The starting point for the first term would be to tackle madrassas and seminaries; institutes which are significant in creating brainwashed, radicalised and isolated students, following a one-track path to religious fundamentalism that has no place in the modern world. Qari Muhammad Hanif Jalandhari, the general secretary of both Ittehad-i-Tanzeemat-i-Madaris-i-Deenia (ITMD), an umbrella organisation of five main bodies representing seminaries from different schools of thought, and of Wafaq ul Madaris Al-Arabia, the organisation representing the seminaries of the Deobandi school of thought, on Thursday has come out vehemently defending the seminaries by quite simply negating that any link exists between seminaries and terrorism. Jalandhari demanded evidence from the state to prove that the two are related, while writing off the criticism of seminaries as propaganda campaigns by the West. While declaring the Peshawar Massacre a tragedy and offering support in action against institutes behind it, he threateningly – and ironically – said that any action against the wishes of ITMD will not be accepted.
Despite the recent events, it will be difficult for the Pakistani political establishment to distance itself from the mainstream Taliban in Afghanistan. Pakistan still adheres to its “doctrine of depth” and views the Afghan Taliban as a “strategic asset”. Pakistan does not want countries such as India and Iran to have too much influence in Afghanistan. There is also a lurking fear in the corridors of power in Islamabad that a resurgent Afghan Taliban could in the long run side with its counterpart across the border. All the Pakistani Taliban factions have pledged their loyalty to Mullah Omar. Both the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban espouse the Deobandi sectarian theology.
RAWALPINDI: Clerics belonging to different schools of thought are divided over the ban on the use of loudspeakers except for Azan and Arabic sermons during Friday prayers.
Maulana Ashraf Ali of the Deobandi school of thought, who is also the custodian of Taleemul Quran seminary in Raja Bazaar, said he was in favour of the ban.
“It will stop people from propagating their thoughts and creating problems for others,” he said.
Source:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1155013
Combating terrorism in Pakistan
January 07, 2015
Jagdish N. Singh
It is high time Islamabad seized this historic opportunity and sincerely worked together with the nations in the region to fight terrorism. Given their long shared history and culture, Islamabad and New Delhi together can take on the militant Islamists very effectively. There is a lot of substance in New Delhi’s thesis that the fanatic ideology of hatred and violence against humanity is shared in common by radical Islamists of all hues — Wahhabism — Deoband seminary, Tablighi Jamaat, Ahle Hadith and the Jamaat-e-Islami — and hence action needs to be taken against each of them.
Things have changed little since then. It is as a result of this continuing leadership crisis in Pakistan that a notorious Deobandi Sunni stream of the puritanical Wahabi-Salafi order, equipped with a distorted version of Islam, has come to guide terror activities and take the country towards the age of darkness. The progressives could reverse this poisonous stream in Pakistan. Time is still on their side. The radical Islamists have little social base in the country.
Source:
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/150107/commentary-columnists/article/combating-terrorism-pakistan
Stemming Shia Hazara Killings in the Islamic State Era
Brian Perkins
January 9, 2015
Sunni-Shia violence in Pakistan has been recurrent for decades, but in the past few years, it has become increasingly one-sided. The city’s Shia Hazara community faces relentless violence at the hands of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), a Saudi-backed sectarian militant group from the Deobandi sect of Sunni Islam. LeJ is a Takfiri organization, condemning any group that does not follow a rigid interpretation of Sunni Islam. LeJ is a breakaway faction of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, a sectarian organization with longstanding ties to the Pakistani state. The Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda fortified LeJ during the group’s infancy to help fight the ethnically diverse Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. These battles provide the historical context for LeJ’s targeting of Quetta’s Hazaras, as hundreds fought alongside the Northern Alliance during the Taliban occupation.
