Islam as a political weapon in Pakistan

Manto " quote (Ghulam Ahmed Parwez's) Tolu-e-Islam's website "

The guy who perverted the Quran in the tradition of the MAJ and his sidekick in order to manipulate politics giving a bad name to rationalist Muslims that try to sift through the errors of traditionalism, everywhere. Now they just say, "they are pervaizis" and the discussion ends. To be perfectly honest, the guy was an idolator who worshipped MAJ, setup a shrine for himself and knew next to nothing about science. And why is Manto, a so called secularist (in reality the High Priest of the Church of MAJ) taking refuge in a similar freak, it is beacause they both share one of their gods, MAJ.

masadi #59 through #65 save #62 by teshash,

Masadi Sahib,
As everyone knows, I am no big fan of MAJ. Also, I don't subscribe to the absolute sainthood of ZAB. The only thing I am sure of is that Zina Owl Hag was the devil himself.

You sir are sounding like a complete fool and would probably make more sense if you did elbow exercises with Hamidumdum Sahib on the shores of Lake St. Clair. Carry on, please! You are hanging yourself. :)

SC writes "You sir are sounding like a complete fool and would probably make more sense if you did elbow exercises with Hamidumdum Sahib on the shores of Lake St. Clair. Carry on, please! You are hanging yourself. :) "

As usual more shallow BS from you. I am not talking about the "sainthood" of ZAB, merely trying to clarify the political context in which he was able to achieve what he did. You on the other hand have not been able to show in your post how I am making a "fool" of myself. Shallow nonsense colored by ethnic overtones is all we have come to expect of you, unfortunately...

The holier than thou attitude is a surefire bastion of fools, scoundrels and bigots. Religion throughout history has been the root cause of some of the worst strife the world has ever seen. Any time a certain sect of people starts believing that their fairy tales are the truth par excellence, and another sect says vice versa, conflict is surely to occur. Thus, it is great folly to intermix the volatile concoction of religion with national politics, as the wise nations long ago discovered. That most of our leaders used religion for self-serving reasons merely illuminates the great charlatans they all were. ZAB was a corrupt power hungry juggler, and a hypocrite, saying one thing and practicing quite another, and was complicit in the break up of the country. Maybe with many youngsters his memory and image is getting fuzzier with the passage of time, but many still remember how his eloquent verbal jugglery held many riveted to his antics in their foolhardy days of youth. Finally, his pompous stupidity took him to the gallows. Zia was a despotic thug. As leaders go, after MAJ it has been a continuous downward spiral, which is the blight of Pakistan. It’s a strange topsy turvy world we live in, people who were good, like Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, were branded as traitors by a certain lobby, while the evil one’s became great saviors of the nation. However, if we were to look at it dispassionately and don’t even agree with his politics, the facts are that Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was an uncorrupted man of principles and he clutched on to them till the very last. He never grabbed for power and never became anything but a great leader for the movement of independence. His sobriquet was “Sarhady Ghandi”, and he headed the pacifist secularist Khudai Khitmatgar and Redshirt movements. Someone recently in eulogy said of him, that he was probably even a greater leader than Gandhi himself, because coming from as violent and macho a place as the Frontier, he still chose antiviolence methods to register his protests. Nevertheless, nuggets are often lost in abounding muck.

Re #66- Salim Sahib, the thing I admired about ZAB was that he had exquisite taste in drinking the finest single malts. As a young kid I sat on ZAB’s lap while he was visiting Multan in 1972. I felt something very powerful at that moment. He made a few bad choices and made some really stupid decisions, but he was not a bad person. He let his megalomania get the best of him. He would have made an outstading boyscout leader or a sociology lecturer had he not entered politics.

Goldfinger writes "ZAB was a corrupt power hungry juggler, and a hypocrite, saying one thing and practicing quite another"

Corrupt really, what case of corruption was ever brought against him? Breaking up the monopoly hold of a few families over Pakistani society is no corruption, breaking away from being a peon of the West, the Commonwealth and SEATO is no corruption, turning political discource to bread and butter issues rather than "Muslims and Hindus cannot get along" is no corruption. Juggling for these things faced by insurmountable odds and being successful on many fronts is certainly no corrutpion. Invoking religious exclusion to get a country, causing the death of millions and animosity that still grips the lives of millions on the other side of the border and BS on this side of it, as is the legacy of MAJ is corruption manifold. Youngster my a$$, the guy has no clue about the poster but is reduced to ad hominem because other than slogans he has nothing.

