The Lessons of Peshawar Massacre

On 16  December 2014 132 children and 9 teachers were massacred at a school in Pakistan. The responsibility for this carnage was claimed by PakTaliban, whose fugitive leader, Mullah Fazlullah – it was he who gave the order for Malala Yousafzai’s near-fatal shooting - lives in Afghanistan. 

General Raheel Sharif

In the days following the atrocity the Chief of Pakistan Army, General Raheel Sharif, and the head of Inter-Services Intelligence, General Rizwan Akhtar, flew to Afghanistan. Pakistan media reported that the generals had taken with them evidence of Indian complicity in the Peshawar atrocity (training of PakTaliban murderers and equipping them with sophisticated weapons and communication equipment). They met the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, and the top commander of occupying powers US and NATO, General John Campbell. General Sharif’s demand for the arrest of Fazlullah, and his handover to Pakistan, seems to have been unsuccessful.

Following the return of Pakistan’s generals there were reports that Pakistan Air Force jets had flown out into Afghan airspace and bombed Fazlullah’s hiding place in Afghanistan. There were rumours that Fazlullah had been killed. 

Mass murderer Fazlullah

While these reports appeared in the Asian press [for example:  http://gulfnews.com/news/world/pakistan/pakistan-taliban-leader-mullah-fazlullah-killed-in-air-strike-1.1429620] they were generally absent from western media. The US media, some 95% of which is said to be controlled by a handful of wealthy families, appear to have avoided mentioning the F word altogether! Fazlullah probably survived the Pakistani attempt to kill him. Is he being protected by the powers that be?

 
Pakistan’s descent from high ideals of Islam into a cauldron of Mullahism and West-worship

Pakistan, a homeland for the Muslims of India, was the vision of the great Muslim poet-philosopher, Muhammad Iqbal. To realise that vision required a leader with extraordinary qualities, able to resist the will of the British imperialists and of the Hindus of Indian Congress political party (who saw themselves as the natural heirs to the British). The Muslims were fortunate to have found in Muhammad Ali Jinnah a staunch Muslim who saw no conflict between Quranic guidance and modern life. He articulated Iqbal’s vision, and his own, in interviews and speeches.

Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah

In December 1943 Jinnah gave an interview to a British journalist, Beverley Nichols, in which he described the ‘vital principles’ of Pakistan as: The Muslims are a Nation. He elaborated further: “You must remember that Islam is not merely a religious doctrine but a realistic and practical Code of Conduct. I am thinking in terms of life, of everything important in life. I am thinking in terms of our history, our heroes, our art, our architecture, our music, our laws, our jurisprudence”.

In a radio broadcast to the people of the USA, in February 1948, Jinnah talked about the constitution of Pakistan yet to be drafted: “it will be of a democratic type, embodying the essential principles of Islam. Today, they are as applicable in actual life as they were 1,300 years ago. Islam and its idealism have taught us democracy. It has taught equality of man, justice and fair play to everybody. We are the inheritors of these glorious traditions and are fully alive to our responsibilities and obligations as framers of the future constitution of Pakistan. In any case Pakistan is not going to be a theocratic State to be ruled by priests with a divine mission. We have many non-Muslims – Hindus, Christians, and Parsees – but they are all Pakistanis. They will enjoy the same rights and privileges as any other citizens and will play their rightful part in the affairs of Pakistan”.

Jinnah, the modern Muslim for whom the Message of the Quran was independent of the time period in which humanity lived, was opposed by the Muslim priest class which rejected the idea of Pakistan and sided with the Indian Congress party. The mullahs went further, some declaring Jinnah and Iqbal as ‘kaafir’.

The great irony of Pakistan today is that the mullahs, who fought Jinnah and opposed Pakistan Movement, have claimed the country in the name of their distorted version of Islam, a throwback to the pre-Islamic Age of Ignorance. This insanity is matched at the other extreme by the West-worshipping class of Pakistanis, for whom Islam has little meaning, a “religion” at best. For them the fount of wisdom is located in the West, to which they look for guidance in their lives. These self-styled “liberals” are as destructive for Pakistan as is rampant mullahism.

