[wvns] Pakistan's El Waco & the Burqa Brigade

Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Burqa Brigade
What Lies Beneath
By FAWZIA AFZAL-KHAN
http://www.counterpunch.com/khan07072007.html

[This article is written from an extremely irritating and
disrespectful pseudo-feminist point of view, but quotes pretty
moderate "Islamic" rhetoric from the people who were massacred by the
Pakistani government forces shortly afterwards. It gives you a good
idea of the trying-HARD-but-failing-to-be-cool ruling class Pakistani
Ivy League types coddling the US as well as Israeli occupation -WVNS]

As a Pakistani-born feminist academic living in the USA for almost
thirty years, I have been horrified, yet fascinated, at the phenomenon
that has had the Pakistani public and press in its grip these past six
months: the terrorizing tactics of Pakistan's self-appointed "moral
police," the band of women popularly referred to by the secular elite
of Pakistan as the Burqa Brigade, or, by the more titillatingly sexist
(and sexy) label, "Chicks With Sticks."

So, when I arrived in Lahore in the blistering heat of June and began
reading about the escalating public theatrics of this group of women
operating as the moral militants of the Lal Masjid clerics, being a
performance artist myself, I just could not resist trying to get into
their space to see what they were all about. Two days before a
journalist friend of mine in Islamabad agreed to try and get me into
the premises of the Lal Masjid and adjoining Jamia Hafsa seminary for
women, the Burqa Brigade of this school raided what they claimed was a
brothel owned and operated by a group of Chinese women and men in the
city, and abducted them along with two Pakistani male customers
enjoying their "massage" services in the middle of the night. This
abduction, meant to warn and thence curb "sexual depravity" in
Pakistani society, naturally created an international incident,
putting Chinese-Pakistani relations at risk. I was more worried about
how this turn of events would affect my own entry into the madrassa
and the masjid. Luckily for me-never mind for the captives and the two
governments-the Chicks with Sticks and their male leaders decided to
release the hostages in a gesture of goodwill as long as the warning
served its purpose. And so I got inand did not realize that a day
later would have been too late, since the Pakistani Army Rangers
surrounded the masjid and adjoining Jamia Hafsa the very next day, and
just this morning, July 3rd, exactly a week after my entry, a Ranger
and a Policeman have been killed, according to the news media, by a
shot emanating from within the premises of the Lal Masjid. A day
later, 12 people including students and a journalist are also amongst
the casualties, and the Lal Masjid stands surrounded by the State's
forces. How will this story end?

My journalist friend in Islamabad who was arranging my interview and
entry into the premises, asked me to call Ghazi Abdul Rashid ( Deputy
Administrator of the Lal Masjid under whose auspices the Jamia Hafsa
operates, as well as VP of the Jamia Fareedia Madrassa for men founded
in 1965 by his father, the late Maulana Abdul Haque), to finalize
plans. I was a little freaked out at the thought of calling one of the
two leaders of this fundamentalist group of male and female clerics
(his brother, Maulana Abdul Aziz, the Head of Jamia Fareedia and the
Lal Masjid, apparently never gives interviews to women); the voice on
the other end of the phone sounded surprisingly normal, and in
response to my query as to whether I should come to see him in Lal
Masjid the next day wearing a burqa, I heard a chuckle, followed by:
"You are a Pakistani lady, yes? No need for the burqa. Just come
dressed normally." Did this mean he thought the women under his
tutelage were being asked to dress abnormally, then??

Anyhow, I arrived promptly at a few minutes to 9a.m. the next morning,
on June 27th, 2007, outside the gates of the Lal Masjid, located in
the heart of Islamabad, near the bustling Aabpara Market, determined
to be on time for my exclusive interview with Ghazi Abdul Rashid and
later, with the women of the Jamia Hafsa which is located next door to
the mosque. Rows upon rows of red and black-checquered Palestinian
kafiyyehs fluttered in the already-hot breeze, adorning the Pathani
stalls selling religious objects and clothing in the square across
from the mosque and the women's seminary. My friend approached the two
bearded guards sitting outside the rusted steel gates of the masjid,
to inform them I had an appointment with Ghazi Sahib. The older of
them asked for my business card (from my male friend, not from
me)-went inside, came out and said to my friend ­again-"okay, she can
come with me. Ask her to cover her hair."

"You should be done by 11, right?" asked my friend, a little anxious
now. I nodded. "I'll call on your cell and you call too; this way I'll
know exactly when to send the car to pick you up." And then he was
gone, as I followed the man with the white beard and the gun into the
premises of the Lal Masjid.

Facing me was a run-down brick wall with some Quranic lettering
scrawled on it in white paint, and then we turned right and a few feet
down was another wall, obstructing any possibility of a larger view.
Leaning against this wall were a large bunch of tall reddish-brown
bamboo staves, which I recognized with a slight tremor down my spine,
as the sticks of the chicks caught menacingly in a number of
photographs printed in both the Pakistani press and abroad on the net.

I recalled how I had passed the first of these photos around amongst
the audience at the Brecht Forum back in April, where I was speaking
on a panel entitled, "Competing Fundamentalisms: Islam and the West,"
with Nawal El Saadawi, the renowned Egyptian feminist author, who had
just been declared a blasphemer (again!)- by Egyptian clerics for
having published a play called God Resigns at the Summit Meeting. What
if these Lal Masjid or Jamia Hafsa folks knew I had been maligning
them in the West, cavorting around with blasphemers like Nawal??
Suddenly, I came upon a small clearing, and was startled to see a
group of men and boys, some standing , a few sitting on a couple of
charpais, and on a low wall near a room-like structure to my right.

