Adil Najam
UPDATE: Reports in the Pakistan media suggest that the Lal Masjid leader has finally been arrested while trying to escape wearing a burqa. According to a BBC update:
The leader of a radical mosque besieged by Pakistani security forces in Islamabad has been caught trying to escape wearing a woman’s burqa. Security forces seized Abdul Aziz as he tried to leave the Red Mosque amid a crowd of women… He was wearing a burqa that also covered his eyes,” a security official told the AFP news agency about the cleric’s escape bid. “Our men spotted his unusual demeanour. The rest of the girls looked like girls, but he was taller and had a pot belly.“
ORIGINAL POST: Things are moving fast and the showdown at Lal Masjid, Islamabad that began this morning is now ready to turn into an even more real battle. The day took the lives of at least 10 people, possibly more. These included policemen, soldiers, by-standers, a journalist, and a number of Madrassah students. (For details see our earlier post and update comments on it, here).
The latest – and this keeps changing by the minute – is that in a mid-night press conference the government has given an ultimatum to the management of the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) to surrender. There is no indication that they will. In the past things have always ended with ‘negotiated settlements.’ This time the likelihood of this happening is much less. A curfew has been imposed in the area. Tanks have been called in. So have special forces.
Metroblog Islamabad is doing a wonderful job of keeping abreast with breaking news. It reports, through Dawn TV, that 111 Brigade (Army) from Rawalpindi has already assembled around the mosque. Ambulances have been fully stocked. Hospitals are on alert. An ultimatum for time has been given (3.30 PST… NOW!). The entire area has been cordoned off.
Here is a news clip from ARYOne, broadcast earlier.
In an article written last week for The News, I had argued that inaction was not a solution and because of so many delays and policies of apeasement some confrontation was now becoming inevitable.
This episode [i.e., the Chinese massage parlor case] will further embolden the already violence-prone brigands at the two madressahs and we are likely to see an escalation in their demands as well as their tactics. Meanwhile, the government has once again demonstrated an inability and/or unwillingness to act decisively. The much-cherished ‘writ of the state’ continues to rot in tatters.
This, it seems, is what happened when earlier the Lal Masjid management incited this escalation in response to the government’s build-up of force around the mosque. In that article, I had gone on to argue that:
Just like standing still in the middle of the road at the sight of the blinding lights of a truck speeding towards it does not save the life of the stunned deer, doing nothing about this escalating crisis out of fear that doing anything will only make things worse is not going to help the government, or Pakistan. Something needs to be done, and done fast.
I had called in the article for the government to “act to judiciously dismantle militancy at Lal Masjid.” This situation has to be responded to. But the key word remains “act judiciously.” What is really important is how that action is taken. Further bloodshed should be avoided. At least minimized. One hopes that any action is intelligent action and all steps are taken to minimize loss of life. Not just because one does not wish to create needless ‘martyrs.’ Much more so because all life – and everyone’s life – is precious.
The technologies to undertake low casualty offensives are available. The will and sagacity to do so is needed. The test for the government – acting with force in the very center of the Federal Capital – is not only what it does, but how it does it.
Photo credit: Associated Press, B.K. Bangash.
AUK, Welcome to the politics of the 21st century. Remember Wag the Dog. Without going into details, does anyone remember anymore someone named Ifitkhar Chaudary, the non-functional chief justice? This entire circus has been blown out of proportion and is being used for as much leverage as possible. It seems Durr-Fitte and Tariq Azeem have finally pulled off a stunt that has actually helped the general. As someone said this was a day’s job that sould have been done six months ago.
