Politics of jihad, the root cause of Lal Masjid crisis: Pak scholar

Well-known Pakistani Islamic scholar Javed Ahmad Ghamidi feels that the politics of jihad is the primary reason for the crisis that the country has been facing over the last few months.

Lahore, July 13 : Well-known Pakistani Islamic scholar Javed Ahmad Ghamidi feels that the "politics of jihad" is the primary reason for the crisis that the country has been facing over the last few months.

In an interview to the Daily Times, Ghamidi, who has been a member of the Council of Islamic Ideology since January 2006, said that Pakistan is facing this "bitter reality" as a result of the government's past mistakes.

"These (clerics and militants of the Lal Masjid) are the same people the state prepared and used in the name of Islam for many years. After the Afghan war, abandoned by those who propped them up, they decided to set and achieve their own goals. This is a consequence of the dreams of paradise that were sold to innocent youths in exchange for their participation in the 'jihad' against the Russians," Ghamidi said.

He said that Islamabad thought these human beings could be turned into robots, but that never happened.

"In Pakistan, militants like the ones in the Lal Masjid were funded and sponsored by the establishment through external sources. The politics of jihad is the real reason for the bitter crisis Pakistan is facing today," he added.

Commenting on the military operation against Lal Masjid, Ghamidi said that the state remained unable to establish its writ, adding that the operation has "seriously jeopardised internal peace and harmony."

"The situation is dangerous and unfortunate. It was said that thousands of women and children were at the mercy of the militants holed up in the mosque. Every possible effort should have been made to avoid bloodshed. It did not look like the government could handle the operation. It seemed as if they had not done their homework, that is, there seemed to have been no detailed analysis," he said.

He went on to say that there should have been maximum efforts to engage in dialogue to resolve the standoff, adding that dealing with such situations in such an ad-hoc manner would put the country's future at risk.

Ghamidi emphasised that the government must stop madrassas from imparting only religious education by making it mandatory for them to impart general education.

ANI