Goldfinger "Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was an uncorrupted man of principles.."

Who never amounted to anything. Living in a utopian world is one thing, facing the reality set in motion by the elite and then getting through some principles is leadership. Adopting the institutional precidents set by the elite for "principled folk" is no greatness or leadership, becomming an entire institution by your lonesome to change what has been set is greatness in leadership, that is what ZAB possessed moreso than anyone in Pakistan before or after.

Kulharee writes "Re #66- Salim Sahib, the thing I admired about ZAB was that he had exquisite taste in drinking the finest single malts"

Ha ha this is getting rather funny. The champion of "secularism" and anti-Islam nonsense here on chowk, Kulharee himself is reduced to mullahesque (ad hominem) arguments against ZAB, to prove some "point" to me. Read and enjoy!

Re: # 66

Massaddi Mian:

" Masadi Sahib, ...... You sir are sounding like a complete fool and would probably make more sense if you did elbow exercises with Hamidumdum Sahib ..."

Listen to Salim Sahib. When he speaks, only Magua has spoken before him.

If you do not know who is Magua... then you have indeed wasted your beautiful mind in 7th Century and Mills par-course.

Re: # 42

Yasser:

I watched Khuda Ke Liye. All I can tell you that ... Islam indeed needs an escape for its followers, else more Mary / Mariam will die, and more eldest son will be crippled by other fanatics.

Re: # 42

Yasser:

I watched Khuda Ke Liye. All I can tell you that ... Islam indeed needs an escape for its followers, else more Mary / Mariam will die, and more eldest son will be crippled by other fanatics.

Some people like anil live in the world of fiction, it is for that reason that few here pay attention to their dimwitted posts

Re: # 76

Massaddi Mian:

"...few here pay attention to their dimwitted posts ..."

Aap tou vakai mein hans bhi nahin sakte.

Aur uss din, haank rahe the ki aap kitne... kya kahein, Massaddi Mian bilkul Massaddi Mian hi rahe. Dimaag ko izzazt dijiye, Massaddi Mian. Bahut fateh ki baat mein kah raha houn.

Yasser ko pareshan mat kijiye. Uski aur Salim ki suniye. Kaano ka meil nikaal kar suniye. Karachi mein kaan ka meil nikalne wale zinda nahin hain tou Dilli ja kar nikalwa lijiye. Nahin tou mullah wala brain transplant karwa lijiye, yeh jo brain galati se mil gaya hai uski galati muaaf kar dijiye aur usko baksh dijiye. Mein uski taraf se pairvi kar rahun. Bahut abuse kiya hai aapne, apne brain ko. Woh ab nahin sah sakta.

Gustakhi ke liye muafee chahta houn, what Yasser and Salim write is beyond you.

The Essence of Indo Muslim Politics

A.H Amin


30 April 2004


The Indo Pak Muslims history is not all heroism or raiding or even Jihad but many compromises made in the name of class interest , opportunistic motives and myopic outlook !

How then one must describe the Indo Pak Muslim history in a nutshell to the layman foreigner ! The Muslim factor was introduced in Indo Pak by the Arabs in 711 once they landed in Sindh and captured it ! The Muslim conquest was re-commenced by the Turk Ghzanavids in late 900 and a Muslim empire firmly established in India's north by 1200 with the capital at Delhi ! The Delhi Sultans as the early Turk conquerors were known followed a narrow policy with regards to religion which was later mellowed down by their successors the Syeds and Pathans to some extent ! The Mughals under Akbar however introduced pluarlism in Indo Pak not merely because Akbar was a liberal but because Akbar realised that the majority Hindus could not be ruled indefinitely by a 10 % minority unless the state accomodated the Hindus !
Akbar's pluralism was to some extent dropped by his successors Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb but Hindu revival by Marathas forced the Mughal successors of Aurangzeb to abandon the narrow religious outlook of Aurangzeb !



