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#Leading Pakistani religious scholar
gemsofgreece · 4 years
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Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia, its original full name being Ναός της Αγίας του Θεού Σοφίας (Church of the Holy Wisdom of God) is a Greek Orthodox Church located in Istanbul, present day Turkey.
The church was completed in 537 by the orders of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I and it was the most precious and impressive landmark of Constantinople and the entirety of the Byzantine Empire. The basilica was designed by the Greek geometers Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles. Upon setting his eyes on the completed church, it is said that Justinian cried out in Byzantine Greek “Νενίκηκά σέ, Σολομών!” (Neníkiká se, Solomón) which means “I have outdone thee, Solomon!” He was referring to Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, whose majesty had been unparalleled according to the Hebrew Bible. Hagia Sophia remained the largest cathedral in the world for the next  thousand years. Hagia Sophia became the seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The basilica suffered a lot of damage due to earthquakes, fires and during the era of Byzantine Iconoclasm, when the use of religious images was prohibited. At that time, Emperor Leo the Isaurian (726) ordered the icons to be destroyed, a damage that Empress Irene of Athens (797 - 802) tried to reprieve as much as possible. The cathedral was repaired after each of its destructions.
In 1204, Constantinople was sacked by the Crusaders. According to Greek historian Niketas Choniates, the crusaders stripped Hagia Sophia of all its gold and silver ornaments and several furnishings. According to Arab historian Ali ibn al-Athir, the crusaders also massacred some of its clerics. During the Latin Occupation of Constantinople (1204-1261) Hagia Sophia functioned as a Roman Catholic Church but its extensive damage was not repaired until its return to Orthodox control.
On 29 May 1453, Constantinople fell to the attacking forces of the Ottoman Turks which marked the end of the Byzantine Empire and the beginning of a several centuries long enslavement of Greek and Slavic people. During the siege of the city, the women, children, elderly and sick seeked refuge inside Hagia Sophia. When the city fell, the Ottoman troops headed to pillage the Church first thing.The sick and elderly they found inside the Church were killed and the children and women were sold as slaves. When Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror came to see the church himself, he immediately ordered it to be converted into a mosque. Mehmed renovated Hagia Sophia and retained its name as Aya Sofya, which became the first imperial mosque in Constantinople, now called Istanbul.
During Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent’s reign (1520-1566), the gorgeous mosaics depicting Jesus, Mary and various Byzantine emperors were covered by whitewash and plaster, which was removed only in 1931.
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Until the 20th century, Hagia Sophia had been renovated and modified many times, especially with the addition of structures of the Islamic faith. The most notable example of restoration was by Sultan Abdulmejid (1823 - 1861) who hired the Swiss-Italian architects Gaspare and Giuseppe Fossati for the job. The brothers worked on strengthening the structure in many ways and tried to prevent further damage to the Christian mosaics and decorations.
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Gaspare Fossati's 1852 depiction of the Hagia Sophia, which he and his brother renovated. Lithograph by Louis Haghe
In 1931, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, first president of the Republic of Turkey, which is the natural successor of the Ottoman Empire, ordered that Hagia Sophia should be turned into a museum. He was thus trying to make Turkey a secular state and lead it to the path of a more contemporary and tolerant society. For the first time in centuries, the carpets were removed to reveal the marble floor decorations and the plaster was also removed, uncovering many of the worn mosaics. The state of the Church was deteriorating and its restoration was funded by WMF. It was finished in 2006. By 2014, Hagia Sophia was the second most visited museum in Turkey, with 3.3 million visitors annually. In 2006, the Turkish government permitted Christians and Muslims alike to pray in a small room but it was strictly prohibited in the rest of the building.
In 2007, Greek American and Turkish movements started campaigns so that Hagia Sophia would function as a church or a mosque respectively. Since the 2010s, several turkish campaigns and government officials demanded Hagia Sophia to be turned to a mosque again. When Pope Francis acknowledged the Armenian Genocide in 2015, which Turkey officially denies, the Mufti of Ankara threatened that the conversion of Hagia Sophia would be accelerated. In 2016 and ever since, muslim prayers have been held there by various groups but the Association for the Protection of Historic Monuments and the Environment filed a lawsuit and the court decided the monument should remain a museum.
Since 2018, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed his intent to convert Hagia Sophia to a mosque, aiming to ensure the vote of the religious populace. He added that Atatürk’s move to make Hagia Sophia a museum was a “very big mistake”. Inside Hagia Sophia, he dedicated his prayer to all the souls who “left them this work of inheritance” and especially the conqueror of the Church and its city. In May 2020, Turkey celebrated the anniversary of the Fall of Constantinople with an Islamic prayer inside Hagia Sophia. Greece condemned that action and the Turkish goverment called that stance futile.
On 10 July 2020, and in the mid of tense relations of Turkey with many countries, including Greece, the Council of State with Erdogan’s influence decided the turn of Hagia Sophia to a mosque. The decision received secular and global criticism as well as requests to be undone. The decision is supported by the large majority of the politicians in Turkey and the largest part of the public. A few Turk scholars have denounced the decision. With a blatant indifference to the concerns, the Turkish president invited many foreign leaders to the opening of Hagia Sophia as a mosque, including some of those expressing concern and particularly Pope Francis.
On 22 July, the ancient marble floor was covered once again with carpets. The Christian mosaics will be once again hidden with curtains and lasers, with the promise that they won’t be further destroyed.