Arabic sounds of Quranic chanting were emanating from a loudspeaker
somewhere, filling the compound, and the men, equally startled to see
me in high heels with toes exposed (I suddenly became painfully aware
of my toenails painted bright red), straightened up and clutched at
their AK-47s ever so slightly. They all wore black turbans, and had
the straggly black beards and shalwar-kameezes and pathani sandals we
have come to know as the uniform of the Taliban, and each and every
one of them sported a semi-automatic weapon slung across his
shoulders. My guide stopped, and as though struck by an afterthought,
asked what I was carrying in my two bags, and without waiting for an
answer even, informed me I'd have to leave the bags behind with him
before I could proceed further into this walled compound to meet with
Ghazi Sahib. I told him I couldn't do that since I needed my recorder
to tape the interview, as well as my camera to take some pictures. I
told him I'd checked with Ghazi sahib and he'd said it was okay, and
then I asked if I could photograph the men with the guns. At that, the
man turned around, and said he would lead me back to some waiting
room, and then inform Mr Ghazi who could decide what to do with me. As
I was protesting against being led away form this spot, luckily for me
Mr Ghazi made his appearance from beyond another corner in the maze of
the compound, and asked if I was the woman coming for the interview.
When I answered in the affirmative, he motioned the guard away, and I
was asked to follow him , bags and all.

Reed walls erected another barrier to vision and then, as we turned
yet another corner, Ghazi sahib stopped in front of a low-lying
building-a room really, with a little awning of straw and corrugated
steel, and bade me enter his office. Here, as I sat across from him on
a small black couch, while he sat at his desk with a computer screen
on it, he proceed to speak into the hand-held recorder I had brought
along, with practiced ease, and in English. A slightly built man who
appears to be in his late forties, Mr Ghazi spoke in a soft, calm
voice, after expressing disappointment that I had not come prepared
with better recording apparatus than a dinky hand-held tape recorder!
To my left was a table with a stack of newspapers and magazines on it,
which a young bearded man, sitting on the carpeted floor, gun slung
across his shoulder, flipped through systematically the entire hour
that my conversation with Ghazi Sahib lasted. Indeed, when I asked
Ghazi sahib why the Lal Masjid clerics had issued a fatwa against the
owners and publishers of Octane-and the staff and everyone else
involved with the magazine as he now corrected me-the young man sprang
to attention and flipped open for my edification the provocative
centerfold that had caused the fatwa. It was a photograph of a male
and female model ­Pakistanis both-scantily -clad in fig-leaf costume,
acting out some Adam and Eve fantasy. "No religion allows its prophets
to be treated disrespectfully, does it?" Mr Ghazi asked rhetorically.

"The owners and models should know better than to dress up in this
obscene manner in an Islamic society and worse still, masquerade as
Hazrat Adam and his wife Hawwa." He smiled. "And now that they have
apologized, we have removed the fatwa. You see, we are reasonable
people. We are concerned only to protect the moral and social virtue
of our society."

Out of 13,000 registered madaris (or madrassahs) in Pakistan today,
the Jamia Hafsa, according to Ghazi Abdul Rashid, is the only school
that provides training in Islamic Studies to females. He claimed that
this school was the largest Islamist Seminary for Women in the world,
with a current student population of 6,000 students, mostly
residential but many also day scholars from surrounding neighborhoods
in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Both the male and female seminaries run
by the Lal Masjid, with a total current student population of 10,000,
are according to him, running only on donations from the Pakistani
citizens who support their educational agenda of creating Islamic
"ulema" or scholars. He said it was untrue that these madrassas are
funded by the CIA, ISI etc because now , post 9/11, things have taken
a U-turn and the madrassas are being harassed by these same outfits
and authorities which at one time supported them when it suited their
purposes. He pointed out that the real terrorists were the governments
of the US and Britain and our own Pakistani government which supports
their anti-Islamic agenda. "Did you know that after the 7/7/06 London
bomb blasts, our female students were attacked by the Pakistani police
just to please Tony Blair who told Musharraf he was waiting for a
crackdown against us? The very next day after Blair made this comment,
male police officers entered the premises of Jamia Hafsa and attacked
our girls! No one spoke out against it! The SSP was merely suspended
to help cool down the issue."

It is both to retaliate against the West's neo-imperialist and
anti-Islamic policies, as well as against the corrupt Pakistani
government and upper-classes which are all working with one another to
promote the anti-poor and anti- Muslim agendas of the West, that
outfits like the Jamia Hafsa and Lal Masjid have come into existence
as the Voice of the Oppressed. At least, this is how Ghazi Abdul
Rashid sees it. "We are grateful to 9/11 for having shone the
spotlight on us," he stated calmly. "We have been operating much prior
to that event, but no one heeded us, although we were still labeled as
extremist and intolerant. And then, all hell broke loose. The US
attacked our innocent brothers and sisters next door, and later in
Iraq"--still continuing in an even tone, a half-smile playing about
his face, softly now, "America has come so far to attack Afghanistan,
killing thousands of innocent people, and when people react, you start
labeling them as terrorists!" Swiftly, he made the connections between
his own brand of militancy and that of the Al-Qaeda types, "The media
focuses only on the reaction, of people like us, which is visible. But
these are reactions to some Very Big Actions. Brutal action is in the
background" I understood him to mean that terror begets terrorism,
which has been the line of Al-Qaeda apologists.

As I pondered my lack of good comebacks to his line of reasoning-if it
could be called that-he smiled again, and paused graciously so my pen
could catch up with his words ( I was also writing feverishly since I
did not want to rely solely on a battery-powered little cassette
recorder). In response to my question as to why he thought he and his
gang of seminarians felt they had the right to enforce their brand of
religiosity on others in the society, he smiled again, as if at a
child, and twisting the question cleverly, replied, "Now if I start
practicing Islam you call me a fundamentalist, and extremewhat about
secular extremism?? What about the practices of vulgarity, and and
porno..and brothel houses galore all over Islamabad and Lahore, all
thriving because of Musharraf's policy of so-called Enlightened
Moderation" He trailed off before resuming the thread that may have
gotten jumbled up with the mention of the word "porno," pronounced
with a stress on the r, rolling it around his tongue. "We here say we
do not want to enforce our views on others, but we also observe these
porno people," and now, I could see some spit forming at the corners
of his mouth, "like that Auntie Shamim, who was reported to the police
many times for her un-Islamic business and oppressive practices
against the young girls in her employment. " Seeing my eyes widen-very
observant indeed, this Ghazi sahib-he quickened to add, "oh yes, there
were many times that the poor girls in her service were arrested by
the police and badly exploited by her and them, they even came to us
crying and complaining of the treatment they received at her hands,
how they were promised they'd be given good decent jobs and then just
taken to clients and handed 8,000 rupees for their services-oh yes,
all this is on record with the police-yet nothing was ever done about
it! This Shamim has never had an F.I.R. registered against her! She
has never been sent to jail! WHY???" He lowered his already
soft-accented voice to a conspiratorial whisper; I had to remind him
to talk more directly into the mike. "Its because she had links to the
Higher-Ups in the government. That's why."