Way forward for Pakistan

The mysterious way in which PakTaliban sprang up in 2007, and the way their distorted understanding of Islam has been encouraged and exploited, point to international intrigue. Pakistan military’s response to PakTaliban’s atrocities is to attack them and kill as many as possible. This may turn out to be a futile exercise if nothing is done to stem the flow of arms and finance to PakTaliban. 

While the body of Pakistan is being ravaged by inhuman actions of PakTaliban, its soul is being assiduously destroyed by West-worshippers who are hell-bent on imposing an alien language and its associated Anglo-American culture on Pakistan.

As I see it, there is only one solution which will work in the long run but it does require a great deal of patience in the meantime. This solution is a rapid spread of education in Urdu, a language Pakistanis understand and which is intimately connected with their culture and religious traditions. The education needs to be broadly based: it must encourage individuals to reflect on Quranic Guidance themselves (as demanded by Quran) and provide them with scientific, technical and linguistic knowledge which is necessary for material prosperity in current world conditions. Without reforming Pakistani society we are faced with an eternal struggle between the forces of darkness: rabid West-worshippers against mad mullahs espousing a religion which negates the spirit of Islam.

English Translation of Hamid Mir's column in Jang, 27 March 2014

In the course of some exchanges on Twitter I ended up promising an Indian gentleman to translate parts of Hamid Mir's article on Muhammad Ali Jinnah, published in Jang today. The original article can be read here . I have already posted several blogs relating to Quaid-e-Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, most recently here which is relevant in the context of comments Hamid Mir has made.

Jaswant Singh and Muhammad Ali Jinnah

In his article Hamid Mir shows that Jinnah was neither secular nor a maulvi. The main points he makes are:

      Jaswant Singh is one of the founder members of BJP. A few years ago he wrote a book entitled “Jinnah” in which he said that those really responsible for the division of India were Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel, not Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The Hindu leaders could have  worked amicably with the secular and liberal Jinnah but they antagonised him needlessly.

 
This book infuriated the leadership of Bharatia Janata Party because the BJP and Congress had always held Jinnah responsible for the break-up of India. Jaswant Singh was expelled from the BJP following publication of his book. He maintained that he had been expelled because he dared to present some plain historical facts.

    Some BJP members supported Jaswant. In their view he had laid bare the fake secularism of BJP’s political rival Congress. Moreover, by holding the Congress leadership responsible for the division of India the book had actually benefited BJP at the expense of  Congress.

      It was also thought that L K Advani considered Jaswant Singh a dangerous political rival because of his previous experience as Foreign and Defence Minister, which would make him a candidate for the office of Prime Minister. Advani thus manoeuvred to have him expelled from the Party.

     Jaswant Singh’s exile lasted 10 months before he was admitted back into the party. For the 2014 Election Jaswant Singh wanted his party’s ticket for his traditional constituency in Rajasthan but his request was refused. He said he was being punished for declaring Jinnah to be a secular politician. He announced that he would fight the election from his constituency as an independent.

       It is now obvious that Narainder Modi has taken control of BJP and he has pushed aside not just Jaswant but Advani as well. Modi is now the sole candidate for Prime Ministership from his party.

     Jaswant Singh is not the first Indian writer to consider Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah a secularist. Previously, a lecturer in Political Science at Delhi University, Dr Ajit Javed, authored a book “Secular and Nationalist Jinnah” in which he acknowledged the honesty, courage and fearlessness of the founder of Pakistan. He also stated that the demand for the establishment of Pakistan was merely a political ploy to put pressure on Congress. He claimed that Maudoodi [a religious leader active in politics] refused to lead the Janazah prayer for Jinnah and instead performed a prayer of thanks.

     Many claims made in Ajit Javed’s book defy historical facts. Apart from the Indian writers there are also some Pakistani writers and intellectuals who do their best to present Jinnah as secular. Their amazing antics include:

    (a) always quoting a brief excerpt from a single speech of Quaid-e-Azam (one delivered on 11 August 1947),

    (b) taking delight in quoting falsehoods or half-truths contained in American author Stanley Wolpert’s book “Jinnah of Pakistan”, and

    (c) always referring to Jinnah’s wife Ruttie as a Parsee even though she had converted to Islam before her marriage to Jinnah and she was buried in a Muslim cemetery after her death.

