I found
Alama Javed Ahmed Ghamidi’s comments on the lashing of a teenager, by Taliban in
Swat, for leaving her house without a male blood relative and suicide attacks in
Pakistan very thought provoking and useful. Here I will present them in my own
words for everyone’s benefit:
He argues whether it is suicide bombing or lashing of a young girl in Swat, it
is the outcome of an ideological movement which has its own goals, philosophy
and viewpoint. The only way to deal with it is to encounter it on the
ideological level: our intellects need to take it as a mission to understand the
attackers’ arguments, highlight their mistake to reveal the real picture of
Islam and educate people in this regard. Our conventional religious thought does
not encourage suicide attacks but there are some grounds on which it cent
percent coincides with the philosophy of these suicide attackers, which are:
• The
shariah (Islamic law) must be implemented according to the fiqah (Islamic
jurisprudence) which Muslims have already developed over the last thousand
years; there is no room for any further interpretation of the Qur’an, Sunnah and
Hadith.
• The shariah needs no democratic process for its implementation, for
whichsoever minority gains enough power and resource; it should enforce the
shariah on the whole community.
• We should fight against non-muslims, for they do not accept Islam as their
religion.
More so,
he said that the Taliban whom we blame as the root of our law and order problem
today are actually the fruits of our own seeds. We, as an ally of the U.S.,
prepared and used them to fight against the U.S.S.R. labelling it wrongfully as
“jihad”. Whilst we were achieving our own political objectives through these
people, they were our favourite. When they took control of Afghanistan and
implemented the shariah as per the same understanding as they are now showing in
Swat, we initially harboured them and referred to it as an achievement of an
ideal Islamic state. After harbouring the same people for a long time, now why
do we want to see different sort of Taliban all of a sudden? First, we need to
get rid of our own inconsistencies and honestly see what we have been doing.
Second, we need an ideological aggression to reform our understanding of the
shariah and jihad to harbour and propagate the true picture of Islam rather than
tailoring it to suit our own political purposes from time to time.
Further Reading:
For Urdu Readers:
Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, “Qanun-e-Jihad” in Meezan, 3rd ed., P. 579 – 609 (Lahore:
Al-Mawrid Institute of Islamic Sciences 2007).
Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, “Hadud-o-Ta’ziraat” in Meezan, 3rd ed., P. 610 – 630
(Lahore: Al-Mawrid Institute of Islamic Sciences 2007).
Muhammad Ammar Khan Nasir, Hadud-o-Ta’ziraat: Chand Ahm Mubahis. Lahore: Al-Mawrid
Institute of Islamic Sciences, 2008.
For English Readers:
Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, The Islamic Shariah of Jihad. Lahore: Al-Mawrid Institute
of Islamic Sciences, 2005.
Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, The Penal Law of Islam. Lahore: Al-Mawrid Institute of
Islamic Sciences, 2002.
References:
Crisis Cell, Geo News, 2nd April, 2009
Policy Matters, Dunya TV, 2nd April, 2009