JUI’s Verdict: Jinnah was Not a “Real Freedom Fighter”

Posted on February 9, 2007
Filed Under >Adil Najam, History, People, Politics
190 Comments
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Adil Najam

Mohamed Ali Jinnah, it seems, was not a “real freedom fighter” and he did “nothing for Islam.” (On Jinnah, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here).
So says the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI). And by what logic does Maulana Fazlur Rehman and his party come to this conclusion? According to the party spokesman: “Jinnah was not imprisoned during the independence struggle. That is why he did nothing worth remembering.”

I am left rather speechless. So, here is the news item from Daily Times (February 9, 2007) that reports on the matter:

The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) will celebrate 2007 by paying tribute to the heroes who played an important role in the independence of Pakistan ignoring Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his companions, JUI officials told Daily Times on Thursday. They said that the party would hold conventions in Peshawar and other cities of the NWFP in March to highlight the services of “real freedom fighters”

“The decision to this effect was taken at the meeting of the JUI executive council in Lahore a couple of days ago. National Assembly Opposition Leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman presided over the meeting,” they added. JUI information secretary Maulana Amjad Khan said that Jinnah and his companions would not be commemorated because they had not done anything for Islam. “Jinnah was not imprisoned during the independence struggle. That is why he did nothing worth remembering,” Khan added.

He said the JUI would remember only those leaders who had sacrificed their lives for the creation of Pakistan or who had been imprisoned by the British Raj. JUI leader Qari Nazir Ahmed said the party would remember Hussain Maulana Ahmed Madni, Maulana Qasim Nanotri, Maulana Ubaid Ullah Sindhi, Maulana Mehmoodul Hassan, Syed Ahmed Shaheed, Shah Ismael Shaheed, Mauala Rasheed Ahmed and other leaders, who had rendered great sacrifices for the creation of Pakistan. “Maulana Qasim Nanotri established the Madrasa Darul Uloom Deoband. The institute produced a large number of freedom fighters,” Qari Nazir added. He said a schedule for conventions in the Punjab had not been decided yet. JUI Lahore chapter ameer Maulana Muhibun Nabi said the party would also arrange programmes in Lahore in this connection.

Interesting, by the way, that it seems that to be a “real freedom fighter” you have ‘Maulana’ prefixed before your name or a ‘Shaheed’ as a suffix.

Note: My thank to Watandost for alerting me to this rewriting of history.

190 responses to “JUI’s Verdict: Jinnah was Not a “Real Freedom Fighter””

  1. Adnan Ahmad says:

    Mr. Anwar, This is perhaps not the place to talk about what is taught in schools. (You are mostly right on that though). Post is about the atrocious JUI take on Jinnah and that must be condemned.

    I think it is about time these illiterate asses disguised as religious god fathers are put in their place. I think Ayaz Amir wrote a while ago about the Huddood Bill saying that it should have been done 7 years ago overnight with one stroke of pen. No one would have had the courage to speak anything about it. I think the time is right to take as hard a shot as Ataturk took on these asses and then don’t answer any questions about it. General needs to take his chances here to make amends for the lost time. And people need to know from this post how clearly the lines are drawn when it comes to the future of Pakistan. I mean these people refuse to acknowledge the fact that if you took Jinnah out of the picture there would be no Pakistan. I will be disappointed if a “very strong messageâ€

  2. Anwar says:

    Wait a minute guys… before they are dumped in the ocean or hanged, have we ever wondered who fathered them and raised them?
    Ever since Ayub Khan, the goal was to strangle every progressive thought/movement in the country. Fire was fanned by Zia in a double-barrel manner – encouraging the mullahs to create strategic depth towards the western border as well as against ANP, and creating a “secular” anarchist movement in sindh to counter PPP.
    Even our current enlightened leader was in bed with the mullahs until the night he received a phone call from the State Department.
    The honeymoon is perhaps over but the hang over is going to last a bit longer. Stay put.There is more to come – glance the Urdu press!

  3. ayesha says:

    I’m glad you picked this up! I was also planning to do a blog post on this – but so much eloquently put here. I wonder though, if the government would stand up and take notice of this. Notice needs to be taken.

    On another note – I cannot wait to see the back of the Mullahs in the new assembly. For once, I hope that they are ‘engineered’ out!

  4. MU says:

    The mistake we made was…not to hang these traitors on day 1. They now have our and Pakistan’s throats in their hands and we are now paying for it in every way. Why are we so apologetic about Quaid’s role in creation of Pakistan? If JUI are not happy with him they can get the hell out of his Pakistan back to Deoband and take JI to pethankot with them. Alternatively there is also Arabian sea.

  5. Anwar says:

    Comments of Maulan Amjad are outright nonsense. However the history that we read in our curricula does not acknowledge a number of people who lost their lives and were indeed prisoned and murdered by the Raj. This is partly due to the fact that our history is more “India centric” than it should be.
    Movements in the Frontier province in particular were lethal struggles against “Farnagi” – directed towards freedom (more like the current FATA,) though not necessarily for the creation of Pakistan. Contrary to the claims by JUI, the struggle was not for Islam either as British follwed a Napoleaon model of Al Azhar and kept Mullahs very happy (Dept. of Aukaf was their focal point)… The “Khaksar Tahrik” was a reaction to the abolishment of Caliphate in Turkey – perveived as European conspiracy, and was for a long time a very potent movement… Although none of the sacrifices were directly for Pakistan – they did contribute significantly to the independence.
    In parallel, the nationalistic movements in Sindh also contributed to the overall independence efforts.
    These efforts must be acknowledged in our history books. Unfortunately, JUI’s silly approach has belittled the great people it wants to honor.

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