As Hagia Sophia is a UNESCO World Heritage Monument, this decision needed the official agreement of its committee. This step was ignored and UNESCO announced its deep regret for this decision.  The World Council of Churches, Pope Francis, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople and the Russian Orthodox Church’s Patriarch Kirill of Moscow have denounced the conversion. Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative of the foreign affairs, Greek culture Minister Lina Mendoni, the spokesperson of the USA Morgan Ortagus, Jean-Yves Le Drian, the foreign minister of France, Vladimir Dzhabarov, deputy head of the foreign affairs committee of the Russian Federation Council have all criticised the move. The former deputy prime minister of Italy Mario Salvini led a protest against the decision, calling for all plans of a future accession of Turkey in the EU to be terminated once and for all. Greece and Cyprus called for EU sanctions on Turkey. A protest was held in East Jerusalem, Israel, during which a Turkish flag was burned and a Greek and a Greek Orthodox Church flag were displayed.
From the other side, Ersin Tatar, the prime minister of the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”, congratulated the decision. This state is globally recognised only by Turkey, as the rest of the world acknowledges it as occupation of the northern part of Cyprus since the Turkish invasion in 1974. The foreign ministry of Iran, the Arab Maghreb Union, the grand Mufti of Oman and the Pakistani politician Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi supported the decision. The Muslim Judicial Council in South Africa celebrated by sacrificing a camel.  On the other hand, Shawki Allam, grand Mufti of Egypt, ruled that conversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque is "impermissible".
Hagia Sophia opened as a mosque for Friday prayers on 24 July amongst celebrations and even songs with lyrics such as “you were always ours and we’ll always be yours”. In Greece, bells tolled and flags flew at half-staff at hundreds of churches across the country in protest. It is the fourth Byzantine Greek church converted from museum to a mosque during Erdoğan's rule. 
And that is the story of Hagia Sophia.
*All information is from Wikipedia and various news sites.
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hamsandlich · 4 years
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On December 21, Junaid Hafeez, a Pakistani academic, was sentenced to “be hanged by neck till his death” for blasphemy. After returning to Pakistan from Mississippi, where he was a Fulbright scholar, Junaid wanted to bring back his passion for literature and social justice to his students.  Junaid was charged with blasphemy after inviting and teaching the works of women’s rights activists. After one lecture, with a female novelist, Junaid was accused of having made blasphemous remarks. This sparked protests by religiously-conservative students, leading the authorities to claim that Junaid had defiled the Prophet Muhammad on social-media.  He was arrested in 2013 and has been held in solitary confinement ever since.  His lawyer, Rashid Rehman, was murdered in his chambers in 2014 for taking up the case.
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doeeyeddyke · 5 years
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Some ‘I Am Malala’ Cheat Notes
Characters:
Malala The author of this memoir, a young Pashtun woman who grew up in Swat Valley, Pakistan. She went to school throughout her entire childhood, and because of her father's example, she became famous for speaking out in favor of girls' education. When she was fifteen years old, the Taliban shot Malala in response to her activism.
Ziauddin Malala's father, whose dream growing up was to start a school. He founded the Kushal School, which Malala attended throughout her childhood, and he was a constant advocate for education. Though daughters are typically less prized than sons, Ziauddin loved Malala from the moment she was born.
Tor Pekai Malala's mother, who follows the Muslim code of purdah for women. She loves Malala fiercely and serves as a role model for her. Tor Pekai did not go to school, having sold her books for candy after the first day because she was jealous of her friends who got to stay home.
Kushal Malala's middle brother, who is two years younger than her.
Atal Malala's youngest brother, who is five years younger than Kushal.
Malalai of Maiwand The Pashtun heroine who was Malala's namesake. She is famous for using her courage to inspire her people to fight against the British army and win the battle.
Rohul Amin Malala's grandfather, whom she calls Baba. He studied in India and became a great speaker, and Malala's father spent his childhood attempting to impress him.
General Zia A military general who took power in Pakistan in 1977. He is famous for encouraging the Islamization of Pakistan, and under him Pakistan became an ally of the United States.
Mohammad Naeem Khan Malala's father's friend, and the man who originally set out to start a school with him.
Hidayatullah Another of Malala's father's friends, who played a much larger role in co-founding the Kushal School after Naeem left.
Benazir Bhutto The first female head-of-state in the Islamic world, who took power in Pakistan after General Zia died. She was a profound role model for Malala.
Moniba Malala's best friend throughout her childhood, who attends school with her and provides competition for best in the class. Moniba and Malala continue to keep in touch after Malala leaves Pakistan.
General Musharraf Musharraf took power in Pakistan a few years after Malala's birth, becoming Pakistan's fourth military leader.
The Mufti An Islamic scholar who attempted to close the Kushal School because it educated girls.
Jinnah The founder of Pakistan, who set out to make it a land of religious tolerance. He was laid to rest in a mausoleum in Karachi.
Fazlullah The leader of the branch of the Taliban that took over Swat Valley.
Nawab Ali An Urdu teacher at Malala's school who refused to teach them anymore after the Taliban began to take over.
Madam Maryam The principal at Malala's school, who is like a second mother figure to Malala and the other girls at the Kushal School.
Malka-e-Noor The girl who repeatedly challenges Malala for the top spot in the class.
Safina The neighbor girl who steals Malala's favorite toy. Malala steals from her as payback, but gets caught, thereby realizing that it is better to be honest.
Abdul Hai Kakar The BBC correspondent who seeks out Malala to write the diary of Gul Makai about life living under the Taliban.
Irfan Ashraf The Pakistani journalist who assists in filming a documentary about Malala's family life under the Taliban.
Adam Ellick An American video journalist who assists in filming a documentary about Malala's family life under the Taliban.
Shiza Shahid An Islamabad native who went to study at Stanford University. She contacts the Yousafzai family after seeing the documentary about them and becomes one of their supporters, along with a role model for Malala.