Source:
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2015/01/09/stemming-shia-hazara-killings-in-the-islamic-state-era/
Stemming Hazara Killings in the Islamic State Era
Brian Perkins
January 9, 2015
Sunni-Shia violence in Pakistan has been recurrent for decades, but in the past few years, it has become increasingly one-sided. The city’s Shia Hazara community faces relentless violence at the hands of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), a Saudi-backed sectarian militant group from the Deobandi sect of Sunni Islam. LeJ is a Takfiri organization, condemning any group that does not follow a rigid interpretation of Sunni Islam. LeJ is a breakaway faction of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, a sectarian organization with longstanding ties to the Pakistani state. The Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda fortified LeJ during the group’s infancy to help fight the ethnically diverse Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. These battles provide the historical context for LeJ’s targeting of Quetta’s Hazaras, as hundreds fought alongside the Northern Alliance during the Taliban occupation.
Source:
http://kabulpress.org/my/spip.php?article224691
Countering terrorism: Need to change pro-Taliban narrative
Shafqat Munir
The Daily Star
January 10, 2015
Unfortunately, pro-Taliban narrative has been prevailing in Pakistan, mostly out of the fear of Taliban attacks or due to influence of ‘Deobandi’ and ‘Tableeghi’ schools of thought. The 2013 election campaign was dominated by the Taliban factor as they had openly said they would not attack rallies of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (Imran Khan led-PTI) and Jamaat Islami and some other right wing parties. Taliban had categorically stated that they would not allow Pakistan People’s Party (Zardari-led), Awami National Party (Asfandyar Wali-led), Mutahida Qaumi Moverment (Altaf-led) and other liberal democratic parties to run their election campaigns.
The situation in Pakistan is really bad and requires stern and immediate actions with long-term policy options. There is a dire need for military and political establishments to decide once for all that retrogressive narrative that gives space to religious extremism or Talibanisation needs to be de-radicalised through curbing hate speech and literature. Media should be given clear agenda of peace and tolerance, madrassa should be brought under control of authority as are other schools and colleges. Mosque imams should be given a vetted khutiba (speech) for Friday sermon, as is done in Saudi Arabia. The military courts would only partially address the issue by pushing terrorists after summary trials. But this may not provide a solution until we sincerely fight against the religious extremist narrative that ultimately provides fuel to Taliban. Above all, the government, military establishment, media and civil society should build a new narrative of a peaceful, enlightened, moderate democratic Pakistan replacing pro-Taliban narrative that is prevailing in the country through a network of religious seminaries of a hardliner’s school of thought (Deobandi). Pakistan cannot give more children to terrorists to kill. Enough is enough, if still we keep on confusing the narrative, we will plunge further into a deeper trap of terrorism. Pakistan needs to analyse how best it can live in peace without compromising security of its people and territory.
Source:
http://www.thedailystar.net/op-ed/countering-terrorism-need-to-change-pro-taliban-narrative-58604
Will 2015 be the year of the LeT?
Rana Banerji
The Hindu
January 10, 2015
If Mr. Lakhvi’s release eventually materialises, it may start a leadership struggle within the organisation. It must be realised that he came to prominence within the power echelons of the MDI/LeT before Mr. Saeed did. He was one of the first Ahle Hadith volunteers to join up with other Pakistani Deobandi and Barelvi fighters in Afghanistan under the leadership of Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. They fought the Soviets in the Orgun valley of Paktika (1979-82) and later in Nooristan.
As the deadline for withdrawal of U.S./International Security Assistance Force troops from Afghanistan passes, the ISI could also be looking for a new role for the LeT there. As Deobandi Taliban of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan ilk seem no longer under Pakistani military’s control, the aim could be to use the LeT against them, while continuing to utilise it as proxy against Indian interests in Afghanistan too, as seen in the recent attack on the Indian Consulate in Herat.
Source:
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/comment-article-will-2015-be-the-year-of-the-let/article6772535.ece
Holy cows?: In capital, majority of madrassas operating illegally
Danish Hussain
January 12, 2015
The survey, jointly carried out by the police and Islamabad Capital Territory Administration, was recently shared with the interior ministry. It states that there are 401 seminaries within the capital city’s territorial limits with the majority of them running under the aegis of the Deobandi school of thought.
