The Shiite Resistance against the Pro-Taliban Sunni-deoband Terrorists in Pakistan - Research Paper Example

The Shiite Resistance against the Pro-Taliban Sunni-deoband Terrorists in Pakistan Introduction: The present study aims to concentrate upon the peaceful religious movement launched by the Shiite Muslims in the South Asian Muslim state of Pakistan against the tyranny and oppression exercised by the extremist and terrorist Sunni-Sunni-deoband sect of the Muslims, which has been in a majority in the country since its establishment, and appears to be engaged in crushing the minority Shiite community out of sheer hatred and resentment for the latter. The individuals belonging to the extremist Sunni-deoband sect not only regard attacking on and even killing the non-Muslims as a completely justified act, but also validate the murder of the Shiite Muslims with the help of citing false traditions (Masood 2012). In addition, they also try to justify the murder of every individual who does not belong to the Sunni-deoband sect, through fake notions and feign arguments. Since all humans, who are non-Sunni-deoband by faith, according to the extremist sect, are perverts and deviants, killing of whom is necessary for the projection, promotion and spread of the nefarious designs of the Sunni-deoband sect. Since this sect contains terrorists in its parties working with different names and under various platforms, it has become very hard for the Government of Pakistan to detect their criminal activities, and arrest them in order to announce punishments to them so that no one in the future could gather the courage to repeat the same. Somehow, the above-described terrorist sect has developed its roots in the national press, as well as in the judiciary and military sectors of the country, along with other public and private organizations; as a result, the sect has set its foot by establishing the evil network in the name of the religion. It is therefore the Shiites of Pakistan have to make very hard efforts for protecting the members of their community on the one hand, and unveiling the terrorist designs of the extremists on the other. The Shiites have established different organizations including Tehreek-e-Jafria (i.e. Jafria Movement), Islamic Tehreek,(i.e. Islamic Movement) Sipah-e-Muhammad (the soldiers of the Prophet Muhammad) and others, which always adopt peaceful ways of protests against the terrorist attacks on their religious processions and gatherings on one hand, and target killings of their youth and scholars on the other. As a result, the Shiite Muslins never took law in their hand, and just abide by rules in order to stop the advancements of terrorism from the country. Brief Overview: By critically analyzing the history of the globe at large, it becomes crystal clear that an overwhelming majority of the people coming of every class, creed, community, ethnicity, race and socioeconomic status maintain belief in some supernatural or metaphysical power(s), to which they seek help and beg support in the eve of finding them helpless while facing difficulties and problems of various kinds (Ember & Ember 2010), which has given birth to the idea of God and religion subsequently. Thousands of the faiths exist in the world, which divide the people into groups and factions, because of the divergences in belief systems, way of worship and others. Among all major religions existing in the world, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are regarded to be the Abrahamic faiths, which share several things in their mythologies and basic traits (Latourette 1975). One of the most fundamental commonalities among the three includes their further sub-division into sects, where Jews, Christians and Muslims display great displeasure and hatred towards the members belonging to the rival sects of their faith, and do not appear to get ready to tolerate these opponents at any cost. History is replete with incidents of conflict existed between the Catholics and Protestants, where both these Christian sects did not hesitate to burn the members of opponent factions alive even (Beard 2006). The same is the case with the Sunni and Shiite sects of Muslims, which has been in practice for the last thirteen centuries, where the Sunni politicians, militants and other influential persons and extremist groups never hesitated in committing genocide on the poor Shiite Muslims just because of the religious differences between the two factions. Sunni and Shiite are two major sects of Muslims, which came into existence after the departure of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) from the world by 632 A.D. on the matter of selection of the Prophet’s successor (Syed 2003). The Sunnis believe that the majority of the Muslims had elected Abu Bakr (572-634 A.D.) as the first caliph through allegiance soon after the