Page 2 of 2 Pakistan: Trouble in
the mosque By Syed Saleem Shahzad
as Osama bin Laden and his deputy,
Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the chief of the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan, Tahir Yaldeshiv.
This correspondent has seen a letter of
appreciation written by Yaldeshiv, shown by
Rasheed, when the Lal Masjid issued a religious
edict in 2004 that any Pakistani soldier killed in
the South Waziristan tribal area did not deserve
Muslim funeral prayers or burial in a Muslim
graveyard. The letter was later endorsed by more
than 500 scholars and became one of the main
reasons for defiance in the
Pakistan Army during military operations in South
Waziristan.
Lal Masjid was also the main
site for Pakistani militants to visit, which
landed the brothers in serious trouble in 2004
when the government accused them of being partners
in a conspiracy to carry out major terror
operations in Islamabad. The connection was
Rasheed's car, which was apparently used by one
Usman, who had been arrested in connection with
sabotage activities in the capital.
The
government wanted the brothers arrested, but
then-federal minister for religious affairs and
son of former president Zia Ejaz ul-Haq, who was
very close to the brothers, intervened. He became
guarantor on behalf of the state that if Rasheed
surrendered for interrogations to an intelligence
agency of the armed forces and if no evidence came
out, he would be cleared of all charges.
"Before going into custody I made it clear
to Ejaz ul-Haq that I had met everybody, including
Osama, [Taliban leader] Mullah Omar [and] Dr Ayman
al-Zawahiri and that many wanted figures did come
to Lal Masjid because it is a mosque and anybody
can come to this place. So any evidence of terror
should be other than that. Ejaz ul-Haq agreed, and
then I was handed over to intelligence," Rasheed
told Asia Times Online in a recent interview.
Rasheed spent several weeks in custody
before being released in the clear.
These
developments convinced Musharraf that the two
seminaries run by the brothers should be moved out
of Islamabad. At the same time, Rasheed, who had
previously been at loggerheads with the military
establishment, established a rapport with it.
Leader of a khurooj? The
brothers are respected for their services for
jihad in Afghanistan and their connection with the
esteemed former justice of the Shariat Appellate
Bench of the Supreme Court, Taqi Usmani. Taqi
Usmani is a big name in Islamic economics and
helped establish and run a leading Islamic bank in
Pakistan.
Taqi Usmani is Aziz's religious
and spiritual guide, and after the latest campaign
by students to enforce Islam in Islamabad, Taqi
Usmani visited Aziz to hear his side of the
argument. The two disagreed, and Taqi Usmani
severed his relationship with Aziz. This could
only have been a painful experience, for Aziz to
be rejected by his mentor - as well as by the
board, which canceled the mosque's registration.
Others, though, see an important role for
the brothers in creating the right circumstances
for an Islamic revolution.
"They are
capable of swaying all Islamic elements under a
single banner and they are qualified for
leadership because they are pious and assertive,"
former ISI official and retired squadron leader
Khalid Khawaja, who is now in jail, once told this
correspondent.
However, it could be that
the brothers will only be useful in the initial
stages, as they are likely to be silenced one way
or the other by the military or go underground in
the Waziristan tribal areas.
To date, the
only religious force that is publicly standing
behind the brothers is the JI, the forerunner of
the idea of khurooj in the last century. It
was also the only political party that was
hand-in-glove with the plan of the military elite
in the 1990s to stage an Islamic coup in the
country.
It is possible that retired
officers from this era, the JI, headed by Qazi
Hussain Ahmed, and the Lal Masjid are talking to a
section of the establishment over the downfall of
Musharraf.
Organizations such as al-Qaeda
and militant groups, meanwhile, are waiting to
exploit any chaos to declare a caliphate.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia
Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be
reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com.
(Copyright 2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