       Quite recently, an English language magazine, published in Karachi, showed a picture of Quaid-e-Azam, with a white beard superimposed. An article in the magazine lamented that some people were trying to present Jinnah as a maulvi!

It is true that there are people who look only for Shariat in the speeches of Pakistan’s founder while they ignore references to justice, equality, tolerance and democracy. On the other hand, those people who are hell-bent on proving the Quaid to be secular are guilty of intellectual and historical dishonesty. It is well known that the founder of Pakistan entered politics as a member of Congress but, over the years, his political evolution and maturity took him to the Muslim League. He was neither a maulvi nor a secularist. He was an ordinary Muslim, free of sectarian and religious prejudices. He married Ruttie for love, whose Muslim name was Maryam. Owing to his legal practice and political activities he could not spend as much time with her as the couple would have wished. There were ups and downs in Jinnah’s marriage. When Ruttie died Jinnah was inconsolable and he wept uncontrollably at her grave.

    In 1929 Jinnah defended Ghazi Ilm Deen in court and in 1931 he refused to speak against Bhagat Singh.

    It was Allama Iqbal who persuaded Jinnah to study Islamic laws. Iqbal’s letter to Jinnah, dated 28 May 1937, is extremely significant. In it the great poet-philosopher is telling his friend that putting genuine Islamic laws into practice in a Muslim state will mean each and every individual will have a right to an assured income. This letter also mentions Islamic Sharia. 

Later the same year, on 16 September 1937, Jinnah ensured that a Shariat Bill, concerned with Muslim Personal Law, was passed by India’s Legislative Assembly. When this Bill was introduced in the Assembly it was criticised on the grounds that the shariat followed by each Muslim sect was  different which made the Bill highly controversial. Jinnah overcame that objection by getting Muslim members of the Assembly to agree to a common concept of shariat acceptable to their respective sects.

     In one of his books Mufti Rafee Usmani has written extensively about Quaid-e-Azam’s meetings with his father and other Muslim scholars. He says there were some religious leaders who had issued fatwas of Kufr in relation to Jinnah while other religious leaders (Ashraf Ali Thanvi, Shabbir Ahmed Usmani, Mufti Muhammad Shafee etc) supported him. They also severed their links with Dar-ul-aloom Deoband.

    Mufti Muhammad Shafee issued a fatwa, declaring support for Congress to be Kufr. On 23 March 1940 it was not just Pakistan Resolution that was passed but also one supporting the Palestinian Muslims. Jinnah worked hard to end sectarian differences among Muslims and to organise a conference of Muslim scholars of all sects. Many religious leaders and scholars supported Jinnah in his efforts to unify Muslims and to establish a separate homeland for them.

    Quaid-e-Azam had met the founder of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan Al-Bana and they were in close touch. In his speech on 1^st July 1948, at the inauguration ceremony of State Bank of Pakistan, the Quaid spoke about the importance of conducting banking on Islamic principles. It was not a theocracy that Quaid-e-Azam wished to establish but an Islamic welfare state in which non-Muslims had the same rights as those that Rasul-e-Kareem gave to the Jews of Madinah in the Madinah Pact.

    In brief, Quaid-e-Azam was just an honest and sincere Muslim who was neither a secularist nor a maulvi.

گیارہ ستمبر

آج اخبارات، رسائل اور سائبر خانے، بشمول ٹوئیٹر کی دنیا، قائد اعظم کی وفات اور امریکہ کی بارہ سال قبل کی بددیانتی کے ذکر سے بھرے ہوۓ ہیں- بانئی پاکستان کے متعلق اتنا کچھ لکھا جا چکا ہے کہ میرے لئے کچھ کہنا چھوٹا منہ بڑی بات ہو گی- میرا ارادہ ہے مستقبل قریب میں قائد کی تقاریر سے اقتباسات پیش کرنے کا- فی الحال میں آپ کی توجہ گذشتہ بلاگ کی طرف مبذول کرنے پہ اکتفا کرتا ہوں، جس میں پاکستان اور محمّد علی جناح کے درمیان ایک روحانی تعلق کا ذکر ہے: Jinnah and Pakistan                                            

                             