In the middle of our conversation-admittedly one-sided-the telephone
rang several times, and Mr Ghazi told the person on the other end to
"buy the vehicles, as long as they are suitably outfitted for our
needs." I was intrigued, especially when he said, "yes yes, the price
is okay; you know best." No haggling? How very un-Pakistani! I could
see he wanted to get off the phone quickly, looking at me out of the
corner of his eyes. The young man with the gun on the floor tensed his
muscles, like a cat about to spring up a tree. Mr Ghazi turned and
smiled at me again. " Sorry. And where were we?...Ah yes." He resumed,
seamlessly. "You were asking about the Taliban and women and if our
agendas are similar." :Well, before you answer that, Ghazi Sahib," I
interjected, " I want to know how it is okay in your book to be
staring openly at me, and have your women here covered from head to
toe. Isn't there," and it was my turn to smile now, "a bit of a
problem, a little disjuncture, here??"

"Oh not at all." Mr Ghazi was now in full flirtation mode. Except it
was all within the context of what one might call the "pietistic"
gaze. The two women of Jamia Hafsa who had been summoned to escort me
to their adjoining premises had by now entered his little office, and
were sitting to the left of my couch, also on the floor. They were
clad in their black "ninja" outfits familiar from press photos, eyes
slicing through slits, watching. One of the two had glasses sitting
astride the fabric on her nose, reminding me, perhaps not so
incongruously, of Harry Potter and his glasses, hiding inside his
Invisibility Cape at Hogwart's. I began to perspire ever more
profusely, wondering how they survived inside those black capes in 45
% centigrade heat with humidity at almost 100%. I was having a hard
time just trying to keep my dupatta from slipping off my head---trying
not to indulge fantasies of diving into an ice-cold pool, sans
habille. And so, back to Mr Ghazi and his pietistic gaze. "You know,
my wife drives. I am not against women outside the home, doing their
thing. I mean," pinning me with that sly look, "I did not force you to
wear a burqa, now did I? This," turning a little more stern now,
"should tell you that we are not against freedom. We are not forcing
women to veil themselves. Islam does not say that there will be no
immoral activity, ever," I am sure I must have squirmed visibly at
what felt like a direct assault on my icy- pool fantasies. "But in an
Islamic state, Islamic values would dominate."

I reminded him again of the Taliban's similar agenda and what that had
translated into for the unfortunate women of Afghanistan. In response,
he began to wax eloquent about the "total peace" the Taliban had
brought to the country, how they'd abolished poppy cultivation and the
warlord system. But, above all, said Mr Ghazi, they announced severe
punishments for all the men who would deny inheritance rights to their
sisters and mothers. "Why," quipped my interlocutor, "did the world
and the media focus only on their mistakes?" To my amazement, he
argued that it wasn't that the Taliban were against female
education-oh no-it was just that they were trying to manage a
war-ravaged country which necessarily meant lining up their
priorities. "And women's education was not a priority?" I asked, to
which he replied with equanimity, "you know, that is like asking
someone who is starving why he does not eat cake. I mean, its like an
American asking a beaten-down, war-ravaged Afghani with barely a roof
over his head, why his children don't sleep in an air-conditioned
room." He looked at me as if to say, you get it, or don't you? "The
Taliban were never given a chance to complete their vision." I
shuddered, despite the heat. As if sensing my chill, Mr Ghazi quickly
added, "I am not advocating that system. I am only saying," with a
ghost of a plea, " that the current system of our own government here
is so corrupt. It is lawless. No one fights for the rights of the poor
and the downtrodden. The Pakistani government today serves the
interests only of an elite class. The ordinary citizens are getting no
benefit-the necessities of life, justice, education-all these are
denied them. Our only demand is that such a corrupt system be
abolished." And then what, I prodded. " An Islamic welfare state
should be erected in its stead. Where only capable and honest folks
without immoral histories should have positions of authority. And no,
" he added, catching my skeptical look, "this is not Talibanization.
This is Islamization. Our model is the Caliphate and the
Khulfa-i-Rashideen. Then, concepts like "kafala" will be put into
place-if someone cannot earn, the Government will be responsible to
feed him. Like Hazrat Umar, we want leaders who feel responsible for
the death of even one dog in this society!"

Time was up. He gestured to the women seated on the floor to escort me
to the Jamia Hafsa seminary next door, and assured me he was available
for further questions by telephone and email. I walked into the
blazing heat outside, and heard him say to the women, "and be sure to
give the scholar some lunch. Let Umm Hassan guide her and answer her
questions."

Inside the Jamia Hafsa

Out of one portal and in through anotherall corrugated rusting steel,
with Quranic inscriptions in praise of the Holy Prophet and his
companions adorning them. Inside, a large central space, "that is our
reception area," explained one of the women I had followed, as she
took off her burqa. There were two rooms leading off this space, and
beyond, I could see a central courtyard, with corridors and what
looked like rooms off the courtyard around it. Later, when I was taken
on a tour of the seminary, I saw that the central courtyard had
several "doorways leading off from it and into the classrooms and
living spaces of the boarders. Each of these doorways had inscriptions
like "Baab-e-Syeda" and "Baab-e-Fatima" in multicolored calligraphic
script adorning them, indicating the sacredness of the space, each
"door" a portal into the inner sanctum of female piety signed by the
name of a female relative of the Prophet or his Caliphs. Girls, women,
mostly in their twenties and maybe some younger walked about, like
normal students at a school going about their daily business. The
atmosphere was hushed, and there were clutches of girls dressed in
reds, pinks and blues hanging about the courtyard or walking from one
spot to another. Several looked up at this new presence entering the
premises and simply stared. I was ushered into the room adjoining the
reception area to my left.

