Articles of the year 2005
Published on August 06th, 2005
The treatment meted out to Maulana Fazlur Rahman at Dubai Airport was as shocking to us to us as discomforting it must have been to the redoubtable Maulana. However we must now look carefully at the new realities on the ground after 7/7.
The World is now taking serious note of the Madressa involvement in the spreading of 'Jihadi' message to all and sundry of 'bringing the war to the Kafir', and the Dubai incident is the beginning of the new scrutiny that all Madressa owners(?) will be subject to . For Dubai to have behaved in such a manner, shows that the Arab states may now be distancing themselves from Islamic jihadists who they will now consider and treat like Pariahs. It also shows that Britain is extending to the Gulf States their hard intelligence, on some of the activities of the Maulana. To visit the maverick Gaddafi and then visit Dubai immediately has certainly rung some bells somewhere. Also the 7/7 bombers with Pakistani origin and then the 21/7 failed bombers of Arab/African origin have made all trips by Pakistani Madressa Maulanas a subject of intense scrutiny. It would seem that Europe and the US is very actively spreading a new dictum of awakening the Arab states to the dangers of their old policies of Islam vs Kafir. The new world order has defanged Gaddafi, and the Iranians have signaled a willingness to reconsider their Nuclear policies.
The World (not just the west) is now not willing allow these hatemongers to disrupt their society, like the anarchists of old. Only this time they are defiling the name of Islam , by perpetrating acts of terror in its name. They are the true Kafirs, for this indeed is blasphemy, and should be called as such by our Clerics. Our MMA leadership should consider the damage that they are doing to God and country in persisting with these policies of hate.
President Musharraf has done well to expel the foreign elements in the Madressahs, but should go one step further and nationalize them altogether. This would bring our officers of the Min of Education into a direct interaction with the curriculum of these schools on a daily basis. It would have the Maulvis and the bureaucrats keep an eye on each other. One to keep the message of Peace, and the other to keep each of them honest.The Madressas may be doing a good job in imparting free education to the large body of Pakistani people, but to teach them the Holy Koran by rote, without understanding the meaning of the words, does not spread the message therein. They should realize it is not the word only that matters but the meaning, is of the essence. Without the comprehension it is just a foreign language. The Holy Prophet (Pbuh)was the Messenger. If his message –The Holy Koran is not understood, then the whole exercise has been futile. It is the duty of the Madressas to explain the message, and it should be a message of Peace.
The Jehadi card was a ploy used by the West for its own ends, which once achieved was discarded, but the Madressas were caught up in the momentum of their cause, and by not being able to rein in the anger it looked for and found new targets. These targets are causing a severe backlash on the other Muslims in the area. Within 48 hours after 7/7, 78 Pakistani houses were attacked in the UK by various groups. All of them anti Islam, and anti Pakistan. This fact is not too well known in Pakistan, and nor has it been widely circulated. But was this the result that the 7/7 bombers or their handlers desired? Do the handlers know how much damage they have done to Islam by their action? The Mosques that are now the target of hatred? The poor Pakistanis who are now singled out for spot checks or attacked if spotted alone? The poor girls who are now being told to remove their Hijab by their local Maulvis so that they are not so easily identified as Muslims. To hide your religion --Islam, is this the gift that they committed suicide for? No—the bombers were and the handlers are the true enemies of Islam, and the sooner they and anyone connected to them are rooted out the better for Pakistan and Islam.