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A tale of two mindsets
By
Tahir Hasan Khan
Karachi
The
province of Sindh has always been known as the land of Sufism, and a
majority of the people here believe that Islam spread in the region
through the practices of famous Sufi saints. Most of the population
hold the ‘Pir’ in high esteem and follow them religiously. This, in
turn, enables family members of the ‘Pirs’ to enter the realm of
politics, as they already have a large number of people supporting
and following them. In fact, political parties in Sindh with no
connection with Sufism often fail as none of them manage to win any
election from the rural areas of the province.
In Karachi, majority of the Muhajirs, who migrated from India after
partition, also belong to same school of thought. Although
Jamat-e-Islami (JI) had a strong base of loyalists in the city,
Jamiat-Ulema-Pakistan (JUP), led by Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani swept
the elections held in 1971.
After General Ziaul Haq captured power from Zulfiqar Bhutto, steps
were taken to destabilise JUP as Mualana Noorani had opposed General
Zia’s martial law.
However, JI was a staunch supported of the Gen Zia due to its
involvement in the Afghan Jihad. The military regime created rifts
within the JUP ranks and most of the leaders joined Ziaul Haq’s
government.
JI tried to take advantage of that situation to increase its
political stronghold. However people rejected JI in the 1985 non
party elections as well. Candidates who got selected from Karachi
and Hyderabad belonged to Barelvi school of thought. Despite
increasing pressure by the military rulers, religious seminaries
under the Barelvi system refused to support the Afghan Jihad, which
led Gen Zia to promote the Deobandi school of thought.
Throughout the country, there was a mushrooming of religious
seminaries under the Deobandi system, which promoted the Jihadi
culture. Most of today’s Taliban belong to such Maderressahs.
The Nishtar Park bomb blast three years ago killed the top
leadership of the Barelvi school of thought. Although some Barelvi
Ulema and leaders blamed Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) for the
incident, the authorities claimed that pro-Taliban elements were
involved in this attack.
MQM’s chief Altaf Hussain also belongs to Barelvi faction and this
has helped the party garner a strong loyalty and support from the
people of Karachi. In fact, MQM has taken over JUP’s support and
after yesterday’s suicide attack which killed Maulana Sarfaraz
Naeemi in Lahore, the party announced a day of mourning. It might be
noted that Maulana Naeemi was a strong critic of the Taliban and had
declared suicide bombing an un-Islamic act. Maulana Naeemi and other
religious party leaders were trying to form an Anti-Taliban
alliance, and his gruesome murder can be termed a message for people
resisting the Taliban. This incident also raised fear that the
country’s political leadership was also being warned, since Maulana
Naeemi was close to Nawaz Sharif.
Although the strike today against the killing of Maulana Naeemi was
observed peacefully without any major incident (at the time of
writing), this calm has an uneasy air about it. It is, after all,
the calm before the next round of clashes begins between pro and
anti-Taliban forces in country.
tahir.hasan@thenews.com.pk
The
News: Sunday, June 14, 2009
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