The Muslim Mughal Empires decline started with the outbreak of the Maratha insurgency and was accelerated by the Sikh insurgency , Nadir Shah's invasion and the subsequent many invasions of the Afghan Ahmad Shah bdali.
The situation of the Muslims in 1803 was not glorious by any definition ! Delhi was a Hindu Maratha ruled city while Punjab and Frontier were Sikh ruled ! The latter being a singularly pathetic case since the Sikhs were just 8 % of the population but ruled because they were qualitatively superior !



In 1803 and 1849 three knights in shining armour saved the Indo Pak Muslims from Hindu and Sikh domination ! These were General Gerard Lake of the Bengal Army who defeated the Marathas and captured Delhi ,General Wellesley who defeated the Marathas at Assaye and General Hugh Gough who defeated the Sikhs in 1845-46 and 1848-49 !
From these dates Indo Pak Muslim history is a history of compromises and loyalism ! Loyalism first to the British in order to compete or barely survive as against the Hindus and Sikhs and later loyalism to Americans in order to survive post 1947 Indian hegemony !



The 1857 rebellion in the middle was a lower class rebellion against the British in which some feudals joined out of class motivation !
All major Muslim leaders from 1858 till 1947 were essentially manouevring brokers whose politics was anti Hindu and looked towards the British as good judges who would favour the down trodden Muslims ! The prime motivation of these leaders was not Islam but higher and middle class interests, jobs in the civil service , saving large feudal estates , a share in the self governmemnt pie ! The Hindu dominated congress was more fearless since it knew that it would rule India after the British left !



Syed Ahmad Khan , Nawab Mohammad Hayat of Wah , Agha Khan , Iqbal and Mr Jinnah all were absolutely clear that the Muslim classes that they were leading wanted safety against Hindu domination and not freedom of India with a Hindu dominated government !



Thus there was nothing revolutionary in the Muslim politics of India from 1858 till 1947 less the Khilafat Movement which was a phenomenon confined to UP , Bengal and some cities in Punjab and other Muslim provinces !
S.S Thorburn in Punjab saved the Muslim landed interests from total Hindu domination by his monumental alienation of land act of 1901 which barred transfer of Muslim Estates to Hindu money lenders or urban classes ! Quota system enabled the Muslims to have jobs in the ICS ! Some 58 out of 87 Muslim ICS officers were recruited by quota and not merit by the British between 1911 and 1944 !



Mr Jinnah the principal Muslim leader began his politics with secular ideas but his secular outlook was not sufficient to grant him a place in Indian Congress simply because he was not a Hindu !
Jinnah saw the light of the day and Islam only after his party was routed in the 1936 Elections in Muslim majority provinces ! Islam was picked up by the Muslim higher classes as a slogan only once they feared extinction by a post British Hindu dominated India !



Pakistan born out of fear of Hindu domination in 1947 and as a result of deliberate British policies after 1857 now decided to go under US vassalage ! Thus the resultant Pak-US alliance of 1954-65 !
The US armed the Pakistan Army well but the Pakistan Army failed to do well in 1965 war due to pure and unadulterated military incompetence.



By 1971 Pakistan was facing a civil war since the majority Bengalis had realised that the Feudal-Military-Civil service dominated West wing would not allow them to rule by majority.Thus secession and civil war of 1971 !
Mr Bhutto who took over as prime minister in 1971 made an attempt to resurrect Pakistan's Islamic ethos by his foreign policy and made a deliberate attempt to equalise the military balance with India by the nuclear programme.



The Afghan War of 1979-88 once again introduced Islam in Pakistani politics . Jihad was employed by the ruling military junta to galvanise the masses and this exercise went on till 1999 when Jihad died in Kargil !
The Pakistani elites very conveniently dropped Islam after 9/11 , the same Islam that they had picked up after 1858 and 1936 to suit their class interests !



Jihad was abandoned , text books modified and Indians engaged not because of any high sounding interests but because of class interests !
Today the situation is ironic and unfortunate ! The political classes in Pakistan consist of opportunists whose descendants served the British and then the Americans and who will accept Indian hegemony in the region as long they see a gauarantee that their class interests are not threatened ! Vajpayee knows this secret ! That is what propmpted him to be the Willy Brandt and Gorbachev of India !