The Deobandi madrassas outnumber other religious groups in the city, not only in terms of registered but also the illegal seminaries.
The seminaries are being run by representatives of four major schools of Islamic thought — Deobandi, Barelvi, Ahle Hadith and Shia.
Source:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/820454/holy-cows-in-capital-majority-of-madrassas-operating-illegally/
“Not in Our Prophet’s Name” says Islamic holiday anti-terrorism campaign
Graeme Frisque
January 12, 2015
He says that, much like Christianity, there are many sects within Islam and most of the extremists come from an offshoot started in Saudi Arabia called Wahabi-Salafi-Deobandi Muslims, who he says are as ideologically opposed to other Muslims as they are to the West.
Source:
http://www.caledonenterprise.com/news-story/5252753–not-in-our-prophet-s-name-says-islamic-holiday-anti-terrorism-campaign/
Madrassas may soon outnumber state-run schools in federal capital: survey
Pakistan Today
January 12, 2015
The survey, jointly carried out by the police and Islamabad Capital Territory Administration, was recently shared with the Interior Ministry. It states that there are 401 seminaries within the capital city’s territorial limits with the majority of them running under the aegis of the Deobandi school of thought.
The seminaries are being run by representatives of four major schools of Islamic thought — Deobandi, Barelvi, Ahle Hadith and Shia.
Source:
http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2015/01/12/national/madrassas-may-soon-outnumber-state-run-schools-in-federal-capital-survey/
A month after Peshawar
January 13, 2015
Amidst all this, a gruesome attack on the Imambargah in Rawalpindi occurred. Around a dozen died and several got injured. No one had time to ask why anti-shia, takfiri Deobandi proscribed outfits like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Ahl-e-Sunnat wal Jamaat were still operating freely despite those twenty points of a hyped National Action Plan. It is wedding season, you know!
Source:
http://nation.com.pk/columns/13-Jan-2015/a-month-after-peshawar
The peculiar case of Liaquat Ali Hazara
Russia Today
At the end of last year, the world recoiled in horror as the Pakistani Taliban launched an attack on a school in Peshawar that killed 145 people, the vast majority of them children of members of the country’s armed forces. It came against the backdrop of a government campaign against militants in the tribal regions of the country which has thus far taken the lives of thousands of innocent civilians. In the days following the attacks, global leaders united in their condemnation of the bombing, also taking the opportunity to speak about the threat posed by extremist groups who follow the Saudi-backed Wahhabi ideology – in the Pakistani context, the Deobandi school of thought.
Source:
http://rt.com/op-edge/222675-liaquat-pakistan-uk-muslim-campaigner/
Happily marooned in the tempest
Jawed Naqvi
14 01 2015
And what would Maududi’s or hardline Deobandi followers prescribe for the two largest orders in the region — the Tijaniya and the Mourides? The pan-Islamic Qadiri order and the smaller Layene brotherhood are also represented in Senegal. –
Source:
15.01.2015
Mahmood Rafiq says there are vast differences in the approaches to Islam from different Muslim groups, with some sections of the religion promoting what he believes to be radical and aggressive rhetoric.
“I think there is a particular school of thought where these radical preachers are coming from. I think it’s coming from the Deobandi school where there is this belief that Islam was once great, and it should come back again, and these people feel like they need to push their agenda, however it is a recent phenomena.”
Source:
http://uk.sputniknews.com/uk/20150115/1013371192.html
Pak support to proxy war in J&K continues: Army chief
“The Sunni-Deobandi radicalization has made deep inroads into the Pakistan Army, even though it still remains a professional force. Only time will tell whether it takes a U-turn after Peshawar, acting against Lashkar-e-Taiba towards India and the Haqqani network towards Afghanistan,” another officer said.
Source:
https://in.newshub.org/pak-support-to-proxy-war-in-j-k-continues-army-chief-9444773.html
