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2013-11-18 India-Pakistan
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Cracks in the reactionary monolith -- Lal Khan
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[Pak Daily Times] The statement of Munawar Hasan, chief of the 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 independent branch 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...
(JI) on martyrdom and the fierce reaction by the Pakistain army reveals nothing but the rottenness of the Pak ruling class, its state and politics. The army quickly demanded an apology and the JI's subsequent response of "intervention in politics" by the army is quite sardonic. Historically, the JI is known as the most organised Islamic party, having close ties with the Pak state and US imperialism. In the decades of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the JI was active as a vicious representative of the domestic and international right wing. Its student wing, the Islami Jamaat-e-Talaba
...The Islamic Students' Organization : the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami, where young Moslems are trained into the arts of street fighting...
, has always been used as a tool by the state and imperialism against left wing student organizations.
Continued from Page 4
After the victory of Gamal Abdul Nasser in the 1956 Suez war against Britannia, La Belle France and Israel, the slogan of Arab Socialism was echoing in one country after another in the Middle East. Like the Arab Revolution of 2011, a revolutionary wave swept across the whole region in the 1950s and 1960s, sweeping aside old puppets of imperialism and replacing them with left-leaning parties and leaders in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Algeria and other Arab countries. These left wing governments under enormous pressure of the masses embarked on a process of large-scale nationalisation. This endangered imperialist interests in the Middle East, while the reactionary monarchies were trembling. To stem this revolutionary fervour against capitalism, the CIA started propping up Islamic fundamentalism. From Indonesia to Egypt, Islamic fundamentalist parties were strengthened as a counter-revolutionary force through financial and political support. The real creator of this Islamic fundamentalism was the US president Dwight Eisenhower's secretary of state, John Foster Dulles. Dulles himself was a Christian fundamentalist and pathologically detested communism. The Moslem Brüderbund in Egypt and Nahdat-ul-Ulema (which played a key role in killing over a million communists and trade unionists in 1965) in Indonesia were contraptions of this reactionary onslaught. In Pakistain, the JI was the centre of this imperialist policy. This explains why it remained hand in glove with military dictatorships.
The 1968-69 revolutionary movement of the masses in Pakistain swept across both wings of the country. But after the abdication of the movement by Maulana Bhashani and other left wing leaders, this class movement was derailed on nationalist lines and was ensnared by Mujibur Rehman's Awami League. In the civil war that followed, the atrocities and massacres of the Bengali masses committed by the Pakistain army in connivance with the vigilantes of the JI in the shape of its armed wings -- Al Badar and Al Shams -- were carried out with vicious brutalities against innocent people. The deep involvement of the JI in this 'Operation Blitz' is revealed in the book, The Indo-Pak War by Major General Hakeem Arshad Qureshi, who was a battalion commander in the Dinapur district of East Pakistain during the operation. He narrates: "Maulana Tufail Mohammad (Amir) of the Jamaat-e-Islami visited us after the military action...The Maulana was particularly concerned about the performance of the 'razakaars' (volunteers) belonging to his party... He jokingly remarked that his party cadres had always come to the rescue of the Army in tough situations."
The first Pakistain People's Party (PPP) government embarked upon a welfare programme for the masses and reforms were introduced in health, education, transport and other sectors through massive nationalisation. The JI came out against these reforms and supported the feudals and capitalists against the PPP. The JI had the full backing of US imperialism. The JI spearheaded the Pakistain National Alliance movement against Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, which led to the military coup and hanging of Bhutto. This was organised on a religious basis and was actively supported by the Pak ruling classes and US imperialism. They not only supported the vicious dictatorship of Zia ul Haq
 ...the creepy-looking former dictator of Pakistain. Zia was an Islamic nutball who imposed his nutballery on the rest of the country with the enthusiastic assistance of the nation's religious parties, which are populated by other nutballs. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom he hanged when he seized power. His time in office was a period of repression, with hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities, and journalists executed or tortured, including senior general officers convicted in coup-d'état plots, who would normally be above the law. As part of his alliance with the religious parties, his government helped run the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, providing safe havens, American equipiment, Saudi money, and Pak handlers to selected mujaheddin. Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistain Arnold Lewis Raphel when he was assassinated in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur in 1988...
but also played like a B-team of that brutal dictator. During this dark period of history, the military used the JI and its vigilantes in intimidating, arresting and torturing political activists.
The Saur Revolution of April 27, 1978 in Afghanistan (18 months before the invasion of the Soviet forces) under the leadership of Noor Muhammad Tarakai of the Khalq Party threatened the interests of landlords, capitalists and imperialists in the whole region. To sabotage this revolutionary government in Kabul, which was making huge efforts for the downtrodden masses, the CIA initiated the 'Dollar Jihad', flooding the area with dollars managed by the ISI and distributed through the JI to its sister organization Hizb-e-Islami led by Gulbadin Hikmetyar. But when huge sums of money started pouring in for this "Jihad" through smuggling of narcotics, many other obscurantist sects and organizations jumped on the bandwagon for this loot. The clergy became rich overnight and were riding SUVs instead of bicycles. With the withdrawal of the Soviet forces, imperialist funding suddenly came to an end. That was replaced by the multibillion dollar business of smuggling narcotics and arms, resulting in many of these groups not only turning against US imperialism but also against each other. Zia's generals were deeply involved in that criminal business network, but the proxies fragmented and clashed in the lust for a greater share of black money. The JI remained and still is an integral part of this harrowing orgy of bloodshed and terror.
The JI's frustration with the US is in part due to dollar supplies drying up and in part due to the contradiction of the pro-US and anti-US factions of the Pak state, particularly within the military. In the absence of mass left wing forces, religious parties are struggling among themselves to exploit the anti-imperialist sentiments of the people. In this cutthroat competition, vitriolic statements like Munawar Hasan's are a part of that process. To recapture the intoxication of potent power enjoyed with the patronage of imperialism and the Mighty Pak Army, the JI, a party that always remained a fifth column of the army, has come out in open conflict with an important faction of the army. However,
by candlelight every wench is handsome...
the support of the JI and other religious parties among the masses is very fragile and limited. The masses know, consciously or unconsciously, that Islamic fundamentalism and US imperialism are two sides of the same coin. The JI is doomed either way. If it withdraws its statement it will face the wrath of religious bad turbans, and if it does not it will face the severe displeasure of the generals.
Religious parties and US imperialism, the liberal and secular rulers are all on board on the preservation of this capitalist system because their vested interests rest in it. These conflicts are temporary and superficial. The JI and army cannot do without each other. Let us not be in any doubt; as in the past, these forces of dark reaction will unite to save this system in the wake of a rising revolutionary movement of the oppressed. The working classes will have to unite to dislodge this reactionary monolith for its emancipation and should ignore this pseudo-wrangling.
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Posted by Fred 2013-11-18 00:00||
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