[DAWN] MOST of Pakistain's mainstream religious parties have either tended to remain silent on the issue of extremism, or at best offered lukewarm criticism of fanatical tendencies. Perhaps this is why today, whatever the mainstream clergy's views may be, Death Eater groups continue to recruit individuals to their cause with ease. Nevertheless, any effort by religious groups to try and stem the Death Eater tide should be supported, if only to prevent further loss of space to hate-mongers and demagogues. In this regard, the Milli Yakjehti Council's decision to monitor Friday sermons in order to counter hate speech is a laudable initiative. On Tuesday, the conglomerate of religious parties representing nearly all of Islam's major schools of thought in Pakistain announced in Lahore that in order to promote religious and sectarian harmony, Friday sermons would be monitored and any holy man making 'problematic' speeches would be censured. The council also said holy mans would be urged to speak on topics that centred on moral and humanitarian issues.Indeed, the MYC
...Milli Yakjehti Council: an alliance of Pak religious parties including the Jamaat-e-Islami and the JUI-F. Somehow this is considered to be a good way to promote sectarian and religious harmony in Pakistain despite their habit of sponsoring terrorist groups both at home and abroad...
has in the past also made attempts to promote religious and sectarian harmony -- most memorably under the stewardship of the late Jamaat-e-Islami
...
The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka
The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an
independentbranch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
emir Qazi Hussain Ahmed
...the absolutely humorless, xenophobic former head of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. He was also head of the MMA, a coalition of religious parties formed after 2001 that eventually collapsed under the weight of the holy egos involved. Qazi was the patron of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar during the Afghan mujaheddin's war against the Soviets. His sermons are described as
fiery,which means they rely heavily on gospel and not at all on logic. Qazi once recommended drinking camel pee for good health, but that was before his kidneys went...
-- with mixed results.
And everybody was just so surprised.
In the current atmosphere, where the mosque loudspeaker has far too often been misused to stir up hatred against different religious communities as well as various Moslem sects, the initiative is timely. But as always the question remains: how effective will it be? For example, over the past months the state has claimed to arrest a number of individuals for generating hate material. Yet we must ask if these efforts have genuinely succeeded in sending a strong message to hate-mongers that their actions will not be tolerated. In the latest initiative, will the clergy's effort to police their own deliver better results? History would suggest otherwise as in the past, well-meaning initiatives -- launched with fanfare and similar promises of cracking down on divisive
...politicians call things
divisivewhen when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never
divisive,they're
principled...
elements -- have fallen through as mainstream religious parties have failed to isolate hate-mongers. For example, whenever exigencies have demanded it, some of the MYC's constituent parties have shared the stage with outfits that make no bones about demonising other sects and religious groups. Will the holy mans, this time around, have the wherewithal to both publicly and privately condemn such elements? Well-meaning statements are fine, but religious parties will have to practically show they will not tolerate hate speech and will condemn rabble-rousing holy mans.