What is the defence of Pakistan today ! Most of the politicians can be bought or coerced ! The state is not a state with an army but an army with a state ! This is dangerous since the whole country can be brokered by just one man in uniform ! The same way in which Mir Jafar sold Bengal to Clive ! The politicians were destroyed as a class by repeated military interventions from 1954 till to date.What is left today is a divided state !
Seen in this light the settled areas of Pakistan are a walkover ! Punjab and Frontier were ruled by 8 % Sikhs from 1799 till 1849 and only the British liberated the Muslims ! What would happen in 2020 with a very strong India and a Hindi majority ! Pakistan's survival as a an army with a state may be a fiction by 2020 ! Pakistan was created only when the Muslim higher classes discovered Islam in 1936 or 1940 ! Pakistan will be a fiction once the Muslim higher classes abandon Islam ! A start has been made in 2001 and accelerated by US Soft Power agents like Shaukat Aziz and Zubeida Jalal !



The present situation is pathetic ! Key positions are held by minority people ! The majority Punjabis are placid and hopeless as Mr Jinnah called them in disgust in 1936 ! Perhaps that is why the Sikhs who were a minority ruled Punjab and settled areas of Frontier ! The way Nawaz Sharif was removed and not even a cat meowed in his home province Punjab is no tribute to the political awareness of the Punjabis ? This explains why the Sikhs used the badshahi mosque of Lahore as a stable !

The future of Pakistan is linked with Punjab described as the core province ! If this province can be ruled the way the military junta is ruling it then there is little hope for Pakistan ! If the Punjab cannot provide leadership then the NWFP will look towards Afghanistan ,Baluchistan and Sindh towards USA or India and the Kashmiris and Northern Area wallas towards USA or China !

The war in Wazisistan is the first sign of the earthquake ! Slowly the Pakistani ruling elite will compromise on everything ! The show started from Blair House in 1999 !

The weaker parties have fewer choices ! The same was the case with Indo Pak Muslims ! Their leaders decided to collaborate with the British in order to escape Hindu domination ! This was later replaced by acceptance of US vassalage and the present rather undignified role of tactical garbage collector and dog catcher of USA ! Only the dogcatchers no longer wear yellow daangris but armani suits !

