THE LATEST DAYS OF RAGE IN PAKISTAN

THE LATEST DAYS OF RAGE IN PAKISTAN

By Hugh Fitzgerald

For several weeks, there have been mass sit-ins in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, and around the country, blocking major traffic arteries, causing general disruption, and in some cases, leading official business to grind to a halt as the government, already weakened by assorted scandals, tries to cope. 

The protests were organized by various Islamic groups, including members of the Tehreek-i-Khatm-i-Nabuwwat, Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah and the Sunni Tehreek Pakistan. These groups, which protested for several weeks, are mostly Sunni from the Barelvi school of Islam, which has not usually been as well organised politically as its counterparts from the Deobandi school. 

But they’ve seized the occasion to show their ability to bring out their followers, to show that they can be just as easily inflamed as the Deobandis, and that they can get results. These groups have defied threats by the Pakistani military to remove them physically from their sit-ins in front of, or even inside, government buildings. Tehreek-i-Labaik’s leader, Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi, known as a firebrand, has been the uncompromising organizer and public face of this protest, ranting against what to most of us would seem the most minor of infractions.

These Muslims were demanding the resignation of Zahid Hamid, the federal law minister. His crime was only this: he oversaw the introduction and passage of the Elections Amendment Bill 2017, which governs the electoral process for the country. 

Rizvi and his followers were enraged over the failure to include, in that Bill, the proper way for candidates to declare their belief in Muhammad. In the previous version of the text that all candidates for office must sign, there is a section pertaining to the finality of Muhammad as the last of the prophets. 

Candidates had  been expected to “solemnly swear” that they believe in the khatm-e-nabuwwat, which is the idea that Muhammad was Islam’s last prophet and there have not and will not be any others after him (this means that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya sect, is denied prophethood). Instead, the form, as revised, simply asked candidates to state that they “believe” in the finality of Muhammad’s prophethood. 

This meant that the belief in that finality would go from being an affidavit, including a statement under oath, to simply being a declaration. It’s the difference between “I solemnly swear that I believe” and “I believe.” 

Not much to you and me, but a great deal in touchy Pakistan, and enough to set many Pakistanis aflame all over the country. The previous text was immediately restored, and apologies made for the “clerical error,” which is clearly what it was, since no Muslim in his right mind would have dared to deliberately make such a change. 

Despite the explanation and the apologies, the days of rage extended into several weeks.

That was one complaint. 

There were two other changes to the Electoral Bill, aimed at  the Ahmadis, a sect whose members believe that the Messiah arrived in the 19th century, in the person of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. These Ahmadis are not regarded as Muslims either by non-Ahmadi Muslims, nor by the Pakistan government. They are forbidden to call themselves Muslims; their passports and all official documents list them as non-Muslims; they cannot vote in Muslim-only elections.

The latest Bill regulating elections infuriated Muslims because it omitted a section of the Conduct of General Elections Order, 2002, pertaining to those Ahmadis. That section had previously allowed any voter’s statement of belief in the finality of Muhammad’s prophethood to be challenged. If a person did not sign a declaration regarding this belief, his name would be added to the rolls as a non-Muslim. (This meant they could not vote in those elections open only to Muslims). 

This clause had been deleted in the latest version of the Bill, but after the protests in November 2017, it was restored. In other words, Muslims through violent protests had made sure that any of them had the right to challenge any Ahmadi about his or her belief in the prophethood of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, and if they answered truthfully — that is, that they considered him to be a prophet and the Messiah — to have them labelled as non-Muslims for all electoral purposes. 

In Pakistan, there are two lists of voters: Muslims and non-Muslims, and there are contests where only Musims can vote. That clause, about any Muslim having the right to challenge Ahmadis about their beliefs, was again immediately restored, but once the days of rage had started, even after the offending clauses were removed, they continued, no doubt  as a way of demonstrating the power of the hysterical  demagogue and leader of Tehreek-i-Labaik, Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi.

The disruptive sit-ins, and violence, too,  spread all over the country. There were injured. There were deaths. Zahid Ahmad had his ancestral home ransacked, as did several other government ministers. It was said that had Zahid Ahmad been home at the time, he would have been lynched. 

With the rage not diminishing, even though the protestors had quickly obtained everything they had sought, the sit-ins continued, disrupting traffic and in some places bringing official business to a halt. It became necessary, in order to save the government from collapse, to do more than restore the clauses back to their previous phrasing, requiring an affidavit of belief, not just a statement of belief, and making Ahmadis subject to grilling on the “prophethood” of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. 

The mobs wanted Zahid Ahmad to resign as the law minister. Which he did.

But even that was not enough to calm the enraged crowds.

The resignation by itself did not placate those whipped up by Mr. Rizvi. They wanted more. And so the law minister, Zahid Ahmad, made a video, declaring his belief in the Prophet Muhammad, his willingness to lay down his life “for the honor and sanctity of Prophet Muhammad,” and his complete and total lack of any connection to the “Qadianis” (the pejorative term for the Ahmadis).

Here is that performance:

He read out the oath from the existing law and said, “I believe in the Finality of Prophethood. I am not a follower of any claimant of prophethood, nor do I believe that any such claimant of prophethood is a Muslim. Neither do I belong to any Qadiani Group or Lahori Group, nor do I call myself an Ahmadi.”

He said the Constitution of Pakistan declared the Qadianis, Ahmadi Group and Lahori Group non-Muslims.

I love Hazard Muhammad (PBUH) from the core of my heart and am a true lover of the last Prophet (PBUH). I and my family are prepared to lay down our lives for the honor and sanctity of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

For now, the sit-ins are over. The people who like to riot have gone back to whatever it is they do in Pakistan when they are not rioting over this or that perceived slight to Muhammad, to Muslims, to Islam.

But something else will come up, soon enough, to whip up the hysteria yet again. This is Pakistan, Land of the Pure. These are people quick to anger, slow to be mollified. These are minds on Islam. They have so very little else.

Pamela Geller's shocking new book, "FATWA: HUNTED IN AMERICA" is now available on Amazon. It's Geller's tell all, her story - and it's every story - it's what happens when you stand for freedom today. Buy it. Now. Here.

https://pamelageller.com/2017/12/hugh-fitzgerald-latest-days-rage-pakistan.html/