sad departure of the Prophet, by gather at a spot few mile away from Medina even before the burial of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him). On the other hand, the Shiites submit to state that the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) had announced his first cousin Ali Ben Abu Talib (600-661 A.D.) as his successor on the basis of the latter’s exemplary services for the religion of Islam on his return from the last pilgrimage to Mecca. The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) had brought Ali up under his kind and benevolent supervision since the former’s early childhood, and the Prophet maintained great love and affection for him. In addition, Ali was also the very first person to embrace Islam at the age of ten years only. Moreover, he had demonstrated outstanding valor and gallant deeds in all the battles fought between the infidels and Muslims on the one hand and between Muslims and Jews on the other. Moreover, Ali was superior to all other companions of the Prophet because of his exceptional intellect, outstanding wisdom, brilliant judgment capabilities, and vast knowledge in the fields of philosophy, oratory, mathematics, spiritualism, Scripture, warfare and traditions etc. However, since Ali had killed so many infidels in battlefields, including several blood relations of the then recently convert Muslims; they could not elect him to be their caliph. As a result, they stood against Ali and elected the old Abu Bakr as their caliph at the time when Ali and other members of the Prophet’s family and tribe were busy in the funeral services and burial of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him). Thus, the selection of Abu Bakr was an attempt to keep the Prophet’s family away from the administration and affairs of the Islamic state, so that the real spirit of Islam could be discouraged from obtaining further popularity. It drew the rift between the true and initial era companions of the Prophet and the later converts, where the latter turned out to be triumphant in gaining power and molding the religion out of their own will. The brutal and tyrannical murder of the Prophet’s grandson Hussain Bin Ali in 680 A.D. was also the part of the same campaign launched against the Prophet’s family since the time of the Prophet’s departure from the world, where the descendants of the pagans exercised butchery against the holy family of the Prophet in order to take revenge of the killing of the infidels at the hands of Ali during his campaign against paganism in the earliest years of the advent of Islam (Al-Qarshi 2007). As a result, the followers of Ali are called Shiites Muslims, while the followers of Abu Bakr are viewed to be Sunnis. The conflict between Shiites and Sunnis did not end in the eve of the brutal murder of Hussain Bin Ali (625-680 A.D.) and his noble family; rather, the sorrowful catastrophe augmented the conflict between the two in the wake of it (Dakake 2007). Since the followers of both these sects migrated and subsequently spread in all parts of the globe, the conflict remained at vogue by finding its way to Indian sub-continent, Iraq, Iran, Arabia, Yemen and other parts of Asia and Africa, where the Muslim population observed a significant proportion in those areas. Both these factions carried their age-old traditions with them wherever they move; consequently, every Muslim area witnessed clashes and bloodshed even among the followers in the wake of hot discussions. The tradition carried on during the last century after the end of the colonial era in India, and the partition of the sub-continent into two sovereign states i.e. Pakistan and India in August 1947. The Indian Muslims had won freedom from the British Imperialism in the sacred name of Islam. The Founder of Pakistan i.e. Quaid-e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948), was a very dynamic, brave, intelligent, dauntless and foresighted leader, who did not make any compromise on his standing on winning freedom from the British Imperialism on one side, and from the exploitation of the Indian Muslims at the hands of the Hindu majority on the other (Wolpert 2005). Since Jinnah belonged to the Shiite faction of Muslims, the Sunni-deoband sect stood by the Hindu unionists against the partition of the country. Hence, the Sunni-deobands favored the Hindus against their brethren Muslims in order to gain power over them. The Sunni-deobands were either uneducated or ill-educated from seminaries; it is therefore, they feared the popularity of a foreign qualified barrister at law named Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Consequently, they declared Mr. Jinnah as pervert and even an infidel, so that the majority of Muslims could be turned against him (Wolpert 2005). Nevertheless, Jinnah’s political party won the referendum administered by the