I am not sure about others, but the ridiculousness of this whole situation is too obvious to me. Why are we still talking to Abdul Rashid Ghazi (media or whoever). Why doesn’t anyone realize that the moment the first soldier was hit in the chest by a bullet from inside the madrassa, the game was over. They could have talked about their moral high ground upto that point, but from then on, they became criminals. Shahid Masood on Geo is now annoying me, by talking to this guy, and he giving his explanations thinking if there is still a way out, and putting forward his demands. There is no way out, not for him or for anyone else who expects to pick up arms against any government, be it Mush or whoever. These thugs will be tried by no ordinary courts now, but by anti-terrorism courts, and if they come out of the mosque alive, they will be hanged soon.
one question to ponder upon is ,,, we as pakistanis have a factory of maulanas that we also like to call alim e deen,,, Of them how many are so credible that the entire Muslim Ummah considers them the real alim e deen?
Naseem, there are no pure people. Not in Pakistan nor anywhere else on this planet. And since there are no pure people, there can be no pure and equitable application of Shar’ia. The best that we can hope for in this imperfect world is a secular government with a clear separation between masajid, church, temple, and the state. Nothing else has even come close to working, ever. It’s the best model we’ve got.
Shar’ia wherever it has been implemented has resulted in a series of pornographically violent punishments meted out to people for offenses that are no longer considered crimes in the West, or for very minor crimes. A thief may reform if given the opportunity; his permanent mutilation prevents his rehabilitation and perhaps condemns him to starve. True with no hands he cannot steal, but he also cannot learn to work honestly. Muslims need to think about the punitive, shame-based philosophy that Sharia represents.
At one time in England there were almost 200 crimes which had the death penalty. A person could be boiled alive for counterfeiting pennies, or torn apart by two teams of horses for stealing a lamb. These horrific “sentences” had little to do with the crime committed. They provided public spectacles for the people, allowing them to redirect their anger and rage at the “criminal” rather than turning it towards where it belonged, the idle upper classes who lived sumptuously off the commoner’s backbreaking labor. They also kept people in a state of terrified obesiance.
When people gather in a football stadium in Afghanistan or Nigeria to watch women being driven in by rifle butts and then stoned, or when a man is strapped to frame and flayed alive with a whip in Pakistan, there is a political rather than a legal or religious purpose being served, although victim and spectators alike may not see it that way. The power structure must remain intact, and this is one way for the people in power to keep it together, through a combination of imposing terror and providing outlets for venting. It may not appear that the girl being stoned for having a boyfriend is being killed for a political offense, but she is. The man being torn with 100 lashes for “drunkeness” may not be thought of as victim of political persecution, but he is.
Religion has nothing to do with all this. It is, as in the times of the Catholic Inquisition, an excuse. Its tendency to be used as an excuse is a good reason to keep it out of the judicial system.
Everybody has their own ideas about Sharia would “really” be like if applied by “pure” or “honest” people. It wouldn’t result in stoning alive teenage girls–really really it wouldn’t, they argue! Well, this is what it has resulted in when applied by imperfect people, and no humans are evidently perfect enough to apply it, so I think the logical conclusion is that we should not have any Sharia.
Jinnah did not set up any framework for a Taliban like state, Naseem, because that was not what he envisioned for Pakistan. I think he would be horrified by the thought. The Muslim countries that are most advanced are secularized democracies. This is what Pakistan needs to be also.
“Muhammad Abdul Aziz is son of Maulana Muhammad Abdullah Shaheed, the first leader of Lal-Masjid prayer. Maulana Abdul Aziz served as officially designated prayer leader in government constructed and owned Lal Masjad until 2005. Pakistan’s last military ruler, General Zia-ul-Haq, was said to be very close to Maulana Abdullah, who was notorious for fanning sectarianism as well as delivering firebrand speeches on Jihad. Maulana Abdul Aziz came to Islamabad as a six-year-old boy from his home town in Balochistan when his father was appointed Khatib (prayer leader) of Lal-Masjid in 1966”.
Mr. Ejaz-ul-Huq, a son of General Zia-ul-Huq is the current Federal Minister for the Religious Affairs in the present government headed by General Pervez Musharraf. Military as well as Civilian Governments’ complacency in Lal Masjad affairs for the past 40 years could hardly be ignored. Would Maulana brothers, Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rashid be punished for their crimes. Does not seem very likely. Where is Mr. Ejaz-ul-Huq on this.