اب رہی نیو یارک کے تین میناروں کی تباہی، تو ان کے متعلق امریکی حکومت کی غلط بیانی تو سمجھ میں آتی ہے لیکن پاکستانی جس طرح اس جھوٹ کو سچ سمجھ کر دوہرا رہے ہیں اس سے طبیعت سخت مکدر ہوئی- مغرب پرست پاکستانی تو سب کچھ جاننے کے باوجود امریکہ کی ہاں میں ہاں ملانا اپنا فرض سمجھتے ہیں، شائد ان کا اس میں مالی فائدہ بھی ہے- افسوس محب وطن پاکستانیوں کے بیانات پہ ہے جنہوں نے امریکہ کے باطل ڈھنڈورے کو سچ سمجھ لیا ہے- ایک صاحب مضمون ١١ ستمبر ٢٠٠١ کو نیو یارک میں موجود تھے- جواباً میں نے ان کے مضمون پہ ایک مختصر تبصرہ درج کر دیا: 

"آپ نے جو کچھ دیکھا آپ کی نگاہوں کا دھوکہ تھا- جہازوں کے میناروں سے ٹکرانے سے پہلے ہی ٹی وی کمپنیوں کو خبر ہو گئی تھی اور انہوں نے کیمرے ایستادہ کر لئے تھے تا کہ تباہی کے مناظر فلماۓ جا سکیں! یہ ایک سازش تھی، افسوس کی بات ہے کہ ہم پاکستانی امریکہ کے خوف سے منہ سی کر بیٹھے ہوۓ ہیں-" 

امریکہ کے فاشسٹوں کو جو عروج ٩/١١ کے بعد حاصل ہوا تھا وہ ہنوز برقرار ہے- اس سے کچھ فرق نہیں پڑتا حکومت ریپبلکن پارٹی کے ہاتھ میں ہے یا ڈیموکریٹ پارٹی کے پاس- اصل طاقت ان ارب پتیوں کے ہاتھ میں ہے جو امریکی معیشت پر چھاۓ ہوۓ ہیں اور دونوں پارٹیوں کو دل کھول کر چندہ دیتے ہیں- ریپبلکن جارج بش کے بعد ڈیموکریٹ اوباما صدارت کی گدی پر بیٹھا ہوا ہے لیکن اس کے کرتوت دیکھ کر بش مقابلتاً اچھا لگنے لگتا ہے- ٩/١١ کی شعبدہ بازی کے ساۓ میں اسلامی ملکوں کی تباہی اور تیل، گیس اور معدنیات کے ذخایر پہ قبضہ کرنے کی شدید خواہش نے امریکہ کی تمام اخلاقی اقدار کو تار تار کر دیا ہے- انسانی خون کی جو ندیاں "مہذب" امریکیوں نے بہائی ہیں انہوں نے خونخوار چنگیز خان کی یاد تازہ کر دی ہے-

حقیقتاً ایسے لوگ انسانیت کی سطح سے گر چکے ہیں جو اپنے ہی ملک پہ حملہ کر کے ہزاروں لوگوں کو محض اس لئےموت کے گھاٹ اتار دیں کہ انہیں غیر ممالک (افغانستان اور عراق) پہ حملے کا جواز مل جاۓ- پچھلے دنوں سیریا (شام) میں کیمیائی ہتھیاروں کے استعمال کو بشار الاسد کی حکومت سے منسوب کیا گیا تھا تا کہ امریکہ کے فاشسٹوں کو شام پہ حملے کا بہانہ مل سکے- اب خبریں آ رہی ہیں کہ کیمیائی ہتھیاروں کا حملہ اسد کے خلاف لڑنے والے باغیوں نے کیا تھا جن کو ہتھیار امریکہ کے ہمنوا سعودی عرب کی وساطت سے ملے تھے! افسوس کہ امریکہ کے فاشسٹوں کی شیطنیت میں  سعودی عرب کی بادشاہت بھی شامل ہے-  

رگوں میں وہ لہو باقی نہیں ہے    وہ دل، وہ آرزو باقی نہیں ہے 
نماز و روزہ و قربانی و حج   یہ سب باقی ہے تو باقی نہیں ہے 

[اقبال]

JINNAH & PAKISTAN : some amazing facts

INTRODUCTION.  Dr Safdar Mehmood is a retired Pakistani civil servant who writes a regular column in the Urdu newspaper ‘Jang’.  In his column published on 16 August 2013, Dr Safdar Mehmood presented some remarkable dates linking the creation of Pakistan to events in the life of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, leader of Pakistan Movement and the country’s first Governor General (he was bestowed the title Quaid-e-Azam, the Great Leader). Dr Safdar Mehmood says some people might treat these facts as no more than mere historical coincidence but for many others these contain a profound reality. Judge for yourself.