Dr. Afzal Malala's father's friend, who transports them out of Swat when they escape and become IDPs for three months.
General Abbas The chief spokesman for the Pakistani army, who sends Malala's father money to pay his teachers' salaries after three months as IDPs.
Zahid Khan A friend of Malala's father who was shot in the face by the Taliban shortly before Malala was shot.
Usman Bhai Jan The bus driver, who is driving when the Taliban pulls the bus over and shoots Malala.
Dr. Javid Kayani One of the British doctors who come to Peshawar to assess Malala.
Dr. Fiona Reynolds The other of the British doctors who assesses Malala in Peshawar. She works at a children's hospital in Birmingham, and stays at Malala's side as she is airlifted to the UK from Pakistan.
Rehenna The hospital's Muslim chaplain, who helps to ease Malala's transition into this new culture.
Atuallah Khan The man who shot Malala.
Asif Zardari The President of Pakistan, who comes to visit Malala while she is in the hospital in Birmingham.
Quotes:
"Who is Malala? I am Malala, and this is my story."
Malala ends the memoir's short prologue by echoing the question that the Taliban militant asked before shooting her in the face. In these pages she finally gets the chance to answer the question, which she did not have when it happened. She claims her name and her identity, in spite of the Taliban attempting to silence her.
"I am Malala. My world has changed but I have not."
Malala ends her memoir almost the same way that she started it, answering the question that came to define her life when the Taliban asked for her in the back of the bus. She once again lays claim to her identity, and acknowledges that even though she leads an entirely different life now, she still maintains the values, principles, and goals that she has nurtured throughout her entire life.
Symbols:
Malala's Schoolbooks When Malala and her family leave Swat and become IDPs, Malala repeatedly wonders whether or not her schoolbooks will be safe and when she will be able to study them. For Malala, her schoolbooks represent the education she has received and the education she hopes to receive in the future. They are a source of hope that she will be able to accomplish her goal of promoting schooling for all girls, not only those as lucky as she is.
The Almonds After Malala gets in trouble for stealing a neighbor girl's toys, she relays a story about a time when she was younger and ate some almonds in the bazaar that her mother could not pay for. When her father found out, he went and bought all of the almonds. She says they became a reminder of guilt, but they are also a reminder to remain honest. The memory of these almonds is one of the things that keep Malala believing that honesty is the best policy.
The Burqa The burqa, which is a full-body garment covering even the face, is a symbol of the Taliban's oppression of women. Though Muslim women cover their heads for many reasons, a face covering obscures the identity of a woman, which is part of what the Taliban seeks to do. Over the course of Taliban occupation of Pakistan, women in burqas become a prominent symbol of the Taliban.
The Schoolbus The school bus on which Malala and two other girls were shot becomes a symbol of the tragedy later on. Malala includes a picture of the bus among the photos of her life that she adds in at the end of the memoir; the picture shows the bloodstains that still remain. This bus was meant to be a safe space, but, as with many other safe spaces in Swat, the Taliban corrupted it.
The Buddhas Swat Valley's ancient Buddha statues, left from when Buddhism moved through the valley, are prominent symbols of Swat's rich history and, most importantly, the region's tolerance of faiths other than Islam. When the Taliban destroy these Buddha statues, they send the message that they will not tolerate any beliefs other than Islam, and that they are eager to erase the past.
Similes and Metaphors:
"It seemed to us that the Taliban had arrived in the night just like vampires." (Chapter 9, Simile)
Malala and Moniba both read Twilight, a famous book series by Stephenie Meyer about vampires. They compare the approaching Taliban to vampires, slinking through the night and arriving unexpectedly. This is an important simile because it emphasizes the degree to which the people of Swat were caught off-guard when the Taliban began to occupy their formerly peaceful valley.
"For us girls that doorway was like a magical entrance to our own special world." (Prologue, Simile)
In this simile, Malala speaks about the entrance to the Kushal School, and how magical it felt growing up and spending every day going through these doors. For Malala, school was a sanctuary, a place where she and her friends could be themselves and focus solely on receiving an education. Even during their occupation of Swat, the Taliban could not take away their indescribable love for attending school.
Irony:
Malala vs. her father (Dramatic Irony) Malala's family constantly fears that Ziauddin, Malala's father, will be the one targeted by the Taliban because of they way he speaks out against them. No one thinks for a second that even the Taliban is cruel enough to target Malala. It is thus ironic it is Malala whom they try to kill.
Malala's Father's Stutter (Situational Irony) Despite the stutter that has impaired his speech throughout his life, Malala's father ironically devotes his life to public speaking, voicing his thoughts and rallying people to his side to stand against the Taliban. It is ironic that a man who loves poetry, words, and speaking would be cursed with such an impediment.
The Taliban and Islam (Situational Irony) Malala and many other Muslims believe that Islam is a peaceful religion, one that respects and values women and encourages tolerance and acceptance. It is ironic, then, that the Taliban claims to be fighting in the name of Islam, and yet goes against all of these accepted Islamic values.
Literary Elements:
Genre Memoir
Setting and Context Swat Valley, Pakistan, from 1997 to 2013
Narrator and Point of View Malala Yousafzai, a girl growing up in Pakistan under the Taliban’s control, narrates the memoir in first-person past tense.
Tone and Mood The first part of the memoir, when Malala is living happily in Swat, attending school and remaining at the top of her class, has a much more lighthearted tone. The tone and mood darken once the Taliban arrive to Swat Valley in 2007, and becomes much more urgent as Malala and her father step up as activists.