There, in a modest-sized room, I was introduced to eight or nine
women, half of them students, the others their teachers, who claimed
to be from all over Pakistan, including one from Azad Kashmir, a
couple from NWFP, but the majority from around Rawalpindi and other
areas of the Punjab. I was invited to sit on the one sofa in the room,
and a soft drink was ordered for me-an orange Fanta. No one else got
one, nor asked. Some slices of pound cake and cookies were also placed
in front of me and then the students-one in particular sporting a
white hijab and thick reading glasses-zeroed in on me and began
talking non-stop. It was, I must confess, a mesmerizing tactic. She
began to discourse about many things, particularly economics, and
before I knew it, we were thick into Adam Smith's The Wealth of
Nations. Amina Adeem, I think this one was called-then very solemnly
declared that it was Adam Smith-and other western economists and
thinkers like him-who, because they were afraid of Muslims' combined
collective strength, decided that the best way to avoid an Islamic
revival was to promote an economic model that would ensnare the Muslim
Ummah in money-worship! The decadent lifestyle that invariably
accompanies the worship of such an idol has transformed what should
have been Dar-ul-Islam-the Land of Islam-- into Dar-ul-Kufr, or the
Land of Unbelievers. "Look," she continued breathlessly, enthralled by
the speed of her own words tripping off her tongue effortlessly,
seeking to convert the infidel, "at these rich disgusting men of our
society today." I nodded obligingly. "They are not happy, these rich
men, despite many wives, mistresses, cars, guards" That was news to
me, but I tried not to spoil her moment. She continued, now joined by
a chorus of other voices, "Look at Abdul Rehman bin Arif, "or, piped
another, "Abu Obeida," "and Abu Bin Jaraa," threw in another, not to
be outdone. "The point is, " Amina hissed, " these Islamic leaders
lived like ordinary folks. Their homes were never looted, they did not
live in fear of dacoits. But here, today, " her eyes glinting through
her frames, "here it is the rule of dacoits, and who suffers?" The
other girls joined in unison, "its is ordinary folks like us who are
suffering.who can afford mutton at 350 rupees a kilo?"

There was a sudden hush as a fair-complexioned woman, slightly stout
but good-looking, wearing a gray-blue shalwar kameez and holding a
young boy in her arms, entered the room and approached our little
menagerie.

"Asalam-o-alekum," she nodded at the greeting of the students and the
few teachers in their midst, and extended a hand to me. "Welcome, you
must be the professor Ghazi Sahib sent our way."

She sat down on the sofa next to me, and I informed her I had been
having a most informative chat with her students, but that they
wouldn't let me tape them without her permission.

"Oh no, I am afraid that is not allowed," she said firmly, and then,
in response to my query if I might photograph them, she replied again
in the negative, decisively.

"Not even with their burqas on?" I pleaded. "No. Why objectify us like
that? That would serve only a sensational purposeand surely that is
not why you are here?"

She threw me a withering glance, and I hastened to agree. This was not
a woman you wanted to be on the wrong side of! Very quickly, she
informed me she was a Punjabi-not a Pathan as one may assume her to be
given her tall, fair carriage. She claimed to have been in the school
since 1992, the date that it actually came into existence, with her as
founder and principal to this day that would make her tenure there
almost fifteen years! But she was a young woman even now, maybe in her
mid thirties with a small son in towwho she promptly handed over to
one of the teachers and then devoted her attention to me and to the
conversation I had been having with her prize students.

Catching on quickly, she asked me, "what do you think a kilo of ghee
costs? Rent for a family of four in a city? What does an ordinary
mazdoor make on average in a day? Huh memsahib? Do you know, " she had
sized me up fast, "that on one side of our madrassa are homes of the
rich and the famous, and on the other side are whole colonies of
jhugees? People living in tents, katchi abadisand even in the rich
houses, the poor servants are given the filthiest of quarters."

I tried to counter her claims of dire straits of servants by pointing
out that drivers at least, made pretty good salariessix thousand
rupees a month" my voice trailed off as a blaze of laughter erupted. "
And do you know what it costs to just pay electric and water bills,
provide school fees for one's kids and just some milk as nourishment?
Oh Bibi ji" and they pinned me with bemused looks."

Just these few necessities add up to a t least 4,000 rupees a month
for a family of four, and that doesn't even include rents or food or
transportation or clothing. And how many of our average poor folks can
even get jobs as drivers to big homes in the cities?"

Umm Kulsoom concluded, "we need economists schooled in the University
of the Prophet. What need do we have of Phds from abroad when our own
folks cannot find decent jobs?" As if to drive her insult home
properly, she pointed out, "300 people commit suicide on average every
month. Because," she explained fixing her stare on me, "they have no
jobs." HmmI thought back to my earlier conversation with Ghazi sahib,
and the figure he cited was 3,000 suicides annually.

Clearly, the number "3" seemed important in their calculations.

Interesting to note that it is virtually impossible to get accurate
figures about suicide since such data is not, and never has been,
systematically collected by any agency, government or otherwise. But
clearly, she had a point; "the elite classes of this country think of
the rural masses and the underclass simply as cockroaches, as
chipkalis" And her point was this: Lady, this conflict is about class.
No wonder when I asked her why she named herself "Umm Kulsoom," and
why so many others used the same Arabic appellation, she shot back
ferociously, " arrey, arrey arrey. We love Arabs ... we love our
Prophet who was Arab ... and so we take our names from them just like
..." and her voice turned sarcastic as she looked me up and down,
"just like some folks love Imran Khan and Lady Dianaso why criticize us??"

Her "girls" laughed delightedly at a comment they had obviously heard
before, separating "them" out from the rest of "us" westernized,
debauched, elites.

And yet, paradoxically, Umm Kulsoom seemed a stauncher women's libber,
free of the yoke of husband and family, than any "westernized"
Pakistani woman I'd ever met. "I would care not a whit if my husband
left me tomorrow-he and all my other relatives don't want me in here,
away from 'womanly' duties, they say they are so worried about me
being in here; my sisters tell me they can't sleep at night worrying
for my safety, thinking we'll be attacked by the police or army any day."

Looking back, her remarks were uncannily prescient. She smiled
sardonically, "I tell them I am not worried. I have no trouble
sleeping. Because I know I am on the right side. I fight for the
victory of truth and justice. So I sleep like a baby." If she is
indeed the wife of the head cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz as some news
reports are claiming, I wonder what that tell us about their relationship?

"I would like to see a classroom," I interjected when I could get a
word in edgeways.

