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.
Let’s talk from a historical fact which is that JUI hind which was the parent organization was itself divided into two factions on the issue of supporting the pakistan movement,one group was lead by maulana hussain madni and the other one was lead by maulana ashraf ali thanvi and which included maulana shabbir ahmed usmani who wholeheartedly supported pakistan movement. And infact that there is an incident related to maulana ashraf ali thanvi on how he started supporting Quaid-e-Azam.
Jamat-e-Islami also opposed to some extent but then maulana maududi’s essays on masale qaumiat were used to be distributed during muslim league gatherings.
And infact after pakistan came into being ,Quaid asked him to speak on radio pakistan on the pakistan idealogy.
I think it is a popular slogan by most secular parties that the religious parties opposed the creation of Pakistan which I would partially agree.
But at the same time I don’t know why they want to start a controversy on that we have more important problems to solve we still need to provide clean drinking water,our children needs education. I am not sure why we have been dragged oin from one controversy to another wasting energy on those topics.
In my opinion the real reason Fazlur Rehman has uttered this garbage is that Quaid-e-Azam did not have a foot long beard and did not wear his shalwar above his ankles, the very criteria for someone worth any respect in these jackasses’ minds.
I agree with Mr. Alvi and we don’t have right to criticize others thoughts. What we writing here is just coming from our emotions and not from brain. After reading all comments, I think all we have abandoned Islam and become communists. Quaid Azam was not a superman, he was also a human being and made lot of mistakes too. He helped to create Pakistan by sacrifying lot of Muslims who left behind in India in miserable conditions. Do we know that in India nowadays most of prostitutes are Muslim women. Majority of Muslims in India are doing jobs what chritians do in Pakistan. They are more than us but helpless.
It is true that Quaid Azam created Pakistan but it is also true that he wasn’t true Muslim like other politicians. Realisticly Pakistan was created by Pakistan but with the help of Landlords, Industrillists and Nawabs. These people are in power since then and have nothing done for regular Pakistanis. They are thugs, corrupt and traitors.
first, pakistan is a free country and jui can celebrate the freedom struggle any way it sees fit.
second, jinnah was not a divine human being. his actions are not beyond debate or criticism. nor is there any gustakhi in his shan if jui does not sing his praises.
third, freedom struggle against the british started much before the creation of muslim league. muslims drawing inspiration from islam played a big role in early freedom struggle and for this played the ultimate price.
fourth and most importantly, this article is published in a newspaper whose owner has very low ethical standards and whose editors despise anything to do with islam and look down upon anything desi. for example, in the article below, the editor of this newspaper argues against selecting cricketers who cannot speak english:
http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_5- 6-2005_pg3_5
“…It would do us much good if the PCB could also get some players who can speak English beyond ‘yeah’. It makes a difference because English is not just a language, it is an attitude…”
jui has announced recently that it was planning to hold events to mark the 150th anniversary of the 1857 war of independence which is this year.
http://www.dawn.com/2007/01/16/local41.htm
“PESHAWAR, Jan 15: The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F) has announced that it will observe the year 2007 in remembrance of the War of Independence of 1857 to pay tribute to the heroes of the subcontinent…”
it is not beyond the realm of possibility jui’s comments were with reference to events marking the events of 1857. the story however is being presented in a manner designed to look jui in a bad light.
when it comes to deceitfulness pakistani press is no different from other pakistani institutions.
That’s really big of the Mullah’s to criticize Jinnah. The last time i checked, the Jamaat-e-Islami and their cronies didn’t want Pakistan to be created. The religious parties, spearheaded by Maulana Maudoodi felt that the interests of muslims would be better served in a United India. Now they have gall to claim that the founder of Pakistan was not a ‘freedom fighter’. In a way, this statement sums up what the religous parties stand for.