Protagonist and Antagonist Malala is the protagonist, while the Taliban—an oppressive Islamic fundamentalist organization that occupied Swat Valley during her adolescence—is the antagonist.
Major Conflict Though there are many struggles that accompany daily life in Swat, the primary conflict is over the Taliban's occupation of Swat. The Taliban have banned girls' education, something Malala believes is invaluable. Not only does Malala want to continue going to school, but she wants all other girls to receive an education as well, and throughout the memoir she stands up against the Taliban to promote this.
Climax The climax of the memoir occurs when a Taliban officer boards Malala's school bus, asks for her by name, and then shoots her in the face.
Foreshadowing Malala narrates this memoir in retrospect, so there are many instances where she hints at what is going to happen. A notable instance of foreshadowing occurs at the end of Chapter 23, when Malala finishes the chapter about her hospitalization in Birmingham by saying, "I didn't realize then I wouldn't be going home" (pg. 143).
Allusions Malala repeatedly alludes to Twilight, the famous book series about vampires by Stephenie Meyer. When the Taliban comes to Swat Valley, she says, "It seemed to us that the Taliban arrived in the night just like vampires" (pg. 60).
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expatimes · 3 years
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Wadi-e-Hussain: A graveyard for Pakistan’s Shia victims | Civil Rights News
Karachi, Pakistan – Miles from the hustle and bustle of the metropolis of Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, lies the Wadi-e-Hussain graveyard with its hundreds of graves. Each is a window into a life that ended all too abruptly.
Protected from the city by large iron gates and tall walls, there is an uneasy calm within its walls where many of the city’s Shia Muslims have been laid to rest.
Pakistan is home to 220 million people, almost all of whom are Muslim. It is also home to one of the largest Shia populations in the world, as an estimated 20 percent of Muslims there are Shia.
At Wadi-e-Hussain red flags are planted by the graves of observant Shia Muslims who have died in targeted killings, gun or bomb attacks.
Since 2001, more than 2,600 Shia Muslims have been killed in violent attacks in the South Asian country, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal research organisation. This year has seen an uptick in targeted killings against Shia accused of blasphemy.
In September, tens of thousands attended a demonstration in Karachi organised by the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), a Sunni hardline group that is banned under Pakistani law for its ties to the armed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) group, which has carried out many of the largest bombings and attacks on the community since 1996.
At Wadi-e-Hussain, people paying their respects come and go, as the caretaker customarily sprinkles water on the graves.
“Some bring flowers, some light candles on every Thursday, sometimes a brother or a mother comes with the book of prayer, spends time on the grave,” says the caretaker Laal Mohammad.
As the scent of rose petals and incense wafts across the graves this history of violence is writ large across the tombstones. A group of five graves marks a family killed in the Abbas town blast of 2013. A mother’s grave sits by her four-year-old’s son’s, killed in the same blast; the inscription says the woman dropped dead when she saw her young child’s lifeless body.
There are more than 300 graves belonging to the those dubbed as “martyrs” in Wadi-e-Hussain. These are their stories.
‘My brother did not come back’
A woman sits near a grave, reading verses from a prayer book, crying as she does so.
Tehseen Abidi’s younger brother was also killed in the 2013 bombing in Abbas Town, a popular majority-Shia Muslim neighbourhood in Karachi. Kashif Abbas Abidi was at the site of the blast when it went off. Police never found his body.
For 40-year-old Tehseen, Kashif was her whole world. Sitting by his grave, she tells the story of the day she lost her brother in the attack, a sequence of bomb blasts which killed at least 45 people.
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There are more than 300 graves belonging to the those dubbed as “martyrs” in Wadi-e-Hussain
“He died in the first blast, he was present at the site of the blast, he promised me that he would come to see me in the evening, my brother did not come back” she says.
Abidi owned a general store in the neighbourhood and was at work when the bombs went off.
“It was March 3 and a Sunday,” said Tehseen. She only got a few sentences in before she broke down in tears, remembering her “little one”.
The government offered financial compensation to the families whose relatives had died that day and in other attacks. But the relatives say the money is of little comfort.
“The government gave 1.5 million rupees to his wife, but our loss is so big that nothing can compensate for this loss,” said Tehseen.
“Even if our whole life we cry it’s not enough. Maybe if we all die crying in this anguish, maybe only then it will be compensated.”
‘Something died inside me that day’
On June 6, 1963 while preparing for a local ceremony, Ishtiaq Hussain and his fellow mourners heard the news of an attack on the procession in Thehri town, 14 kilometres (8.6 miles) out of Khairpur city in Sindh province. Hussain, now aged 80, is still haunted by his memories of that day.
It was a few days after Ashura, the 10th day of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic calendar. Ashura marks the anniversary of the Karbala mass killing and is commemorated by Shia Muslims in sombre rituals and processions.
“We were around 200 people who ran to save the congregation of Thehri that day,” he says. “We didn’t know that the news was a trap, and there were thousands of waiting for us with axes and swords in their hands, to chop us all into pieces.”
Hussain made it out alive but he has no idea how.
“I was among the survivors, but I can’t recall how I survived. There were around 10 people who attacked me with the axes, they injured me badly, my neck and shoulder were bleeding, they kicked me in my stomach to the point that I started spitting blood,” he says.
“I still survived, but something died inside me that day.”
The attack at Thehri was one of the first significant sectarian attacks since Pakistan gained independence from the British in 1947.
More than 118 people were killed on that day. They were to be the first of thousands killed for being Shia.
Silencing the outcry
In August 2020, in the month of Muharram, a fresh wave of sectarian tension rippled across Karachi and the rest of the country. Shia scholars were accused of blasphemy after they gave sermons critical of Islam’s early caliphs. Thousands rallied in Karachi under the banner of the ASWJ, calling Pakistan’s Shia leaders infidels.
