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| India-Pakistan |
| Shia-Sunni fissure over militant label |
| 2006-05-08 |
| Lucknow, May 7: A section of Shias has suggested that most militants belong to Sunnis and it is unfair to hold the entire community responsible, prompting the Sunnis to protest the “sectarian” label. At a conference organised by the All India Shia Hussaini Fund today, many clerics and scholars made the following observations: Jihad and terrorism are not synonymous The extremists are either Sunnis or Wahabis, the purists among the Sunnis No Shia has yet been found to be a member of any known terrorist outfit If anything, Shias have been the victims of terrorism for long. Concern was also voiced at the perception that Islam was regressive because of its personal laws. “Islam is identified with terrorism and talaaq (divorce) these days,” said the conference convener, Maulana Mirza Mohammad Attar, who also chairs the All India Shia Personal Law Board, a breakaway group of the Muslim Personal Law Board. His colleague, Hasan Mehdi, said: “There’s not a single Shia in al Qaida, Lashkar-e-Toiba or Jaish-e-Mohammad. They have Wahabis or Sunnis. Jihad means service to humanity, service to one’s parents, charity and love.” Mehdi said the greatest act of terrorism was committed when Imam Hussain, Prophet Mohammad’s grandson, was killed when he was offering prayers in Karbala. Imam Hussain and another grandson of the Prophet were killed in Karbala, following which the community split into Sunnis and Shias. The conference said it had no problem with the western threat to impose sanctions on Iran or with India’s position on Tehran. Anwar Hussain Rizvi, a delegate who teaches law in Lucknow’s Shia degree college, said: “The government’s policy and the Shia policy are one and the same. We are Indians and we will not allow India’s enlightened national interest to be compromised.” The stand on the US has surprised many since Iran is a Shia-majority country and also because of the intriguing fact that Attar had been deported from the JFK International Airport in New York in 2005. Attar had then felt that he was sent back because of a resolution passed by his board against the reported desecration of the Quran in the US-run prison at Guantanamo Bay. However, Khalid Rashid, a Sunni cleric, felt that the conference’s “sweeping” assertions would give a fillip to “anti-Muslim” perceptions. “The Arabs and Palestinians are Wahabis. Yet, when the Jews kill the Palestinians, the US does not call it Jewish terrorism. If the Palestinians retaliate, it is called Islamic terrorism. But when Muslims themselves give weight to such perceptions, it is most unfortunate,” said Rashid, the Naib Imam of Firangi Mahal, a 400-year-old seminary in Lucknow. |
| Posted by:john |
| #1 "...label...victims...perception...reported...assertions...perceptions...such perceptions..." And besides that...those ridiculous clothes you wear make you look fat. |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2006-05-08 12:09 |