Deobandi conference on militancy
Submitted by Usman.
Recently a large gathering of “Ulemas” organised by the Deoband school took place in Lahore. The issue was the rise of militancy and terrorism. The following quote from an editorial in the Dawn Newspaper (4th May 2010) of Pakistan commenting on the conference is telling and sadly not surprising; highlighting the the rapidly shrinking space for the moderate voices in Islam.
Of course we can trace this back to when the Ahmadiyya movement took up the banner of reforming Islam by going back to its roots but was rejected by the Mullahs. Sadly in Pakistan despite being under the attack of militants, the authorities have no issues with the rabid Mullahs openly projecting hate. I guess the only encouragement is that in the West Muslims are coming around to the Ahmadiyya point of view. In Pakistan now is a golden moment for the leaders to take out the extreme voices because the public is quite sick of the militants and the Mullahs. Unfortuantely this is not happening and I think this is due to the fear of the Mullah that politicians have, and once again we can trace this back to anti-Ahmadi legislations when the rot already setting in was sanctioned and institutionalised by the state.
“But when a group of religious leaders comes together to discuss the issue of militancy, it is odd, to say the least, that it can find a voice to condemn everyone other than the militants themselves. Of course, not all those who attended the Deobandi conference in Lahore could be labelled as extremists. Indeed, observers have noted that ‘moderate’ voices were present, but in the end they were perhaps too intimidated by the hardliners in attendance to speak their minds.”
From ikram:
“But when a group of religious leaders comes together to discuss the issue of militancy, it is odd, to say the least, that it can find a voice to condemn everyone other than the militants themselves.”
This is what Quran has to say to these so-called religious leaders:
4:75. What (excuse) have you (to offer) that you would not fight in the cause of Allâh and for (the rescue of) the weak and the down-trodden men and women and the children who all say, `Our Lord! take us out of this town of which the people are tyrants, and grant us a defender who comes from You and a helper by Your Own grace.’
It takes lots of morality and dignity to fight in the cause of Allâh and for (the rescue of) the weak and the down-trodden men and women and the children who all say, while being blown-up by the bombs and being whipped, and the bigoted religious leaders ignore the wounds and screams of orphans, widows and widowers `Our Lord! take us out of this town of which the people are tyrants, and grant us a defender who comes from You and a helper by Your Own grace.’
It makes me nauseous to call someone a “religious leader” who abet and direct, directly or indirectly by his silence, the tyrannical ideology pervasive in the land of the pure.
There is moral precedence in history that Quran refers to as the natural outcome of bigotry. When Quran was revealed it gave the account of the moral decay of Bani-Israel, so that future Muslims should not tread the same path, which unfortunately they too have followed in moral and intellectual ignorance and dishonesty:
5:13. So on account of their breaking their covenant We deprived them of Our blessings, and We let their hearts become hardened. Now they pervert the words from their proper context (of the Divine Book) and (in doing so) they have abandoned a good portion of what they were (reminded of and) exhorted with. And you will never cease to discover one dishonesty (or the other) on their part, with the exception of a few of them; so pardon them and pass (them) over. Verily, Allâh loves the doers of good to others.
Similarly, Christians are referred to:
5:14. We took the covenant of those (also) who say, `We are Christians;’ but they have abandoned a good portion of what they were (reminded of and) exhorted with. So We have kindled enmity and hatred between (various sects of) them till the Day of Resurrection. And Allâh will soon inform them of all their machination.
Theoretically speaking, if there were another edition of Divine Books after Quran, then I would not be surprised that a verse would have been added as well for Mullahs and their blind followers. Instead, suffice is to read the opening paragraph of the above linked article of Dawn, i.e.
“There is little doubt that there still exist, across Pakistan, mosques, schools of religious learning and other religious centres that continue to spew hate. Unless that infrastructure of hate is shut down, and clearly some in attendance at the Lahore conference would oppose such a move, Pakistan will never win its struggle for internal peace.”