After the protests ended, many Pakistanis denounced the ASWJ supporters’ hate speech and said the government had not taken the demonstrators to task.
Journalist Bilal Farooqi was one of the few who spoke out publicly.
A Sunni, Farooqi was arrested in October 2020 on charges of having spread “religious hatred” and “anti-state sentiment”. He had tweeted criticisms of the ASWJ march and questioned the authorities over their allowing an organisation that had been designated as “terrorist” to organise the march.
“Most of my posts, on the basis of which was filed against me, were about the ASWJ’s involvement in anti-Shia activities,” said Farooqi. Later released from police custody, he is still facing the same court charges.
He has called on Sunni Muslim activists to speak up against police inaction towards groups involved in Shia Muslim attacks.
Running parallel with the ASWJ’s continuing anti-Shia campaign has been the rise of a new far-right religious group in Pakistan, the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), which has made the so-called issue of blasphemy a rallying point.
Since 2017, the TLP and its leading scholars have seen a sharp rise in support for the issue and have pressured the government to penalise those accused of blasphemy.
The movement and its leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi were behind days of protests in 2018 over one of Pakistan’s most high-profile blasphemy cases. It involved the acquittal of a Christian woman, Asia Bibi on blasphemy charges. The TLP also blocked the main highway leading to the capital Islamabad for weeks in 2017 over a change in an electoral oath. It was deemed by them as blasphemous because it eased some restrictions on members of the Ahmadi sect, an offshoot of Sunni Islam that believes in a subordinate prophet and has been declared non-Muslim under Pakistani law.
Farooqi says the TLP has also recently hit out at Shia Muslims for what they say is blasphemy against some of Prophet Muhammad’s companions. 
Regional politics, local violence
Following the Islamic revolution in 1979 in Shia-majority Iran, which shares a border with Pakistan, there was an influx of Iranian and Shia Muslim influence into Pakistan, says  Hasan Zafar Naqvi, a popular Pakistani Shia leader.
The real problem, he argues, emerged after the United States and Saudi Arabia – which is Sunni-majority and has long viewed Iran as its regional rival – began to look at Iran’s perceived influence in Pakistan as a threat to the region.
Pakistan’s ruler at the time, General Zia ul-Haq, had seized power in a military coup in 1977 and was in the process of establishing a more theocratic state. During Haq’s time in power until 1988, the role of religion in government affairs grew. It also became the basis for US-backed armed action by the ‘mujahideen’ in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Backed by Saudi Arabia, Sunni hardline groups began to counter the perceived threat of Shia in the region. To that purpose, a group called Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP, later to become the ASWJ) was formed in 1985 in central Pakistan.
Founded by Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, the party was against the mainly Shia Muslim landlords of the area and sought to exploit sectarian differences. It called for Shia Muslims to be declared non-Muslim under Pakistani law and organised frequent protests to highlight the issue. The rise of the SSP, and its allied LeJ in the 1990s, saw a sharp rise in incidents of violence against Shia Muslims across the country in the decades to follow, says Naqvi, the scholar.
Repeated attacks
In 2009, Syed Liaquat Hussain Zaidi, an influential Shia activist and leader in Karachi was gunned down by LeJ.
Zaidi’s murderer was arrested two years later and confessed to police that he was working for the LeJ and had been given a hit-list of influential Shia Muslims in the city to kill, according to Zaidi’s family.
Zaidi was actively involved in charity and welfare work and was the president of Pasban-e-Aza, a Shia welfare organisation, said his sister Rehana Zaidi.
On a winter morning in November, Zaidi took his young son to school but never returned, says Rehana.
Two motorcyclists shot him three times in the head as he stopped at a traffic signal in the city. His niece first reached the scene and found her uncle in a pool of blood, the car surrounded by onlookers. No one attempted to help him, she says.
A year after the murder, Zaidi’s killers returned – this time shooting Zaidi’s nephew, Rameez Hussain, mere blocks away from the family home.
Miraculously, the nephew survived. The murderer, in his confession, told police he had fled the scene having assumed Hussain had been killed. “God saved him,” says Rehana.
#humanrights Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=16462&feed_id=27009 #asia #civilrights #conflict #features #humanrights #pakistan #religion
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newsbreakinghot · 3 years
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New Post has been published on https://newsbreakinghot.com/radical-pakistani-religious-cleric-dies-after-leading-sit-in/
Radical Pakistani religious cleric dies after leading sit-in
LAHORE: Khadim Hussein Rizvi, a radical Pakistani religious scholar who this week led thousands of supporters into a sit-in in Islamabad over the republishing in France of caricatures of the…
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ashfaqqahmad · 4 years
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Wahabism in Islam 1
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Wahhabism is dangerous for other cultures
Though Islam has originated from Semitic, if you will go through the history, where it was a social reform movement in the early stage, it turned into a purely political movement after the demise of its founder Muhammad Sahab, where Muslim groups were fighting amongst themselves for power. All the battles that Rashidun Caliphate, Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid or the Ottoman Empire fought and conquered princely states were aimed to achieve power and not to do the religious propaganda… But in spite of this, there were a large number of conversions and large populations got converted into Islamic structure.
But the point to understand here is that the definition of Islam that was created in the light of the Hadiths and Quran was appropriate for a certain geographical area but it was not suitable to integrate all the cultures outside of Arabia those embraced Islam but also maintained their own existences. You can understand this better by keeping your own country as a model rather than understanding this through any other region.