7 July 2003

Pakistan’s Islamic Factor

A.H Amin

History proves that religion has been repeatedly used by various classes to secure their personal or class aims and objectives ! Religion as a political factor to unite Indians against the British was introduced in politics by Gandhi ! Gandhi represented the Hindu middle and professional classes funded by the business classes who were western educated , outwardly secular in outlook but relied on Hindu religious symbols to achieve their political ends ! When Gandhi sidelined Mr Jinnah from main congress leadership after 1921-22 Mr Jinnah also abandoned his initial ideology of Indian nationalism based on constitutionalism and adopted Islam as his slogan ! In most of his political speeches Mr Jinnah stressed on the fact that the Indian Muslims were a separate nation and their unique religious and social practices entitled them to have a separate country ! This slogan was convenient and politically expedient to unite the pre 1947 Indo Pak Muslims against the Hindu dominated congress ! In 1947 while addressing the constituent assembly of Pakistan Mr Jinnah clarified that his idea of Pakistan was a secular state where Muslims and non Muslims would politically speaking only be Pakistanis and religion would be a private matter !
Mr Jinnah’s line of reasoning was not immediately questioned by the religious right since Jinnah was an indisputed leader but the question whether Pakistan was a secular state or an Islamic state was hotly debated in the constituent assembly of Pakistan from 1948 till 1956 ! The Muslim League and most other parties of this time were dominated by the professional middle classes or landlords who had merely viewed religion as a slogan to galvanise the masses and never wanted a theological state ! The landlords wanted to get rid of a Hindu money lending class and a land reform threatening congress party while the middle classes enthusiastically supported Pakistan because they viewed the new state as one with greater opportunities of advancement for their class since the Hindus who were more educationally advanced were eliminated from the competition !
The religious parties which had initially opposed Pakistan’s creation based on the idea that partition would only divide Indian Muslims now turned the table on the Muslim League by demanding that since the Muslim League itself declared that the Indo Pak Muslims needed a separate country to practice Islam , the new country must be based on the Islamic Sharia ! The non religious feudal and middle class Muslim Leaguers led by Liaquat Ali Khan initially outmanoeuvred the Islamists by moving the Objectives Resolution which paid lip service to Islam while preserving Pakistan’s initially envisaged secular ethos ! The Islamists however were not pacified and the 1953 Anti Qadiani riots proved that the Islamists were a force to be reckoned with ! However massive US aid from 1954 to 1965 marginalised the Islamists and strengthened the secular forces under the military dictator Ayub Khan ! In 1970 the Islamists were again unable to gain much except in NWFP and Baluchistan and the neo-socialist PPP and the nationalistic Awami League swept West and East Pakistan !
Islamists parties were strengthened in between 1971-77 because of the 1971 defeat and because of some of Mr Bhuttos policies ! In 1977 the religious right gained a new benefactor in shape of USA who viewed the Islamist dominated anti Bhutto Pakistan National Alliance as a safer bet than an anti US charismatic leader like Bhutto ! Thus the 1977 agitation and the Zia military coup of 1977 which toppled Mr Bhutto !
Pakistan’s military dictator decided keeping in view the immense political strength of the anti Zia PPP that his best bet to survive was use of Islam as a political slogan ! Thus Zia’s Islamisation measures and the various stunts and ploys employed by the military junta to demonstrate that Zia was a true soldier of Islam !
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan further strengthened Islamist forces not only in Pakistan but at an international level ! Out of the Afghan War of 1979-88 emerged a promiscuous alliance of convenience like a Mutah marriage ! Financed by the CIA and the Saudis , with Islam as slogan , and Jihad as the modus operandi ! The Islamists because of sheer expediency became the darlings of Pakistan’s ISI and USA’s CIA ! Many billions were pumped to support the anti Soviet Jihad ! Islamist forces were able to consolidate themselves with lavish funds,advanced weaponry and elaborate organizational networks !
All changed after the Soviet withdrawal from Afganistan ! The islamists now became a liability for USA and the Pakistani elite ! The dirty war was over ! The Islamists had done their job ! Now they must not be allowed to reap the harvest ! Thus a reversal of policies !
By 1991 however the Pakistani elite realized that USA no longer needed them and as a result Islamist forces once again received a boost ! Both Nawaz and Benazir governments made many efforts to endear themselves to the USA but the USA snubbed both ! Islamist forces as a result re-organised ! In 1994-96 Pakistan’s government once again used religion as a slogan once the Afghan Talibans were cultivated ! For some time the Americans also saw the taliban as a safe bet for oil pipelines ! However by 1998 the Americans realized that the Talibans were not good enough puppets and must be removed ! During all this time Pakistan’s economy rapidly weakened because of US embargoes and economic policies ! The politicians and the military and intelligence bosses once again fell back on Islamist forces which were used to fight the bloody undeclared wars in Kashmir ! The Kargil adventure of 1999 was the highpoint in this drama once regular Pakistan Army volunteers were employed in the name of Islam with diasastorous consequences !
By October 1999 once Musharraf usurped power Pakistan was a sidelined state till the 9/11 incident which proved a heaven sent opportunity for Pakistan’s military junta just like the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan had done for Zia the junta !