"Of course," said Umm Kulsoom obligingly, and turning to her girls,
commanded, "Take her to the Hadith class. And," now turning to me, "I
will instruct them to treat you to the Naara-e-Takbirthat will be
something you'll remember, I'm sure."

Did I imagine a sinister tone? [No, you projected it. -WVNS]

They all got up then, almost in unison, and two of them marched me off
to the classroom at the other end of the madrassa, pointing out the
dark and smelly classrooms flanking the left corridor we walked
through, where young girls studied the Quran and Hadith. Behind the
classrooms, on the far left corner, were a row of tandoors and outdoor
stoves on which lunch seemed to be cooking for the students there that
day. 6,000? Hardly. I wondered whether that figure could be correct,
and if so, how? I mean, the area just did not seem large enough to
hold that kind of population. And then we climbed up some steps,
turned left, and entered a long classroom to the right. A sea of white
hijabs greeted my vision, rows upon rows of pubescent girls stretching
back as far as the eye could see. Several hundred of them were seated
on the carpeted floor, under slowly whirring ceiling fans, with huge
register-like books marked, "Hadith," compiled by Allama abu Eisa,
"Nasr-ul-Baari" by Imam Tirmizi, and Bukhari Sharif compiled by Hazrat
Mohammed Usman Ghani, spread out in front of them on long low wooden
planks. An odor of musky perspiration hung in the air, and the
principal, who entered right behind me, instructed the girls to shout
out the "naara-e-takbirs" they had been practicing in their best
manner. " For our American Visitor," she smiled, "Give her something
that she'll remember." "Ji Baji," the students replied in unison, and,
from the back, a voice declared, "Naara-e-takbir.." Then, the room
began to rumble, as the hundreds of voices combined to raise a salute
to God. "Allah-ho-Akbar!" Then another. Allah-ho-Akbar. And another.
Allah-ho-Akbar. And finally, the voices raising to a crescendo, recited,

Hum Jaanein lotaien gay
Islami Nizam laaien gay
(We will lay down our lives;
we will bring about an Islamic system)

Walking out in a hot and sweaty daze from the classroom, haunted by
the echoes of those voices shouting their Allah-ho Akbars, I wondered
if what I smelt was the stench of purity. I turned to look out at the
space beyond the classroom, and realized I was standing next to the
communal latrines. Curiosity curdled into nausea, and I knew it was
time to go.

Walking back to the reception area, I asked where the students slept,
"On the floors of the classrooms," replied one of the slightly-built,
darker-hued teachers walking with me. "And the teachers?" I asked. "On
charpais in the staff rooms," and she pointed some out to me.
Ofcourse. Its hard to get rid of hierarchies completely. I called my
friend as we walked back, who sounded relieved to hear from me. I saw
that I had five missed calls from him, and realized I had overstayed
by about three hours. No wonder he had been worried. I asked him to
send the car for me.

Finale
The last few minutes of my visit were intense. One of the girls-and
they all crowded in on me rather desperately now, knowing my departure
was imminent-recited a verse from Iqbal.

Kafir hai to shamshir pay karta hai takabbur
Momin hai to bay tegh bhi larta hai sipahi
(Unbelievers boast of the power of their armaments
Believers need only their faith to fight)

"So," I began, feigning lightheartedness. "It looks like there will be
War then." I smiled teasingly. "Will the likes of you defeat the likes
of me?" [Honey, you are already intellectually defeated. -WVNS]

The women turned suddenly serious. Umm Aiman--the one with the pretty
round face--replied, "Our war is against the infidels, and against the
US. It is a war between the forces of Kufr and those of Islam."
Still smiling, I pushed, "And you think you'll win?"

Quite aware of my trap, the whole gang suddenly raised their voices in
unison, "The Victory will be Islam's, not ours--Allah-o-Akbar!"
As I walked out to the car and driver waiting for me in the
post-noonday heat, the girls asked me when I would come back. "Will
you visit us again?" several asked almost plaintively. What could I
say? "Ofcourse I will; and we shall continue our discussions further,
okay? Maybe I will persuade YOU!." At that, they became serious again,
and had to have the last word. " We pray that the fireshtehs-the
guardian angels we have urged to take their places on your shoulders,
will protect you from all manner of evil. Maybe it is you who will
have converted to our point of view by the time you return to us
next." I shook my head slowly, making my comeback. "I like having a
bit of Shaitaan in me, dear girls! I'm not willing to give him up you
see." At which Umm Aiman threw her arms around me, laughing and
blowing prayers (or were they kisses?) my way.

I put on my shades, shook my hair free, and pulling out my camera as I
passed through the gates and into the world outside, proceeded to
shoot pictures of the women as they came out of the seminary to walk
home ­or in one case, to ride on a motorbike behind a presumable male
relative who was waiting for her-covered by their ninja outfits once
again, fit to be exhibited. Chicks Without Sticks-for the moment.
A week later, precisely, on Tuesday July 3rd, they have been reported
to have burned down a women's college next door in increasingly deadly
clashes with the state authorities and the army. The War has begun.
How will it end? And what, dear readers, will any of us have learnt?
Dr. Fawzia Afzal-Khan is a Professor in the Department of English
at Montclair State University in New Jersey. She can be reached at:
khanf @ mail.montclair.edu

===

A Red Mosque that breathes fire
Tanvir Ahmad Khan
7/6/2007
Gulf News
http://www.iviews.com/Articles/articles.asp?ref=GN0707-3311

Religious students standing near Lal Masjid or Red Mosque in Islamabad.

In the central district of Pakistan's purpose-built capital,
Islamabad, stands a mosque that, in recent months, has attracted
worldwide attention for asserting religious law in disregard of state
authority.

Architecturally, the Lal Masjid (the red mosque) is totally eclipsed
by Islamabad's magnificent Faisal Mosque.

But way back in 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, this
rather inconspicuous place of worship began a militant career, the
latest twist of which is a confused and bloody confrontation with the
Musharraf regime.

A firebrand imam, Abdullah, and his two sons, often called the Ghazi
brothers, collaborated closely with the Pakistani government and its
Arab partners in assisting the Mujahideen battling the Soviet army.

They took advantage of this nexus and made the mosque the nucleus of a
large complex that includes Pakistan's most radical madrassa
(religious school) for women.

In the process, the Ghazi brothers, who took over the complex after
their father was mysteriously assassinated, expanded its premises into
adjacent government land.