People in India were largely Hindus but were divided into castes/sub-castes and many of their customs were there since ages. They did adopt Islam, but still did not abandon those customs, traditions and brought them into Islam itself. You can find many traditions in Jat, Rajput Muslim societies that have no connection with Islam. Those who believed in the tradition of the gurus started following pirs… Those who had the habit of bowing before the idols started worshipping mausoleums.
This happened in almost all countries with their own cultural identity. They incorporated their cultural identity, their customs, traditions into Islam and it got a distinct identity as Sufi Islam. It was a series connecting human with human, which had a rapid impact from Turkey, Arab, Iran to India… The rituals associated with it were due to the integration of other cultures where people linked their ancestral traditions with Islam.
Whatever bloodshed by the Muslims in that period was done, was a result of power hunger but it had got nothing to do with that Islamic fundamentalism, perverted form of which we now see as extremism or terrorism. There was also an era when the Arabic language was dominated, Baghdad was called the centre of knowledge. The supremacy of the Arabic world over the knowledge was similar to that of the West today.
The tenth-century vizier Ibn Abbad had more than a lac books when there were not so many books in all libraries across Europe. Baghdad alone had thirty major research centres of scientific knowledge. In addition to Baghdad, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Aleppo, Damascus, Mosul, Tous and Nishapur were major centres of learning in the Arabic world and Islam was established in a different form.
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In India, at that time the Quran was confined to the Arabic language, which people used to read from the perspective of sawab, and the Hadiths had absolutely nothing to do much with ordinary people. Few Hadiths with good messages were sometimes used to be recited in mosques on Fridays or on Shab e Qadr… or there used to be events like ijtema and Milad among women where they used to recite some good Hadiths.
That is, the issues like shirk, biddat, etc. were on a very small and almost negligible scale and the majority of the Muslim population was living unaware of these in their own way. Integrating different cultures and traditions, Muslims had many faiths like Shia, Hanafi, Maliki, Saifi, Jafari, Baqaria, Basharia, Khalafia, Hanbali, Zahiri, Ashri, Muntazili, Murzia, Matroodi, Ismaili, Bohra, Ahmadiyya, etc. keeping their own identity while Deobandis, who claim purity, were also accepting this cultural diversity despite living with the identity of that ideology.
Concept of pure Arabic Islam
This pure Arabic Islam was conceptualized by Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab (1703–1792) who started destroying the beautiful and progressive traditions that were developing within Islam. All those rituals, customs, traditions first began to be recognized as shirk and biddat in the light of the Quran and Hadiths and Islam was given such a narrow form that there should be no scope for any kind of freedom, openness and communion.
Abd al Wahhab, taking the initiative to eliminate whatever is outside the purview of the Quran and Hadith, declared the killing of every mushrik and plundering their property as halal and for this, he prepared an army of 600 people and deployed them in the name of jihad everywhere. He started killing people of all types of Islamic beliefs. He only kept propagating his ideology and whosoever refused to accept him was killed and their property was robbed. He personally attacked the tomb of the famous Islamic thinker Zaid ibn al Khattab and demolished it himself.
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He started attacking the Mazars and targeted Sufism. During this time he entered into an agreement with Muhammad bin Saud. Muhammad bin Saud was the ruler of Diriyyah and possessed both wealth and army. Together, both of them started using swords as well as modern weapons. The agreement of these two made it easy to reach out to remote areas to impose their ideology and destroy other faiths.
The burning of all books related to other faiths became a passion for Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab. Along with this, he issued another disgusting order to demolish all the Sufi Mazars, mausoleums or tombs and make urinals there. Saudi Arabia, a nation based on the Wahhabi faith apparently, continued the tradition of Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab and for that reason the burial cemetery with the nabi and his family there was also destroyed. Al-Mukarramah, a part of the Kaaba was also demolished for the same reason…
The distorted form of jihad that we see today is originated of this concept. And it was not only started forcibly but also started as a mass awareness campaign where those Quranic verses and the Hadiths were widely disseminated with meanings that could be used to separate all those things as shirk and biddat from Islam, that were not related to the original form of Islam. Gradually, this ideology began to engulf all Muslim countries that were leading happy lives with their mixed cultures.
You can see the changes under Erdogan’s leadership in Turkey. You can understand the changing form of Bangladesh living with a Hindu-Bengali culture from the writings of Taslima Nasrin. In Pakistan, Jinnah and Iqbal, who used to be considered as Pakistan’s builders and respectable figures, are being targeted by the new generation of Pakistanis because of things like Ahmadiyya, Khoja, pork, wine in the same way in which Gandhi is to new nationalists in India. To see this change in India look around, look at the Jat, Rajput Muslim societies of Western UP, Haryana, Rajasthan.
Wahhabism has been playing with the history of Islam, beliefs, mutual harmony and co-existence of identities. Hitler adopted the idea of racial purity as one identity, one type of people, one kind of thinking, one book from Wahhabism itself. Expelling firqas other than Wahhabism from Islam and their slaughter was justified. People of other religions were even declared wajib-ul-qatl (mandatory to kill) and the plunder of their property and the conversion of their women was justified. Pakistan and Bangladesh became their favourite playgrounds.
How this idea of ​​oneness is fatal to an inclusive and diverse society, you can understand it from the model of the Sangh, that wants to impose their ‘model of Hindutva’ equally on the whole of India with diverse cultures… Can tribals of Northeast, other tribal societies and Hindu societies of the south reconcile with the model in which ‘Rama’ is an ideal and superior God? Can the Ram Mandir movement of Hindi belt inspire the whole country? Can a cow be revered as the mother of all Indian people? If not, then is it reasonable to impose this on them…? Wahhabism also has the same track.
