via Ale Natiq From muftah.org "In the quest for a nationalist construction of history, two of these scholars – Sheikh Ahmed Sirhindi and Shah Waliullah – have been heralded as the champions of the Muslim separatist movement in South Asia, which ultimately led to the founding of Pakistan. Sirhindi, who devoted his life to “purifying” Islam, has the distinction of penning the first written record in South Asia, dated between late 16th century and early 17th century, in which Shias are described as apostates. He is also considered the father of the Deobandi school of thought, which actively seeks to cleanse Islam of its “heretical” elements. While Sirhindi authored great jurisprudential and metaphysical works, in his book Radd-e-Rawaafid (Rejecting the Rafidhi- a derogatory term for a Shia), he called upon Sunni Muslims to kill the Shia as retribution for tabarra – a Shiite ritual in which the first three Islamic caliphs after Mohammed are vilified for usurping Imam Ali’s “divine right” to lead after Prophet. Sirhindi’s intolerance was not, however, limited to the Shia and extended to Hindus and Sikhs as well. In his correspondences, Sheikh Sirhindi is recorded as rejoicing at the death of the fifth Sikh guru Arjan. Today, Sirhindi is glorified in Pakistan’s state sanctioned textbooks as a revered Islamic scholar and the first champion of a separate and distinct Muslim identity in the subcontinent. Pakistan’s state-sanctioned textbook credit Sirhindi with saving Islam from the heretical forces that threatened to hijack the religion, and conveniently fail to mention his various discriminatory positions. For his part, Shah Waliullah’s sectarian pedigree is even more notable than Sirhinid’s. In school textbooks, Waliullah is portrayed as a having modernized Islam in the subcontinent in the 18th century to ensure its survival in the face of colonialism and other religious traditions. While Sirhindi was unable to exert his extremist views in the religiously pluralistic environment of the Indian Mughal court, Shah Waliullah managed to mould an entire generation of children with his extremist views by establishing a well-respected Islamic madrassa. Shah Waliullah studied in the Arabian peninsula for an extended period of time, which allowed him to build his personal network and establish himself as an authority in the subcontinent on the “correct” version of Islam. Together with the Deobandi school, Waliullah’s ideology has underpinned the belief system of contemporary Pakistani militant groups, like the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which actively seek to “cleanse” Islam by exterminating deviant sects, like the Shia, which are considered a threat to the religion. Just as Sheikh Sirhindi and Shah Waliullah took it upon themselves to identify “correct” Muslims, these militant groups have assumed responsibility for purging Islam of its “heretical” elements. Public buses are regularly pulled over and Shia passengers identified and shot to death in broad daylight; Shia academics, doctors and lawyers are brazenly attacked; suicide bombers walk into Shia gatherings and scream ‘Infidel Shia!’ as they detonate themselves. When Pakistani militants, like Aurganzeb Farooqi, leader of the sectarian outfit Ahl e Sunnat Wal Jamaat, make statements promising to bring about a day where “people will not even shake hands with the Shia,” they receive exclamations of support from thousands of followers. The Pakistani educational system’s veneration of men like Sirhindi and Waliullah has shaped a nationalist discourse in which being Pakistani is equated with being a good Muslim. The definition of Pakistan is thus intertwined with a commitment to a puritanical form of Islam that insists on hegemonic beliefs and practices and precludes pluralistic interpretations of the religion. Indeed, against Shia objections, Islamic studies textbooks in Pakistan actively promote the Sunni method of ablution, fasting, zakat (alms giving), and so forth. The companions of the Prophet, like Abu Bakar, Umar and Usman, whom the Shia vilify, are held in high regard in these texts."
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 05:48:58 +0000
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