MQM rally flays 'self-styled' Sharia

Karachi: Tens of thousands of protesters gathered yesterday here in a rally called by the pro-government Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) to protest the self-appointed Taliban-style anti-vice campaign being launched by a religious school in the capital Islamabad.

The authorities have been at odds with the clerics and their followers at the Jamia Hafsa madrassa and Lal Mosque over attempts to halt government moves to demolish mosques built illegally on public land.

The self-exiled leader of MQM, Altaf Hussain, in a telephonic address from London, called upon the religious scholars to raise their voice against the acts being perpetrated by the management of Lal Masjid and students of the madrassa.

"The people of Islamabad are insecure and under threat due to the activities of these religious terrorists," said Hussain.

Security was tight ahead of the rally, with hundreds of policemen patrolling the port city, aided by helicopter surveillance and sharp-shooters.

Peace

Hussain said the rally was aimed at presenting the "true spirit of Islam".

"Islam is a religion of peace, and it does not need Kalashnikovs and sticks," he said.

The row over the illegal mosques escalated last month when, in behaviour reminiscent of Afghanistan under the Taliban, burqa-clad women students from the madrassa raided a house they said was a brothel.

The students have also pressured owners of music and video shops to close down their businesses.

Women, also carrying staves, roamed around the school's grounds, and two or three men have been seen with guns which the clerics say are properly licensed.

Earlier this month, the mosque's chief cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz warned that his followers were prepared to resort to suicide bombings if the government tried to forcibly suppress their movement. The government of President Pervez Musharraf has faced some criticism for failing to take a harder line with the madrassa.

Hussain said the radicals were working against the teachings of Islam, presenting it before the world in a wrong way.

"These people are doing no good to Islam, in fact, they are damaging it," he said.

Heart-winning words

"The Prophet never in his entire life used force to implement his teachings. He or any other of the holy prophets always tried to convey their message through their soft character and heart-winning words," Hussain said.

"We reject every attempt at forced imposition of so-called Islamic way of life," he added. Hussain criticised the Lal Mosque clerics for restricting women from going to school, college or work and coming up with threats to blow away the girl's school and college, forcing parents to keep their daughters within the confines of their houses.

"The clerics of Lal Masjid are defaming Islam before the world ... people of Pakistan reject such unIslamic acts," he added.

Hussain called Islamic clerics to issue a edict on the Lal Mosque and asked the government to demolish the establishment.

Pakistan's tourism minister says she fears for her life after clerics at a radical mosque issued an edict accusing her of sinning by hugging her French parachute jumping instructor, the state news agency reported.

Minister of Tourism Nilofar Bakhtiar told a parliamentary committee of her fear on Saturday following the Taliban-style edict against her by Islamic clerics at Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in Islamabad, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

The clerics said the hug was "an illegitimate and forbidden act" and "without any doubt, she has committed a great sin". Two clerics at the mosque issued the edict against Bakhtiar on April 8, demanding that she be sacked, her family punish her and she be made to ask for forgiveness after pictures in the Pakistani media showed Bakhtiar hugging her parachute jumping instructor at a fundraising jump in France.

Hundreds of students from an Islamic seminary attached to the mosque have been running an anti-vice campaign in Islamabad, threatening music shops and brothels, in a bold challenge to President General Pervez Musharraf, a US ally who has pledged to promote moderate Islam.

The mosque's chief cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, has threatened to stage suicide attacks if authorities try to raid the mosque.

Bakhtiar rejected the edict last week, saying she had only received a pat from her instructor for her jump in France last month to raise money for victims of a devastating earthquake in Pakistan in 2005. Bakhtiar was not immediately available for comment yesterday.

"I have strengthened my security after the fatwa from the so-called Shariat court and the killing of Punjab provincial minister Zil-e-Huma," APP quoted Bakhtiar as saying, referring to the shooting death in February of a female provincial official by a man who told police he was opposed to women holding high offices.

Last month, an anti-terrorism court sentenced the man to death.

- AP