The Sangh has one or two countries with a Hindu population but the Wahhabis have a large number of countries as well as countries like Saudi promoting this ideology have huge money and scholars like Zakir Nayak as their brand ambassadors. The thinking of a new nationalist Indian about Gandhi and a newly nationalist Pakistani about Jinnah and Iqbal is the same, that they do not match their ‘model’.
Maulana Maududi and Jamaat-e-Islami
The interpretation of Islam that was made by Ibn Taymiyya in the fourteenth century was later turned into a comprehensive campaign in the eighteenth century by Abd al Wahhab and despite disagreements on some points, Maulana Maududi, the founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami spread it in the Indian territory in his own way. There were mainly four firqas in Islam as Hanafi, Hanbali, Shafi and Maliki that were formed following the Imams, having many firqas within them but Sunni from all over India (pre-independence British India) belong to Hanafi firqa those got divided into Deobandi and Barelvi firqas in the nineteenth century following Ashraf Ali Thanwi and Ahmed Raza Khan.
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The Arabs place themselves in the Hanbali firqa, while the people of the Middle East and Africa belong to the Shafi and Maliki firqas, but all of them are Sunnis (Shias are completely different from them) and have three ideologies as Salafi, Wahhabi and Ahl e Hadith prevalent among them… In terms of bigotry, you can place Ahl e Hadith, Wahhabi and Salafi from bottom to top. Salafi and Wahhabi don’t even consider other followers of Islam as Muslims.
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Maududi had spread this ideology in the Indian territory, and growing rapidly that has now reached the stage where you can see this change around you in the educated, modern-day Muslim (Deobandi) youths in the form of ankle-length pyjamas, beard, etc. Barelvi society is against all this.
There are two faces of this ideology… The one that has created a variety of organizations and has waged a war in the name of ‘jihad’ that will last until the whole world is coloured as they like and the other face that cleverly defends all those things with logic, on the basis of which these jihadi groups are flourishing.
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It is an art of changing oneself, defending one’s evils and flaws… The same way as the Sangh, that considers the concept of a Hindu nation as an ideal, has transformed itself into a cultural organization that makes the temple of Lord Rama in north India an issue to bring the BJP to the power, on the other hand, it teams up with the Periyar supporters in the south who curse Rama, at the same time it gets moulded to convince Lingayats who abuse the deity gods of north India.
It can also support mob lynching in the name of cow slaughter in north India and converts itself in some way to stand with the population eating it in the northeast or south. Flexibility is necessary for the spread of any ideology and they also know this. Therefore, to fit that which cannot be adjusted with the original idea, other ancillary organisations or armies are formed, that may look different from the outer side but have the same roots and from integrating the opposing idea to ‘shoot’ or ‘blast’, they do all the jobs well.
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trekkinginpakistan · 4 years
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New Post has been published on Trekking in Pakistan
New Post has been published on https://trek.pk/pakpattan/
Pakpattan
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Pakpattan (Punjabi, Urdu: پاکپتّن‎), often referred to as Pākpattan Sharīf ( پاکپتّن شریف; “Noble Pakpattan”), is the capital city of the Pakpattan District, located in Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the 48th largest city of Pakistan by population according to the 2017 census. Pakpattan is the seat of Pakistan’s Chisti order of Sufism,[3], and is a major pilgrimage destination on account of the shrine of Fariduddin Ganjshakar, the renowned Punjabi poet and Sufi saint commonly referred to as Baba Farid. The annual urs fair in his honor draws an estimated 2 million visitors to the town.
History
Early
Pakpattan was founded as a village by the name of Ajodhan.[7] Ajodhan was the location of a ferry service across the Sutlej River that rendered it an important part of the ancient trade routes that connected Multan to Delhi.[5] Given its position on the flat plains of Punjab, Ajodhan was vulnerable to waves of invasions from Central Asia that began in the late 10th century.[5] It was captured by Sebüktegin in 977–78 CE and by Ibrahim Ghaznavi in 1079–80.[8]
Medieval
Turkish settlers also arrived in the region as a result of pressures from the expanding Mongol Empire,[5] and so Ajodhan already had a mosque and Muslim community by the time of the arrival of Baba Farid,[5] who migrated to the town from his native village of Kothewal near Multan around 1195. Despite his presence, Ajodhan remained a small town until after his death,[9] although it was prosperous given its position on trade routes.[10]
Baba Farid’s establishment of a Jama Khana, or convent, in the town where his devotees would gather for religious instruction is seen as a process of the region’s shift away from a Hindu orientation to a Muslim one.[5] Large masses of the town’s citizenry were noted to gather at the shrine daily in hopes of securing written blessings and amulets from the convent.[5]
Upon Baba Farid’s death in 1265, a shrine was constructed that eventually contained a mosque, langar, and several other related buildings.[5] The shrine was among the first Islamic holy sites in South Asia.[5] The shrine later served to elevate the town as a center of pilgrimage within the wider Islamic world.[11] In keeping with Sufi tradition in Punjab, the shrine maintains influence over smaller shrines throughout the region around Pakpattan that are dedicated to specific events in Baba Farid’s life.[12] These secondary shrines form a wilayat or a “spiritual territory” of the Pakpattan shrine.[12]