A distinctive feature of the seminary's educational program was the
emphasis on activism in ushering in an Islamic way of life. Since the
beginning of this year, the Lal Masjid seminaries have pushed the
limits of autonomous action inviting criticism from the Westernized
elite that they were acting like a state within a state.

Demolition of some small mosques built illegally on government land
seemed to have fuelled their indignation at President Pervez
Musharraf's secularization of the society.

In April, the two brothers set up a Sharia Court outside the state
system that issued a fatwa (religious edict) against a woman minister
of the Musharraf government who eventually resigned in a huff. The
students attracted attention by kidnapping policemen on surveillance
duties and later some Chinese women working in pain management clinics.

With government's credibility plummeting, there has been no lack of
cynical explanations of this bizarre activism. It has been seen by
some as a crisis contrived by the government to divert public
attention from the much bigger agitation for the reinstatement of the
Chief Justice of Pakistan.

Allegedly, the threat from religious centers was also designed to
scare the United States that the alternative to Musharraf was the
seizure of nuclear- armed Pakistan by Muslim extremists.

If the regime was using the Ghazi brothers for its own ulterior
purposes, it has been gradually sucked into a dangerous situation. On
July 3, strong para-military forces laid siege to the premises saying
rather disingenuously that it was to prevent the Lal Masjid vigilantes
from embarking upon raids on various establishments in the capital.

This force of tough Rangers was allegedly fired upon from the complex.
As it retaliated, about 20 people died in fire fights that kept
erupting till late into the night. On Day Two of the stand off, the
government was, however, more skilful, encouraging seminary students
to surrender in return for promise not to prosecute them. More than a
thousand accepted the deal.

The highs and lows of the Lal Masjid movement to enforce Sharia during
the last six months may well be remembered as an illustration of the
shallow approach of the present political dispensation in Islamabad to
the Islamic issue in Pakistan's polity.

Muslim societies have historically needed a framework of beliefs - a
superstructure of ideas - for reference.

The Musharraf regime has shown little interest in furthering the
renaissance of Islamic thought that began in South Asia in the late
19th century and, instead, relied on superficial slogans such as
"enlightened moderation" coined largely to rationalize and justify
alignment with the United States in the current Afghan war.

Under external pressure, it opted for ad hoc use of extreme force
against "extremists" and after suffering serious losses in the tribal
belt along the Afghan border reverted to a more moderate policy mix.

It has failed to create an intellectual ethos that would resonate well
with a Muslim nation and consequently its partnership with the United
States has lacked popular validation. Crude manipulation of state
decisions by Washington has undermined national cohesion and fomented
ideological anarchy.

This situation impacts negatively on Musharraf's plans for his own
re-election and for the next elections to the federal parliament and
provincial assemblies.

Five years ago he helped an alliance of religious political parties to
make significant gains; the alliance, MMA, reciprocated by enabling
him to secure parliamentary approval for combining the office of
president with that of chief of army staff against the spirit of the
Constitution. This time, Musharraf is still undecided about potential
electoral allies.

The intensity of the present political conflict in the country makes
it prone to episodes like that of the Lal Masjid. It will hopefully be
over with some loss of human lives but Pakistan's political class is
yet to compute long term damage to the national polity.

Muslim states need processes of accommodation of faith, tradition and
heritage; it is a dynamic and continuous engagement. Instead, Muslim
rulers often accept Western pressures that divide, rupture and
polarize them making them susceptible to violence.

The Islamic tendency has to be brought into mainstream and not driven
into underground asymmetrical warfare. Only a more indigenous and
inclusive approach to issues can restore tranquility.

Tanvir Ahmad Khan is a former foreign secretary and ambassador of
Pakistan.

===

Pakistani Army Moves in: Takes Faridia Seminary

Standoff at Red Mosque
Juan Cole
Informed Comment
7/07/2007

http://www.juancole.com/2007/07/pakistani-army-moves-in-takes-faridia.html

Pakistani troops took the Faridia Seminary attached to the Red Mosque
on Friday. On Saturday morning, the army continued to move in on the
mosque itself, amid sounds of explosions. The clerical leader there,
Abdul Rashid Ghazi, has been talking about fighting to the death, and
told the seminarians with him during Friday prayers that he had
"written their wills." Do they have Kool-aid in Pakistan?

Pakistani troops also removed walls and barriers in front of the
women's seminary attached to the mosque, in what could be a
preparation for a rescue mission.

Pakistan's exiled civilian politicians, such as former prime minister
Benazir Bhutto, appear to view the current turmoil in the capital as
an invitation to defy the military government by returning to Pakistan
to contest the elections scheduled for this fall. Some high Pakistani
officials are now saying that Ms. Bhutto would not be arrested on her
arrival in the country, contrary to earlier threats issued by Gen.
Musharraf.

The proliferation of madrasahs or Muslim seminaries in Pakistan, which
offer K-12 and college-level education, is enabled in part by the
government's refusal to spend money on opening and supporting new
civil schools throughout the country. Last I knew, half of the
Pakistani budget went to the military, and spending on education was
something like 2%. For its first few decades of existence, Pakistan
spent %50-%60 of its budget on the military. In the 2006-2007 budget,
"defense" was $4.2 billion of the $21.7 bn. federal budget. Moreover,
the military has tended in recent years to spend beyond its budget
allocation. And, expenditures, procurements and programs actually
military in character were spread through the rest of the budget, and
the true total dedicated to the military is likely actually higher.
Both the Pakistani public and the international donor agencies had
demanded reduced proportions of military spending in the budget, so,
presto, things were reclassified as not military. Sherry Rahman observes:

' When parliamentarians or donors read the allocation for defence
over the next fiscal year, it will not include the military pensions,
which now run into 35.6 billion rupees. Nor will the defence outlay
include Rs 1.4 billion demanded separately for the combatant accounts
of the defence division which include the Maritime Security Forces and
others with dotted line or direct reports to the military, Rs 40, 723
million in salaries for defence production, Rs 7.2 billion spent on
the civil armed forces, Rs 3.7 billion for the Pakistan Rangers, Rs
1.5 billion for the Frontier Constabulary, Rs 359 million for the
Pakistan Coast Guards, nor the one billion rupees set aside for
military schools, cantonments and other residuals. The Atomic Energy
Commission too, which falls under the control of the Strategic Plans
Division, has been allotted separate funds, yet the two billion rupees
demanded this year is charged to civilian expenses under the cabinet
division.

For a developing and relatively poor country, giving the military this
enormous proportion of the national budget is criminal (the same is
true for India, by the way). With regard to the proportion of
Pakistan's GDP devoted to education, at around 2% it was in the bottom
12 of the 187 countries in the world in 2004-2005.

It was alleged that the plane of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's
president, came under small-arms fire as it was taking off from Islamabad.

===

Pakistan on the brink of Khilafah?
Nothing could be further from the ruth!
http://tajdeed-list.net/mailman/listinfo/pir_tajdeed-list.net

Some years ago certain movements from the Ummah embarked on a campaign
to introduce the Islamic system of governance in Pakistan. Their
campaign entitled 'Pakistan on the brink of Khilafah', aimed to
restore justice and stability to the predominantly Muslim nation, but
almost 10 years on, the question remains- is Pakistan really on the
brink of Khilafah?

The recent siege at the Red Mosque 'Laal Masjid' in Islamabad proved
to be a good measure to gauge public sentiment towards the rise of
political Islam in Pakistan. The siege that began on the 3rd July
2007, sliced through the Pakistani public, and continues to further
divide between the secular and the religious.

According to sources from Pakistan, Laal Masjid was founded by a
cleric by the name of Maulana Abdullah in the early 1970's. Maulana
Abdullah was an esteemed student from the Jamia in Banori Town,
Karachi, and the ground for Laal Masjid was approved to him by the
military leader Ayub Khan. Under the military dictatorship of Zia ul
Haq (1977-1988), Laal Masjid played a significant role Islamicising
the Pakistani army. Further more during the Afghan Jihad against
Russian, Laal Masjid supported the Muslim cause by extensively
providing help and support through a number of means and channels.
After the assassination of Maulana Abdullah, the keys of Laal Masjid
were handed over to his two sons, Maulana Abdul Aziz and Maulana Abdur
Rasheed Ghazi.

Between 1997 and 2001, Laal Masjid also became a meeting point for
then, the legitimate government of Afghanistan – the Taliban. Laal
Masjid became a venue for meetings between high ranking officials in
the Taliban and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), who sought
security in a pro-Islamic, pro-Pakistan neighbouring government in the
shape of the Taliban.

The first sparks of conflict between Laal Masjid and the secular
military dictator Pervez Musharaf came in 2001, when Pervez Musharaf
steered Pakistan directly into the lap of American imperialism and
allied his army with America against the government of the Taliban.
Laal Masjid held its ground, and whilst many Madaaris ( single:
Madarasah) curtailed their support for the Taliban, Laal Masjid
maintained its Islamic standard and stood firmly against the Pakistani
government. An example of this came in 2004, when the scholars of Laal
Masjid declared that those Pakistani soldiers who are killed and
defeated by the tribes in North Waziristan were not to be referred to
as 'Shuhada' as they were killed whilst fighting the ascendancy of
Islamic rule in that region.

More recently, female students from the Laal Masjid establishment of
Jamia Hafsa carried out a social and moral cleansing exercise in
Islamabad by raiding and reigning in prostitution and racketeering
circles. This inflamed the Pakistani government as it not only
undermined their authority in the region, but also exposed their
disinterest in the preservation of morality in modern day Pakistan. To
cap this all, in May this year, Maulana AbdulAziz, the head of Laal
Masjid publicly appealed for the implementation of Islamic Shariah in
Pakistan.

As the stand off between the pro-American army of Pakistan and the
courageous students of Laal Masjid intensified, Pakistanis and Muslims
across the world held their breadth to see how this crisis would end.

Whilst the media relayed images and analysis surrounding this debacle
to their global audience, the public of Pakistani nationals both
domestically and internationally were clearly beginning to pledge
their loyal allegiances.

The public, as assessed by both the written press and satellite TV
indicated their disapproval of the stance taken by Laal Masjid. Almost
unanimously, segments from all the quarters of Pakistani society have
condemned the Islamic stand of Laal Masjid and made calls for the
surrender and arrest of all those calling for the implementation of
Islamic Shariah. Everyone seems to be parroting the same sound bites
fed to them by the 'spin' technicians of the establishment.

Accusations levelled against Laal Masjid of creating 'a state within a
state' have sent shock waves around Pakistan, with many Pakistanis
apparently showing their approval of the status quo. It is evident
from articles published by the Pakistani press that the nation's
sentiments lie with the state authority, who in turn are spurring on
public emotion by trying to gain the moral advantage in this fiasco.
National newspapers such as the Dawn, the Jang, the Nation, and the
Pakistan Observer pressed for a swift military action to end this
siege. The priority for them lay in the restoration of normality in
Islamabad traffic and economy, little were they concerned about the
ideological struggle that was at the very heart of this conflict.

The media, which has a global bias and agenda against Islam continued
to use terminology that maligns this Islamic cause. The media played a
clever game here; it knew that in order to win over the hearts and
minds of a very simplistic Pakistani public, it had to play the card
of 'human rights'. So whilst it was clear that all the students in
Laal Masjid were united in their noble cause, the media depicted the
women and children as 'human shields' who were being held against
their will by the Sheikh Abdur Rasheed Ghazi (Raheemullah). The army
for its part was supposedly mounting a virtuous rescue operation. This
shameless and unbelievable lie being churned out by the government
through the media was well fabricated but failed to deceive those with
in inkling of common sense.

Independent TV channels such as GEO and ARY News failed to relay the
facts on the ground without coating there reports with personal bias.
In fact every news reader or journalist was adding his or her own spin
to events and mismanaging the information to pander to Pakistani
government policy. Even though the brutal dogs of Pakistani government
pulled the triggers that massacred men, women and children, the media
squarely and repeatedly lay the blame of Sheikh Abdur Rasheed Ghazi
(Raheemullah). When reporting the deaths of apostate soldiers of the
Pakistani army in this incident, news readers would refer to them as
Shuhada (martyrs) and when they referred to those killed whilst
carrying the true Islamic standard of Shariah and Khilafah, they
referred to them as simply Jaan Bahaq (those who lost their lives). So
the aggressor against Islamic standards was the hero, and the hero in
truth was a caste as the villain.

Analysts and commentators being invited on the media were themselves
secular and were using their airtime to promote their own pro-western
secular agendas. So members from the Peoples Party of Pakistan headed
by ex Pakistani Prime Minster Banazir Bhutto used this event to brown
nose America and pledge that their stance towards Islamic revival
would be harsher than that posed by Musharaf. The MQM, an ultra
secular organisation whose leader resides in the UK under government
protection whilst having perpetrating mass murder in Pakistan used
this event to cement its relationship with the current dictatorship in
Pakistan by offering public support for military action against Laal
Masjid.

'When you were propagating it with your tongues, your mouths uttering
that of which you had no knowledge, thinking it to be of little
consequence, where it was serious indeed before Allah' (An-Nour 24:15)

On the Islamic front, one that should give the Muslim nation some
hope, there has been a general stillness. Television channels that
pander to the Musharaf pro-secularist agenda pile on so called
'Islamic' clerics and authorities to not only denounce Laal Masjid,
but to also vilify Islamic banners raised in this issue. The Muftis of
Pakistan have typically proved their cowardice, and ordered their
students not to even demonstrate against government actions. Over 800
Muslims students were barricaded within their compound, being shelled
and bombed, and there was only a whisper to be heard from the Islamic
circles in Pakistan. Whilst some declared Sheikh Abdur Rasheed Ghazi
(Raheemullah) as a rebel who had challenged so called Islamically
legitimate state authority, others refused to support and echo his
call for the implementation of Islamic Shariah in Pakistan.

The main opposition to the Musharaf government at this stage too is a
secular one. The APC (All Party Alliance) held in London last week was
not a conference whose aim was to establish the Shariah in Pakistan,
but instead it sought to remove his military dictatorship and replace
it with a 'civilian' secularist government. In fact some of the
parties being represented at the APC, like the Peoples Party chaired
by Banazir Bhutto is one of the most anti-Islamic, pro-Western secular
parties in Pakistan. Her absence from the APC was a clear indication
that she refuses to be seen negotiating with the MMA, which offers
Pakistan a disillusioned Islamic alliance with a blurred Islamic
vision. Pakistanis politics is 'dog eat dog', Islamic revival and
reform is not on the agenda, and every party is looking to personally
benefit from the political fall-out.

'Operation Silence', an operation blatantly designed to conceal the
damage done to Islamic symbols such as that of the Laal Masjid, Qurans
and books of Hadeeth and Tafseer continues to this very day deprive
the world of witnessing the true facts on the ground. The compound
remains closed to the media, and even though the army promises to take
the media through a guided tour of the premises, it is clear that a
massive cover up operation is being conducted to dampen public opinion
against the horrific damage inflicted upon the architecture and human
life within the compound. This will undoubtedly morally acquit and
even earn some praise for the military.

The Pakistani middle and upper classes, those that have prospered the
most under Musharaf's reforms without doubt are the most anti-Islamic.
For them, Musharaf's vision of 'enlightened moderation' is the best
way to reconcile between Islam and secularism. This itself contradicts
the very foundations of the religion revealed by Allah to His Prophet.
The working class of Pakistan are so detached from politics that
Islam in a political context is an alien notion to them. The Islam
they understand is the Islam of the saint, the maulvi or the
embezzler. Islamic governance is not a viable solution as far the
majority of Pakistanis are concerned. Tribalism, provincial politics
and religious secretarianism have embedded themselves at the
grassroots of Pakistani society; the dominance of political Islam is
the last thing on the Pakistani mindset. Even though there exist
pockets of Muslims in Pakistan who have a vision of Khilafah for
Pakistan, they only constitute a small minority of the overall public.

Ustadh Syed Qutb Raheemullah wrote in Milestones 'Indeed our words
will remain lifeless, barren, devoid of any passion, until we die as a
result of these words, whereupon these words will suddenly spring to
life and live amongst the hearts that are dead, bringing them back to
life as well.'

Our final thought goes out to Shaikh Abdur Rasheed Ghazi (Raheemullah)
and his honourable party, through whose death we ask Allah to raise
the banner of Laa ilaha ilAllah in Pakistan. Without a doubt, they
have already joined the growing list of Muslim heroes of this young
century. May Allah imprint the hearts of Muslim men and women with the
memory of this noble sacrifice.

The Muslim nation testifies to Allah that the Shuhadah of Laal Masjid
made the ultimate sacrifice for the Tawheed of Allah, and for the
Shariah of Muhammad (saw) to fly over the land of Pakistan.

May Allah (swt) raise the Shuhadah of Laal Masjid together on the Day
of Rising. May Allah pour upon them His Mercy, and reward them with
what they wished for and more. May Allah (swt) protect those taken
prisoners by the Tawagheet and protect the honour of our Muslim
sisters and mothers who are today in the clutches of these Murtadeen.

"And to Allah belongs [all] honour, and to His Messenger, and to the
believers, but the hypocrites do not know." [Al-Munafiqoon 63:8]

May Allah humiliate and disgrace the government and army of Pakistan
and give each and every conspirator and participant a just retribution
for their transgression against His allies. May Allah fill the mouths
of all those who defended the Tawagheet of Pakistan with fire and
subject them to a terrible torment in the fire.

"They seek to extinguish the Light of Allah with their mouths. But
Allah refuses except to perfect His Light , even if the disbelievers
hate it. It is He who has sent His Messenger with the Guidance and the
True Religion, in order that He may make it prevail over all other
religions, even if the polytheists detest it"

(At-Tawbah 9:32-33)

"I lost my brother, my students, for the enforcement of Islamic
Sharia...Ghazi and all those who died in the mosque are shaheed...My
wife and daughters are in custody but this will not stop us from
struggling for an Islamic system." (Maulana AbdulAziz at Maulana Abdur
Rasheed Ghazi (Raheemullahs) funeral).

And our last call is to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.

[The Islamists focus on superficialities and trying to "change people"
to the point where they come alarmingly close to worshipping "Islam"
instead of Allah. Until they can raise the level of intellect of their
reasoning and to the IQ level of their oppressor, these ideallistic
protest movements will always be just tragic protest movements. -WVNS]

*********************************************************************

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