CANADA: Jewish Group Trying to Suppress a verse of the Qur'an Under pretext of "Anti-Hate" Laws. [Cair-Canada Joined the Jewish Campaign]

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Sectarian Strife in Pakistan: Candid Advice on How to end it.

1. IRAN: SACRIFICING THE PAKISTANI Shi'ITES and
2. SPILLOVER FROM AFGHANISTAN.

1. Pakistani Shi'ites constitute an estimated 5 to 10% of the population. Many of them are educated and influential. They have never been targets of the kind of hate acts like the one we have seen in the last decade. Mohommed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan was Shi'ite, although later on he is said to have moved to mainstream Islam under the influence of Maulana Shabbir Ahmed Usmani.
   1. The REVOLUTION in Iran had tremendous influence on Pakistani Shi'ites. Iran apparently pumped funds and weapons into the small Shi'ite population and started using it as a pressure group in Pakistani politics. Pakistani Shi'ites demanded that Jafari fiqh should be implemented. They felt strong enough to stand up to General Zia-ul-Haq. In principle, Pakistan, under the influence of Maulana Maudoodi has always accepted the idea that each sect should be governed by its fiqh [jurisprudence under Islamic law]. But the vehemence of the "Jafari Fiqh Nafiz Karo" movement created a Sunni backlash. Iran's revolution steadily deteriorated, moving from a dominant Islamic aspect favored by Imam Khomeini, to a purely Shia phenomenon under junior leaders, and then a decline into Iranian nationalism with a thin veneer of Shi'ism. The Iranians were quite willing to sacrifice Pakistani Shi'ites for a political foothold in Pakistan. The foundations of a major disaster were thus laid: a tiny Shi'ite minority attempting to challenge a huge Sunni majority. The Shi'ites did not realize that the Sunnis were undergoing swift radicalization towards Jihad and were in no mood to listen to Shi'ite propaganda.
   2. A major disaster perpetrated by Iran was the funding of masses of propaganda pamphlets, distributed across Pakistan, full of abuse and scurrilous attacks on the Companions of the Prophet (pbuh), known as the Sahaba. This was a serious mistake. Both the Qur'an and the Hadith were transmitted by the Sahaba, and an attack of such massive proportions on the Sahaba was seen as an attack on the roots of Islam. Why did the Iranians and Pakistani Shi'ites make such a major mistake, comparable to the attack by Salman Rushdie on the family of the Prophet (pbuh)? My analysis of Shi'ite literature shows that these polemicists, flushed by victory in Iran, felt that they could show the Sunnis the virtues of Ali (r.a.) and the weaknesses of the sahaba and thus bring about wholesale conversions of Sunnis to Shi'ism. Seemingly, the propagandists did not realize that Islamic scholarship put paid to such pretensions long ago. [Anyone familiar with Shah Waliullah's Izalatul Khafa ‘un Khilafat al-Khulafa would not dare to make the claims for Ali, r.a., which the Shi'ites attempted. There is a library full of scholarship in rebuttal of Shi'ite claims.]
   3. GHASTLY ERRORS: In Pakistan, no one in his senses tries to insult the Companions of the Prophet (p). The Shi'ites went about it with gusto. They attacked Abu Bakar, ‘Umar and Uthman [Allah be pleased with them] and then indulged in abuse aimed at ‘Ayesha (r.a.). The purpose was to show that only Ali (r.a.) and 4 or 6 other people were good among the Sahaba! One Shi'te favorite was the fabricated story that ‘Umar (r.a.) had broken down the door of the home of Fatima (r.a.) resulting in her miscarriage! Some ignorant Shi'ites claim in defense of Muta' [temporary marriage, highly exploitative of women] that Abdullah ibn Zubair, r.a., the illustrious son of Asma and Zubair [Allah be pleased with them] was a product of muta'. [Any scholar would know the absurdity of this claim as the marriage of these two greats of Islam is well documented, for instance in Tabqat of ibn Sa'ad.] Such abuse in Pakistan leads to bloodshed. For millions of Pakistanis, the honor of the Prophet (pbuh) and his Companions is more important than life itself.
   4. A SUNNI backlash developed. It was intense and went o extremes which are not shared by most Sunnis. Some Sunnis started defending Ameer Muawiyya and then went on to praise Yazeed who was responsible for the murder of the Prophet's (pbuh) grandson, Hussain, r.a. Then the Sunnis started looking critically at Ali (r.a.) and pointing out his weaknesses. [The Prophet, pbuh, did not give leadership roles to Ali, r.a.] Sunni extremism was open to infiltration by government agents whenever they wanted to play the age old game of ‘divide and rule.'