             Two photographs of young Jinnah

 1.     Pakistan was created when division of India took place at midnight between the 14^th and 15^th August, 1947 in the Islamic month of Ramadan. The night of 14^th August was the 27^th night of Ramadan, which is a key date in the Islamic calendar. It is the night when God’s abundant Mercy descends on earth for those who have fasted during the month and observed the specified moral restraints: Lailatul-Qadr, the Night of Grace and Power, when Muslims try to stay awake during the night in prayer and reflection.

2.     When a new day dawned, Pakistanis celebrated their first Independence Day on 15 August 1947, which happened to be the last Friday of the month of Ramadan, known as Jumatul-vida’.

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3.     In 1948, and subsequently, the Day of Independence could have been celebrated either on 14^th August or on 15^th August. Across the border in India, the Hindu seers recommended to their government to declare 15^th August as the Indian Independence Day, which they considered an auspicious day. Quaid-e-Azam, however, opted for 14^th August as Pakistan’s Day of Independence, which gave rise to some astonishing coincidences relating to a number of dates.

Muhammad Ali & Ruttie Jinnah

4.     Quaid-e-Azam’s two loves were Pakistan and Ruttie Dinshaw, a young Parsi lady who converted to Islam and married Jinnah in 1918 when she was just 18. Exactly 28 years before the creation of Pakistan, the Jinnahs’ daughter, Dina, was born in the night falling between 14 August and 15^th August, 1919. When the first day dawned for the infant Dina it, too, was a Friday.

5.     Quaid-e-Azam’s date of birth falls on 25 December. He died on 11 September 1948. His right hand man in the freedom struggle, and Pakistan’s first Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan (LAQ), died on 16 October some years later.

6.     Each year Pakistan’s Independence Day, Quaid-e-Azam’s dates of birth and death, and the date of death of Liaquat Ali Khan consistently fall on the same day of the week. Dr Safdar Mehmood has produced a table to draw attention to this coincidence:

Year	Pakistan’s Independence Day, 14 Aug	Jinnah’s date of death, 11 September	Jinnah’s date of birth, 25 December	LAQ’s date of death, 16 October
2004	Saturday	Saturday	Saturday	Saturday
2005	Sunday	Sunday	Sunday	Sunday
2006	Monday	Monday	Monday	Monday
2007	Tuesday	Tuesday	Tuesday	Tuesday
2008	Thursday	Thursday	Thursday	Thursday
2009	Friday	Friday	Friday	Friday
2010	Saturday	Saturday	Saturday	Saturday
2011	Sunday	Sunday	Sunday	Sunday
2012	Tuesday	Tuesday	Tuesday	Tuesday
2013	Wednesday	Wednesday	Wednesday	Wednesday

Dr Safdar Mehmood says one might take the aforementioned facts as mere coincidence if one wished. However, he himself and countless other Pakistanis, see these as Nature’s way of indicating the latent potential of Pakistan and the greatness of Jinnah, who succeeded in winning a homeland for the Muslims of India against stiff resistance from the British and the Hindus of India. Those who only go by outward appearances tend to see the current combination of internal unrest and foreign interference in the affairs of Pakistan - conspiracies, intrigue, espionage and direct invasion by way of drone strikes or border incursions - as lethal to the very existence of Pakistan.  However, to those who see a deeper reality at work these troubles provide a necessary training ground for Pakistan to achieve its true potential as an Islamic state: a haven for suffering humanity, free of oppression and bigotry, where social justice and welfare prevail within an Islamic economic system which restrains greed and excess.

The link to Dr Safdar Mehmood's article is:  http://jang.com.pk/jang/aug2013-daily/16-08-2013/col3.htm