammunitions by madrasa students
including rocket launchers, grenades, cannon in an area (Lal Masjid) which
is few hundred meters from intelligence (ISI) head office and
supreme court building? Lal Masjid is a government owned mosque in
capital city and all of it’s employee including Rashid Ghazi and so
called militants were employed by the Gen. Musharaf’s govt.
According
to newspaper reports, some high official were involved to supply the arms.
“ One well known television journalist has recently written in a newspaper
column that he was told by a senior government official that Lal Masjid's
arms suppliers had been arrested by the police some time back but they were
released after intervention from higher authorities. If this claim is true,
answers need to be given as to why this was done (The Daily Times, 11
July 2007).
At
the eleventh hour, authority initiates a ‘dialogue’ to solve the crisis
‘peacefully’. Everything
was about to settle down," Qari Hanif Jalindhrai, a member of the
delegation, told a news conference along with Grand Mufti of Pakistan
Maulana Rafi Usmani."Maulana Ghazi had agreed to our formula that he
would be shifted to his home town, and tried by the courts," he
added."However, when the draft of the proposed formula was sent to
President House, it was rejected, and a new draft was given to us asking
Maulana Ghazi to surrender," Jalindhrai recalled (Aljazeera online,
11 July 2007). “The government could
have held a longer dialogue. We can sit and have dialogues with the Indians,
why couldn't we talk to these people? They are fellow Muslims” lamented a
Pakistani in Islamabad (BBC, 11 July 2007).
One
horror but interesting event in the “Operation Silence”, is use of
military forces and type of armaments.” For the first time in the history
of Pakistan, our own security forces not only bombarded a mosque and
religious seminary, but also brought in armored personnel carriers, tanks
and helicopter gunships in numbers that made you wonder” (Islam, 11
July 2007).
The
dictator was interested to utter the language of guns instead of following
any peaceful way in order to appease his allies in ‘war on terror ‘. Lal
Masjid ‘mullahs’ give him an issue, that’s enough for the General to
subversive the people and to
show the West as the most
‘reliant boy’ to fight against religious jingoism. “The
United States and most Western countries have traditionally dealt with
Pakistan according to short-term interests. The West adopted a more
lenient attitude toward Pakistan’s military regime as a moderate stalwart
against Islamic extremism " (Rethinking Western Strategies Toward
Pakistan, Carnegie Endowment, 2007).
May
be US and its allies want to see the ‘kargil boy’ again in power as
their strategy towards Muslim countries is to see these without democracy.
” The United States has generally accepted the fiction that repression in
the Muslim world is the best way to prevent Islamism from growing as a
threat to the West and to US interests “(Islam and Democracy, USIP
special report, Sept 2002).
Musharaf
achieved or may achieve what he wants. But what are the perennial
implications of Lal Masjid incedent? To envisage one long-term implication,
we
have to be aware of the comments
of US influential
senator John McCain in an
interview with CNN Late Edition, “US wants to bar the flow of
money from Oil-rich Islamic countries to any Islamic Madrasa/education
institute especially to the
Indian subcontinent (CNN Late Edition, June 2004). Lal Masjid
incident will add fuel to materialize the ‘expectation’ of Mr McCain.
After
the pathetic event, the situation may discourage the parents to send their
beloved children to any Islamic
seminary. On the other hand Pakistan govt and Western power will
put more pressure on Middle
East and other rich Muslim countries not to release any money, mainly the
donations of generous Muslim folks, to the impoverished Indian subcontinent
Islamic institutes.
The
situation is taking a sensitive turn in North West Frontier Province (NWFP)
and tribal areas in reaction to the red mosque operation (The Daily News,
11 July 2007).
The Ghazi family
belongs to the Baloch Mazari, a warrior tribe from southern Punjab
and north-eastern Balochistan and most of the madrasa students are also from
tribal areas. It will instigate the instability and tension in NWFP, Balochistan and
other tribal areas . The
‘great game’ that US and its allies want to play is to secure the
flow of Central Asian Oil and other natural resources in future
through Afghanistan (Islam, Oil, and Geopolitics in Central Asia after
September 11, APCSS Publication, 2006).
They need to secure not only Afghanistan(land-locked
country without direct access to sea port) but also Pakistan’s strategic
Gwadar sea port with some parts of NWFP and Balochistan. Tribal-inspired
cessation in those areas is
a part of the ‘great game’. Ironically,
some visionless extremists coupling with tyrants are dancing
to materialize the ‘great game’.
*Writer:
PhD Student,
Technical
University of Kaiserslautern, Germany
e-mail:
mokarram76@yahoo.com
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