Pakistan’s military junta now made a U turn and collaborated with the USA in fighting a war against Islamists ! In 1979-89 the same military junta was with the Islamists because it meant US aid ! Now the same military junta viewed the Islamists as persona non gratas simply because it meant getting US aid ! The same state continues till to date !
The chain of historic events above mentioned demand analysis ! From 1937 till 1947 the pre 1947 Muslim elite employed “Islam” as a slogan to galvanise the Muslim masses based on the emotional Pakistan slogan based on Islam ! Once Pakistan was achieved the same elite immediately made a U turn and declared that Pakistan was a secular state without justifying why 1 million Muslims were sacrificed to create a Muslim state where religion would be a personal matter ! Thus HAFEEZ Jullundhri noted with sarcasm ‘ Qaafle lut gaiy barbad ho gayay to kia hooa , Mutmain hain Qaafla Salaar apnay Kaam Say !
Between 1947 and 1976 religion was ditched as US aid came and the middle classes and the higher classes enjoyed great prosperity partly because of international aid and more because of elimination of the rich Hindus by mass genocide and control of evacuee property !
In 1977 religion was employed as a slogan because the middle and higher classes united with the Islamists simply because Mr Bhutto’s policies were a threat for the urban classes in Karachi ,Multan and Lahore because of a variety of reasons including nationalization,quota system,liberal outlook etc ! The USA financed the Islamists against Bhutto because they thought that the Islamists were asafer bet than Bhutto !
Between 1977 and 1989 Pakistan’s military junta used Islam as a tool because it suited their political and economic ends i.e because of the PPP as a political threat and the US military and economic aid in Afghan War !
Between 1989 and 1999 the Islamists once again received a boost because US stopped their aid and the civil and military elite once again picked up the slogan of Islam in danger !
Between 2001 and to date Pakistan’s military junta once again made a U turn and adopted an anti Islamist policy simply because it meant US economic and military aid !
The elections of 2002 strengthened Islamists forces thanks to the U turn of Pakistan’s military government after 9/11 ! The resultant sense of betrayal strengthened the Islamists morally ! The Islamists for the first time emerged as a strong constitutional force which challenged Pakistan’s military junta in Pakistan’s parliament ! Thus the MMA stand on LFO and against Musharraf’s US appeasing policies !
There is no doubt that a storm is gathering in Pakistan Iran Afghanistan and the Arab world which this time will not subside ! This storm is gathering because the Muslim elite has repeatedly used Islam as a convenient slogan , picked up at will to get aid from USA and abandoned at whim once it meant not getting US Dollars !
The Islamists are on a strong footing today ! This the start of a drama that would carry on in many acts ! Since religion was used as a cheap slogan by the elite , now it appears that the elite would have a harder time in manipulating the common man !
Inflation , rising population , unemployment is strengthening the Islamists forces in Pakistan and Afghanistan by leaps and bounds ! The US invasion of Iraq ahs further strengthened the Islamist forces since it has proved to be a spur for forces of resistance led by Islamists!
One Million dead in 1947 to create a country of Muslims !Two million dead in Afghanistan from 1978 till 2003 ! 100,000 dead in Kashmir from 1989 till to date ! 500 dead in Kargil ! The many thousands dead in Palestine,Algeria,Egypt , Iraq , all in the name of Islam ! To make the Islamic world a safer place for miltary dictators who order military volunteers in the name of Islam but pose as liberals to get US aid ! Kings and princes who gamble in Monaco and womanise in Paris but stage behaedings of small time drug dealers to give cheap thrills to the common man !
The day when the Muslim common man would question military dictators or kings about what they did to the aid money they got or the oil money they wasted in gambling or enjoying is not very far away ! Inshallah I hope !
In the next ten years a long bloody war would be fought between the Islamists and the opportunist forces in Muslim world which have agaian and again used Islam as a cheap tool to drug the masses ! Now the Muslim common man cannot be fooled or amused by cheap slogans or beheadings of petty criminals ! Now they want the heads of their rulers who have used Islam in the most Machiavellian manner for achieving their cheap personal and dynastic ends ! This the decade of the decisive war between Islamists and anti Islamists ! This war will not be won by superior weaponry or cheap slogans ! This war will be fought in the shadows , covertly and more motivated forces would finally carry the day ! Many Roman Empires and many great dynasties would be destroyed in the process ! When the common man fearlessly snipes at the US soldiers in Baghdad or when the common man defies Rangers and so many other military entities and goes on with suicide bombings , wars can no longer be won by conventional forces with better weapons bu t weaker hearts ! The human heart is the most decisive weapon and the USA alienated it after 9/11 !

#79 Posted by pavocavalry

This the decade of the decisive war between Islamists and anti Islamists !

After Operation Silence it was obvious that the final line of blood had been drawn, and only one of the either sides will survive.

A quote for your comments from a recent NY Times article:

"Maulvi Noor Muhammad, Quetta’s former representative in the National Assembly and an outspoken supporter of the Taliban ... had told me in the fall of 2006 that the sole reason that the Taliban hadn’t defeated NATO forces in Afghanistan yet was because NATO had B-52’s, and when I reminded him of this, he smiled through a mouthful of missing teeth. “The Taliban have more than made up for that disadvantage now with suicide bombers,” he said.

Regards