The Arab explorer Ibn Battuta visited the town in 1334 and paid obeisance at its shrine.[5] The town was besieged by Shaikha Khokhar, in 1394.[13] Tamerlane visited Pakpattan’s shrine in 1398 in order to pray for increased strength,[14] and spared the town’s inhabitants that had not fled his advance, out of respect for the shrine of the saint Baba Farid.[15][16] Khizr Khan defeated the armies of Firuz Shah Tughlaq of the Delhi Sultanate in battles outside of Pakpattan in 1401 and 1405.[17]
Mughal
The town continued to grow as the reputation and influence of the Baba Farid shrine spread but was also bolstered by its privileged position along the Multan to Delhi trade route.[18] The shrine’s importance began to outweigh that of Ajodhan itself, and the town was subsequently renamed “Pakpattan” in honor of a ferry service over the Sutlej River.[6] The founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, visited the town in the early 1500s to collect compositions of Baba Farid’s poetry.[19]
The shrine was extended royal patronage from the Mughal court, while Emperor Shah Jahan in 1692 bestowed royal support for the shrine’s Diwan chief and descendants of Baba Farid, who eventually formed a class of landowners known as the Chistis. The shrine and Chistis were defended by an army of devotees drawn from local Jat clans.[5]
Pakpattan Chishti State
Following the disintegration of the Mughal Empire, the shrine’s Diwan was able to forge a politically independent state centered on Pakpattan.[5] In 1757, the territory of the Pakpattan state was extended across the Sutlej River after the shrine’s head raised an army against the Raja of Bikaner.[5] The shrine’s army was able to repel a 1776 attack by the Sikh Nakai Misl state, resulting in the death of the Nakai leader, Heera Singh Sandhu.[5]
Sikh
Maharaja Ranjit Singh of the Sikh Empire seized the city in 1810, removing the political autonomy of the Baba Farid shrine’s chief.[5] He did, however, bestow the shrine with an annual nazrana allowance of 9,000 rupees, and granted tracts of land to his descendants.[20] By patronizing the shrine, Ranjit Singh increased his legitimacy of a non-Muslim ruler and helped spread his influence through the network of the smaller shrine through the Pakpattan shrine’s spiritual wilayat territory.[21]
British
Following the establishment of British rule in Punjab after defeating the Sikh Empire, Pakpattan in 1849 was made district headquarters, before it was shifted in 1852, and finally to Montgomery (now Sahiwal) in 1856.[22] The Pakpattan Municipal Council was established in 1868,[22] and the population in 1901 was 6,192. Income in the era chiefly derived from transit fees.[8]
Between the 1890s and 1920s, the British laid a vast network of canals in the region around Pakpattan, and throughout much of central and southern Punjab province,[23] leading to the establishment of dozens of new villages around Pakpattan. In 1910, the Lodhran–Khanewal Branch Line was laid, making Pakpattan an important stop before the railway was dismantled and shipped to Iraq.[22] In the 1940s, Pakpattan became a center for Muslim League politics, as the shrine granted the League privileges to address crows at the urs fair in 1945 – a favor not granted to pro-Unionist parties.[24] The shrine’s sajjada nasheen caretakers further refused to sign an anti-Partition manifesto brought to them by pro-Unionists.[24]
Modern
Pakpattan’s demography was radically altered by the Partition of British India, with the vast majority of its Sikh and Hindu residents migrating to India. Several Chisti scholars and notable families also settled in the city, having fled from regions that were allocated to India. Pakpattan thus increased in importance as a religious center and witnessed the development of pir-muridi shrine culture.[25] The influence of the shrine’s caretakers grew as Chistis and their devotees congregated in the city to such a degree that the shrine caretakers are regarded as “kingmakers” for local and regional politics.[25] Pakpattan’s shrine continued to grow in influence as Pakistani Muslims found it increasingly difficult to visit other Chisti shrines that now lay in India,[25] while Sikhs in India commemorate Baba Farid’s urs in absentia at Amritsar.[26] Pakpattan continues to be a major pilgrimage center, drawing up to 2 million annual visitors its large urs festival.[4]
Geography
Pakpattan is located about 205 km from Multan.[27] Pakpattan is located roughly 40 kilometres (25 mi) from the border with India, and 184 kilometres (114 mi) by road southwest of Lahore.[28] The district is bounded to the northwest by Sahiwal District, to the north by Okara District, to the southeast by the Sutlej River and Bahawalnagar District, and to the southwest by Vehari District.
Demographics
According to the 1998 Pakistan Census, the population of Pakpattan city was recorded as 109,033. As per 2017 Census of Pakistan, the population of city was recorded as 176,693 with an increase of 62.05% in just 19 years.
Language
Punjabi is the native spoken language but Urdu is also widely understood. Haryanvi also called Rangari is spoken among Ranghar, Rajput. Meo have their own language which is called Mewati.
Famous Food
Tosha is a special sweet which was produced first in Pakpattan.[30] It is also sold in India as a delicacy originally made in Pakpattan.
Shrine of Baba Farid
The Shrine of Baba Farid is one of Pakistan’s most revered shrines. Built in the town that was known in medieval times as Ajodhan, the old town’s importance was eclipsed by that of the shrine, as evidenced by its renaming to “Pakpattan,” meaning “Holy Ferry” – referencing a river crossing made by pilgrims to the shrine.[32] The shrine has since been a key factor shaping Pakpattan’s economy, and the city’s politics.
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oohbuddy · 4 years
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Imran Khan named Man of the Year among 500 most influential Muslim personalities of 2020
Imran Khan named Man of the Year among 500 most influential Muslim personalities of 2020
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A book on 500 influential Muslim personalities of the year 2020 has been released.
Prime Minister Imran Khan was named Man of the Year. Following other Pakistanis are in list:
Leading religious scholars Mufti Taqi Usmani
Tariq Jamil
Maulana Nazar ur Rehman
Ameer of Tablighi Jamaat Maulana Ilyas Qadri
Malala Yousafzai
List of 500 influential Muslim personalities released. The top 50 figures…
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