2. AFGHANISTAN SPILLOVER. When the Taliban began their takeover, they were not antagonistic to the Shi'ites. Owing to certain incidents and misunderstandings, a rift developed. Iran saw the Taliban takeover as a threat to its own dreams of leadership of the Muslim world. In battles for Afghanistan's northern areas, Iran supported what came to be known as the northern alliance. Iran used the Hazara minority of central Afghanistan [local Shi'ites] against the Taliban. In Mazare–Sharif, hundreds of Taliban were slaughtered by pro-Iran forces.Later, the Taliban slaughtered numbers of Hazaras. A blood line gradually separated the Hazaras from the Taliban. When the Taliban would not give up Osama, American military forces entered Afghanistan and used the northern alliance to replace the Taliban. Iran supported American moves and enjoyed the tornado of American bombardment which hit not only the Taliban but the entire Pashtun hinterland of villages which supported the Taliban. Several thousand Taliban prisoners were killed by forces, including Shi'ites, under the control of the United States. Imprisoned Taliban found that their guards, working for the nothern alliance were Hazaras who, at the least humiliated them when they did not kill them. When PAKISTAN moved against supporters of the Taliban in Frontier Province and Baluchistan, General Musharraf used Hazaras as police to make sure that the Taliban would not find sympathizers among Pakistani forces. Some of the attacks on Shi'ites in Pakistan give the impression that the attackers do not consider the Shi'ites as Muslims and direct an irrational hatred at them soaked in the blood which was spilled in Afghanistan.

1. Voluntary withdrawal of all sectarian propaganda material.
2. The government should stop using sectarian elements to crack down on its opponents.
3. Ramadan is a good time to begin efforts for unity. Shi'ites and Sunnis should be invited to pray in each other's mosques. Even if done in a few mosques, it will have symbolic value.
4. Shi'ites often use Sunni Hadith books to argue with Sunnis that Sunni sources do honor Ali, r.a.The Shi'ites should turn this around and tell their own people that, yes, SUNNIS DO HONOR THE PEOPLE WHOM THE SHI'ITES HONOR. [And for their own sake, they shoul show respect and honor for the blessed ‘Ayesha, r.a. No Muslim worth the name would stand around and listen to her being insulted. The Shi'ites are killing their cause by insulting her and writing her name without the obligatory r.a. after it.]
5. Sunni scholars should squash the attempts to glorify Yazeed. Throughout Sunni tradition, Yazeed has never been respected. He was condemned by both Iqbal and Maudoodi.
6. Help the Muslim masses in Pakistan to realize that disunity will play straight into the hands of India, Israel and the U.S. These are just a few words of advice. There are numerous learned scholars in Pakistan who should get together to come forward with specific proposals to end the downward slide.

• The decline of the righteous Caliphate began with the murder of 'Uthman (r.a.), probably the most atrocious, cold blooded crime in Muslim history.
• Ali (r.a.) could not unite the Muslims and carried out policies which showed why the Prophet (pbuh) did not give him leadership positions. He had defended 'Uthman, r.a., but he was supported by the murderers of 'Uthman (r.a.) and was unable to punish them.
• He fought a futile war against Ameer Muawiyya which was opposed by his own son Hasan (r.a.).
• He weakened his credibility by bringing an army to face the Mother of the Believers 'Ayesha Siddiqa (r.a.) and carrying out the battle of the Camel.
• He weakened himself by slaughtering his own supporters, who came to be decried as the Khwarij, at Nehrwan. [One of the Khwarij, ibn Muljim, later assassinated Ali, r.a.]
• The centrality of the original Islamic polity shifted drastically when Ali, r.a., moved the capital of the Caliphate from Madinah (the city of the Prophet, pbuh,) to Kufa.
• Finally, he introduced the element of hereditary rule by nominating his son Hasan (r.a.) to inherit the Caliphate.
• Hasan (r.a.) tried to reconcile the Muslims by giving up power, leading to a long and prosperous rule by Ameer Muawiyya. However, within the prosperity, the seeds of kingship developed and Yazeed emerged to haunt future generations of Muslims with his misdeeds. The Umayyads who followed Yazeed were often worse than him, with the exception of 'Umar the Second.
• ISLAMIC SCHOLARS SAVED ISLAM. Inspite of Kingship, the scholars of Islam worked hard to ensure that the original integrity of the Islamic ethos, in which 'Ayesha (r.a.) and Ali (r.a.) were complementary, and not opposed, was preserved.
• I end with a Hadith related to the most important Islamic activity, daily prayers, which brings out the original integrity of the Islamic vision: