Related post: Mazhar Ali Azhar Deobandi and Ahrar: Yasser Latif Hamdani recycles Shia-phobia! – See more at: https://lubpak.com/archives/307463

Pakistan’s Sunni, Shia and secular activists have strongly condemned and rejected blogger and Ahmadi rights activist Yasser Latif Hamdani’s hate campaign against Shia Muslims, which he continues to spew on Raza Rumi’s Pak Tea House blog. Previously similar reacion was seen when Deobandi cleric Ahmad Ludhyanvi’s hate speech against Shias was uncritically promoted by The Friday Times, edited by Raza Rumi. https://lubpak.com/archives/251633

Apparently, Yasser Latif Hamdani, known for his racist slurs against Pashtuns and other ethnic groups, is now adamant to present a deeply sectarian Deobandi politician Mazhar Ali Azhar as a Shia Muslim. This is despite the fact that there is plethora of evidence to prove that Mazar Ali Azhar, a deceptive third-class lawyer of the Majlis-e-Ahrar, was a Deobandi. The ulterior motive of such a move by Yasser Hamdani and other ShiaPhobes is to distort history to construct an argument that Shias are themselves responsible for their genocide because they are reaping today what they sowed in the past.

The only argument that Yasser Latif Hamdani has in his support is that since Mazhar Ali Azhar Deobandi is, based on his own or his Deobandi party’s statement, reported as a Shia in the Justice Munir’s Report, therefore he should be described as such. This logic is lame because Hamdani doesn’t take into account all other facts, proven through multiple sources (https://lubpak.com/archives/307463), that Mazhar Ali Azhar was an anti-Shia bigot who had converted to Deobandi sect and led anti-Shia campaigns in various parts of India. This shows the level of paranoia, arrogance and Shia phobia of Yasser Latif Hamdani and the Pak Tea House blog.

Ayesha Jalal writes in her book Self and Sovereignty (pp.457-458):

“Yet it (Ahrar) felt no pangs of conscience spreading sectarian hatred amongst Muslims. Mazhar Ali Azhar’s threat to restart the Madha-i-Sahaba against the Shias of Lucknow aimed at retarding Muslim League by creating internal religious differences.”

Clearly, Mazhar ALi Azhar Deobandi, the notorious Punjabi lawyer who wrote poems in praise of Muawiya ibn Sufyan, was busy in inciting violence against Shias, and here we have another Punjabi lawyer (Hamdani) presenting that Deobandi bigot as a Shia. What exactly is his aim other than stigmatizing Shias and creating divisions between persecuted communities for the benefit of Deobandi bigot?

Indeed, not everything narrated in Justice Munir’s Report is to be uncritically believed and circulated as the word of God. Justice Munir Commission inlucding Munir himself did not comprise of infallible beings. It may be recalled that Justice Munir is the same judge who, for the first time in Pakistan’s history, invoked the law of necessity to validate illegal dissolution of Pakistan’s first constitutent assembly by a Punjabi bureaucrat. Citing an odd line in Justice Munir’s Report, ignoring the plethora of evidence to the contrary within that very Report and other documents, to prove an anti-Shia bigot as a Shia is sheer dishonesty and lazy scholarship.

Calling Mazhar Ali Azhar a Shia is a slap on the faces of all Shias. It is demeaning to all Shia beliefs. There cannot be a greater instance of religious bigotry even if one Pakistani government report contains that error. By reinforcing and circulating the Ahrari’s deceptive propaganda on Pak Tea House, Yasser Hamdani gave voice to that bigotry. Then he tried to defend that action by insinuating that he is from a prominent Shia family, hiding the publically known fact that his father reverted from Ahmadi to Sunni in 1974. Our advice to Mr. Hamdani: Fight for Ahmadis as much as you can and we support that cause, but don’t misrepresent others. Is that asking for too much?

We also remind Yasser that while he condemns all Takfiri Sunnis and Takfiri Shias, he should also condemn Takfiri Ahmadi clerics and Khalifahs, who categorically declaed all non-Ahmadis as Kafir (infidels) and Kharij-az-Islam (outside the circle of Islam). Will he clearly and uncdonitionally condemn Takfiri Ahmadi clerics? https://lubpak.com/archives/305467

That, Yasser Latif Hamdani continues to insult his critics as “fundamentalist Shias”, “fundamentalist Sunnis”, or “racist Pashtuns” shows his intellectual and moral bankruptcy.

Based on Yasser Latif Hamdani’s logic, Lawrence of Arabia should be accepted as a Muslim because he pretended to be one. Similarly, Taliban terrorists should be accepted as true or pure Muslims because that’s what their claim is. Or, imagine that a bigoted Deobandi, one day, claims that he is an Ahmadi and then, in the guise of his misappropriated Ahmadi identity, starts abusing Ahmadiyya Muslims and Mirza Ghulam Ahmad? Should we then say that an Ahmadi is insulting the Ahmadiyya sect and Prophet? Or should we simply describe him as a bigoted Deobandi who is implementing his hate agenda in a camouflaged manner?

Well, in that respect there is not much difference between semi-Sunni semi-Ahmadi bigot Yasser Hamdani and Deobandi bigot Mazhar Ali Azhar. Both tried to add to the existing Shia phobia, stigmatizing Shia Muslims, thus providing fuel to the genocide which Pakistani Shias currently face at the hands of Deobandi terrorists.

PS: We don’t want to respond to Yasser Hamdani’s irrelevant criticism of Iranian leaders because that’s off topic. Such tactic, however, does suggest that Yasser Hamdani is not much different from Deobandi bigots of Sipah-e-Sahaba (ASWJ-LeJ) and Taliban when it comes to insulting and stereotyping Pakistani Shias by associating them with Iranian clerics and government.

Additional note: It has been brought to our attention that Yasser Hamdani is not an Ahmadi in traditional sense, because despite his active support for Ahmadis, he has never taken baiat (oath of allegiance) of any Ahmadi Khalifa. He himself has rejected that he is an Ahmadi and unlike his campaign of lies and hate against us, we accept his statement as it refers to his beliefs. His beliefs are his right and we at LUBP are still concerned with his security inspite of his consistently abusive and dishonest tactics to malign us at every opportunity (2/7/16).   His grandfather was an Ahmadi and his father converted from Ahmadi to Sunni in 1974. Hamdani’s pro-Ahmadi blogs and articles are often posted by Ahmadis who should clearly dissociate from this racist and sectarian bigot and opportunist. Of course, it is a matter of shame if this serial abuser sipahi is an Ahmadi because notwithstanding his support for the Ahmadiyya Jamaat, the language that he uses against his ideological opponents is awful and condemnable. As such our contention that YLH is an Ahmadi rights activist is borne out by his own public writings to that effect.  LUBP itself is routinely abused and threatened by those who use anti-Shia and anti-Ahmadi pejoratives like Tahir Ashrafi whose links with PTH editors are a matter of public record. We condemn the alleged incident of anyone misusing our articles to threaten others like YLH just because of the latter’s false claims.  We also reject the preposterous claims that exposing someone’s false and dishonest claims against a community facing genocide is the same as incitement. The best way to expose lies is simply to write about them (2/7/16)

Reaction on social media: Sunni, Shia, liberal activists reject Yasser Hamdani’s Shia phobia

Evidence of Yasser Hamdani’s anti-Shia bigotry

Was Maulana Mazhar Ali Azhar Deobandi or Shia?
March 6th, 2014 | 13 Comments
By Yasser Latif Hamdani

My reference to the Munir Report vis a vis the fact that Maulana Mazhar Ali Azhar (the Ahrar leader who called Jinnah Kafir-e-Azam or the great infidel) was a Shia leading an essentially anti-Ahmadi and anti-Shia movement has evoked a rather disgraceful reaction from online Shia Islamic Fundamentalists. The idea that Azhar could be a Shia is so revolting and repulsive to them (and rightly so because some of his opinions are unpalatable to Shias in general) that they have chosen to attack me for merely repeating what Munir Report said. And what did it say:

It is therefore clear that before the inquiry commission, Maulana Azhar represented that he was a Shia. The Shia fundamentalists who want to deny this argue that saying Maulana Azhar is a Shia is like saying Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a hanafi Sunni. Unfortunately they do not realize the irony of this claim. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadiyya branch, claimed to be a Muslim before and after founding the Ahmaddiya Movement. That is the entire argument : Ahmadis are Muslims because they claim to be.

It is then argued that Maulana Azhar wrote a couplet praising Muawaiyah. This is again true. The couplet that he wrote referred to “Husnain’s deference to Muawiyah’s Khilafat” as the reason for his admiration for Muawaiyah. Is abusing Muawaiyah sine qua non to be a Shia? Or are theological Shia beliefs i.e. belief in Ahle-Bait and the Jafari Fiqh the basics? I frankly do not know nor do I care what Azhar’s beliefs were but if Azhar claimed to be a Shia, he would be known as a Shia. The next question would be whether he ever claimed to be a Deobandi. Not to my knowledge though I am not inclined to waste my time studying a man who had done takfir against Jinnah.

In any event – the issue is a broader one. Why are online Shia- Fundamentalists so fired up about Azhar’s faith? Can a Shia do no wrong? In that case what about this Shia?

And this Shia denied holocaust shamelessly for many years:

It may also be pointed out that Islamic Republic of Iran – constitutionally and legally a Shia theocracy – is almost as bad as the Wahabi Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in its application of Shia Orthodoxy on its people. Are they not Shias too?

Hailing as I do from a predominantly and a very prominent Shia family, I know for a fact that Shias are every bit as exclusive as any other sect in Islam. The Shia clergy’s position on Ahmadis being Kafir has always been very clear. Now a number of Shias being modern and educated do not always follow their clergy and or at least do not take them seriously. However a practising Shia will never pray the janaza funeral prayers of an Ahmadi. This is well established and can be confirmed from any Shia Alim-e-Deen. Shias also were part of the grand consensus to drive Ahmadis out of the fold of Islam. All religious organizations of Shias in Pakistan endorsed the National Assembly’s decision to declare Ahmadis Non-Muslim.

Almost every sect – be it Shia or Sunni – has engaged in the Takfir of other sects. Barelvis, Deobandis, Shias, etc are all kafirs in each other’s eyes. The honourable exception are Ismailis of the Aga Khani branch. Nor is this phenomenon limited to Islam- the wars between Protestants and Catholics are only Europe’s recent past. They all considered each other heretics too.

So my advice to online Shia fundamentalists is to stop this ridiculous and nonsensical waste of time.

http://pakteahouse.net/2014/03/06/was-maulana-mazhar-ali-azhar-deobandi-or-shia/

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