British Raj in 1946-47, and subsequently, Pakistan came into existence in August 1947 as a sovereign Muslim state on the map of the world. Since the followers of the Sunni-deoband sect also lived in the areas annexed in the then recently established state of Pakistan, they started devising intrigues and conspiracies against the Shiite Muslims. As a result, the Shiites were targeted and killed in every part of the country. The Sunni-deobands took the false plea that since Shiites criticize Abu Bakr for taking allegiance from the group of late converts, the Shiites should be killed without discrimination. They registered different organizations including Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Jindullah and particularly the nefarious and notorious terrorist sipah--sihaba, in order to deceive the peace-loving Muslims with Islamic names. On the other hand, since the Shiite had played a vital role in winning freedom from the British Imperialism, they were determined to see the country making progress. Consequently, they did not establish any organizations on a sectarian basis, and thus participated in the national politics through political platforms. However, on finding financial and militant support being provided to the Sunni-deobands, the Shiites also laid the foundation of a Shiite political Party in the late 1960s in order to gather the community under one platform. The dismissal of the liberal socialist populous Bhutto government in July 1977 brought destruction and disaster for all peace-loving citizens of Pakistan (Nasr 2006). The terrorists also found that time as the most appropriate one for exercising their obnoxious designs against their political and religious opponents. At first, the attacks on the Shiites were not very heinous or destructive in nature, and the Shiites just got injuries and wounds. However, the dictatorial regime of atrocious Gen. Zia (1977-88) patronized the propaganda and assaults on the Shiites. He provided funds to religious schools and seminaries of the Sunni-deoband sect, called madrassa in the name of religion, in which the young minds were taught hate material against the Shiite Muslims (Ahmar 2007). The foreigner students also sought education in these schools; the fanatic Mullah Omer of Afghanistan had also got training from one of these terrorism-promoting schools. These local and foreigner students targeted the most educated and talented Shiites; consequently, Shiite scholars, poets, writers, lawyers, professors, journalists, doctors and teachers were murdered in cold blood from early 1980s onward, and the situation is still adverse even this day. The name of distinguished Shiite political leader Allama Arif Al-Hussaini, Iranian Consulate General in Pakistan Mr. Aqa-e-Saqid Genji, illustrious scholar Allama Irfan Haider Aabdi, renowned Urdu poet Mohsin Naqvi and others are included in the long list of thousands of Shiite martyrs, who lost their lives out of sheer love for the teachings of Islam. The Russian invasion in Afghanistan was a bolt from the blue for the peace-loving Shiites of Pakistan and Afghanistan, though the same appeared to be a great blessing in disguise for the extremists and terrorists residing in the region. Since the US would never allow the Russian access to the warm waters, it backed the Afghan campaign against the Russian invaders by providing billions of dollars and countless weapons and ammunition to the Pakistani and Afghan regimes of that era. Both these governments hired the services of the Sunni-deoband terrorists from all corners of the globe, and supplied them with American ammunition and financial aid. These were the days when the USA encouraged dictatorial Saddam-regime of Iraq to invade over Shiite Iran in 1980. Hence, on one side the Sunni Iraq and Afghanistan received heavy amounts of dollars and ammunition against Iran and the former USSR respectively, and on the other side, the terrorists from all parts of the world were being hired to get united under the US banner in order to defeat the stalwart Soviet Union (Pokrant 1999). Thus, hundreds of Sunni-deoband schools were converted into military training centers in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, where the Afghan, Pakistani, Saudi, and other young men were brain-washed and trained against the Shiite Muslims, the USSR, Iran and Lebanon. Thus, the western masters of the extremists showered millions of dollars upon them in the name of the purported holy war of the Afghans against their rival i.e. Russia (Durrani & Ashraf 2012). The USA, a purported champion of democracy projected and promoted the cruel and dictatorial Zia-government of Pakistan just to destroy its own enemy, i.e. Russia, and planted the crop of terrorists in the person of Osama Ben Laden and his nefarious Al Qaeda, which ruined the peace of the entire world under its chariot wheels. As a result, Al Qaeda and Taliban were nurtured through US feeders in order to turn the world into a virtual hell for the future years to come. The terrorist Al Qaeda, following Sunni-deoband school of thought, inflicted countless atrocities upon the individuals belonging to divergent ethnic, racial, religious and regional groups and communities of the world at large. The terrorist attacks on New York, Sudan, Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia and India reflect the vindictiveness they contain in their hearts for non-Sunni-deobands including Jews, Christians, bravely and Shiite Muslims, and others, against which they leave no stone unturned to exercise atrocities in one way or the other. The Shiite Muslims are their special target, on whom the terrorists belonging to Al Qaeda and Taliban inflict genocide particularly in Pakistan. The Shiites are killed by the Sunni-deobands in public places after ensuring their identification as Shiites. The same has happened during the recent surge of terrorism launched by the Sunni-deobands, where the Shiites of Hazara tribe were boarded off from buses, and were brutally murdered at the spot after checking their identity cards displaying their Shiite names on them (Shiite News 2012). The mass murder of the Shiites in Pakistan, according to Global Research Canada (2012), has increased global fear and consternation over the brutal bloodbath in its wake. As a result the Shiite community found itself completely unprotected and unsafe in south Asian state of Pakistan, the judiciary and press of which conceals the massacre because of having affiliation with the extremist Sunni-deoband community. Though some critics regard the killing as an outcome of Shiite-Sunni conflict, but forget the very reality that every time only Shiite Muslims are attacks and murdered, while Sunnis receive no or very little harm. Thus, it proves the Sunni brutality upon the poor Shiites, where the judiciary, press and other national institutions appear to be playing the role of silent spectators instead to stopping such obnoxious assaults on Shiites in Pakistan. The military and political administration tried hard to combat with the curse of the serial killing of the Shiites. The law enforcing agencies had arrested, time and again, many terrorists, who were involved into killing and massacre of the Shiites. They had also arrested the terrorists who had murdered the Pakistani military and civilian personnel, and the foreigners belonging to Iran, China and other countries. However, the supporters of the Sunni-deoband sect from journalists and judiciary foiled these attempts with their tricks and crookedness, and set those terrorists free. The current chief justice of the country also belonged to the same Sunni-deoband school of thought, who decreed orders for the release of the alleged murderers of the helpless Shiites, by stating that their crimes lacked evidence, though the poor Shiites are living behind the bars because of the false allegations put by these cruel terrorists. The world tastes the fruit of its cultivation in the form of funding the Sunni-deoband sect against the US-led Afghan War against the then USSR from 1979 to 1988. Former US President Ronald Reagan had declared the Afghan Sunni-deobands as equivalent to the founders of America; though the same purported honorable persons pushed the entire world into the deep ravine of death, destruction and turmoil by establishing the terrorist organizations including Al Qaeda, Taliban, Jama’t ut Da’wa and others, all of which are not only involved into murdering thousands of poor Shiite Muslims, and are also responsible for planning and launching terrorist attacks on New York and Mumbai in 2001 and 2008 respectively (Subrahmanyam 2008). To conclude, it becomes evident that the Shiite Muslims are making struggle to make their country a peaceful state. However, the Sunni-deoband terrorists are not ready to let Pakistan survive anymore. Funded by the racist Saudi Arabian rulers, and aided by other countries including Yemen, Qatar, Afghanistan and India, the Sunni-deoband sect feels no hesitation in openly committing homicide acts against Shiites and other peace-loving citizens, as they find big financial and political powers on their back. As a result, Pakistan has become one of the safest havens for them, where they commit all crimes by attacking on the schools for boys and girls, as well as targeting the mosques, public offices, official buildings, and even security organizations. Nevertheless, no crackdown has even exercised upon this cruel group due to the very reality that they have penetrated into organizations, and there could be found their supporters in every walk of life, which is really alarming and hazardous for the seekers of peace and justice. 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