Sunnis must unite with Shias to win battle with Saudi funded Taliban, Wahabis, Munafiqeen, Salafis. What will you expect in Punjab being ruled by Saudi King's funded and refuged Shariff Terrorists Brothers. The remnants of Munafiqeen CIA Military Dictator Zia ul Haq(Mastermind of Taliban & Heroin). Pakistani Punjabi Army is indirectly responsible for all bloodshed, killing, genocide of Shias-Sunnis going on in PAK-Afghanistan-Iran. I am looking more target killings, attacks as blind rulers keep signing pacts with Obama forces.
Updated at: 1610 PST, Friday, June 12, 2009
LAHORE: At least five people including Jamia Naeemia principal Dr Sarfraz Naeemi were martyred and eight others injured in a suicide blast at Jamia Naeemia situated in Garhi Shahu area of Lahore, Geo News reported Friday.
The blast occurred after the Friday prayers when the people were making their way out of the mosque after offering the Friday prayers. A lot of people were present in the mosque at the time of blast.
Jamia Naeemia principal Dr Sarfraz Naeemi was present at his office at the Jamia Naeemia at the time of blast, the eyewitnesses said adding he was meeting with the people and students at his office; in the meantime, the suicide bomber blew himself up.
The blast was so powerful that the outer walls of the Jamia Naeemia Masjid collapsed and the nearby buildings were harmed in the blast.
The injured Maulana Naeemi was rushed to the hospital; however, he succumbed to the injuries on the way to the hospital.
The deceased include his close associate Dr Khalilur Rehman.
The personnel of the security forces cordoned off the area and started the relief operation.
The injured were rushed to the Meo Hospital. Emergency has been declared in the hospitals of the Lahore.
The security forces are searching the building on the apprehension of another bomb.
DCO Lahore Sajjad Bhutta said the Maulana was provided with the proper security.
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profile
Saturday, June 13, 2009
By our correspondent
LAHORE: Dr Sarfraz Hussain Naeemi was born in 1948 in Lahore. He was the third child and second son among four sons and six daughters of Mufti Mohammad Hussain Naeemi, the founder of Jamia Naeemia, Lahore.
His ancestors migrated to Pakistan from Muradabad (UP) in India. Dr Naeemi learnt Holy Quran by heart (Hifz) before completing his schooling and later passed Dars-e-Nizami and did M.A. (Islamiat). He went on to pass LLB and Ph.D. (Islamic Studies) from the Punjab University. He also passed an Arabic teaching course from the Al-Azhar University, Cairo. He was awarded a gold medal for his Arabic degree by the Punjab University.
Well versed in Urdu, Arabic and Persian languages, he had been writing columns in newspapers on religious issues and remained the editor of Monthly Arafat, Lahore. He was a soft spoken and humble man who was loved equally by friends and foes, especially by a large number of his students.
He had a dynamic personality leading a number of organisations and platforms like the Tahaffuz Namoos-e-Rislat Mahaz (TNRM), a group of over 20 Sunni parties working for the cause of Shariah enforcement, the Ittehad Tanzimat Madaris Deeniya (ITMD), an association of seminaries boards affiliated with different schools of thought and the Naeemian Association. He was secretary of Tanzimul Madaris Pakistan, the seminary board governing all seminaries affiliated with Barelvi School of thought. He remained member of the Council of Islamic Ideology, the Ittehad Bainul Muslimeen Committee, Punjab, the Muttahida Ulema Board and others.
He was known for a bold stance on global Muslim issues like victimization and suppression of the Muslim movements and invasions on Muslim countries. He raised voice against Gen Musharraf’s decision to provide logistic support to the US-led coalition in the war on terror for which he was first removed from his job as Khateeb in the Auqaf Department and then arrested briefly. He was again arrested for protesting against the blasphemous caricatures carried by European press.
Dr Sarfraz Neemi assumed the position of principal of Jamia Naeemia in 1998 after the death of his father Mufti Hussain Naeemi. He is survived by four daughters and one son, Raghib Hussain Naeemi, who will succeed him as principal of Jamia Naeemia. His funeral will be held on Saturday (today) at Nasir Bagh at 5 pm. He will be buried beside his father’s shrine inside the Jamia Naeemia.
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A bid to scare moderates
Saturday, June 13, 2009
By Asim Hussain
LAHORE
THE assassination of Dr Sarfraz Naeemi seems an attempt to silence one of the most moderate voices among the scholars of the Ahle Sunnat school of thought. His colleagues and close aides view his killing as part of a conspiracy to fuel the growing sectarian tension by pushing Ahle Sunnat school of thought into the arena to spark direct Barelvi-Deobandi clash.
Dr Naeemi has been a strong critic of the US presence in the region and vehemently opposed Gen Musharraf’s decision to shoulder the US war on terror in Afghanistan, and had to pay the price for his opposition by serving few short terms in prison. He viewed the US and Indian hands behind the present Taliban insurgency and till his last breath was demanding exposing the elements responsible for direct supplying of arms and money to the Taliban from Washington, Delhi and Tel Aviv.
Only 48 hours before his death, while addressing a large “Save Pakistan Ulema Convention” in Lahore, Allama Naeemi warned that if Pakistan did not stop fighting US war and plug the money and resources supply to the Taliban from the US, India, UAE, Saudi Arabia and other countries, the country’s nuclear assets and integrity would be at stake.
Demanding strict action against the officials of secret agencies and politicians involved in receiving foreign funding for sectarian activities, he stressed that the current military operation must not be delayed and should be taken to its logical conclusion at the earliest to eliminate the anti-state elements
and allow the internally displaced persons to return to their homes in order to prevent them from being led astray and get involved in anti-state activities.Mehfoozur Rehman Naeemi, elder brother of Dr Sarfraz Naeemi and principal of Jamia Sirajia Naeemia, Mughalpura, said his brother was targeted under a conspiracy to spark sectarian strife.
Talking to The News, he said Sarfraz Naeemi had no particular enemies since he was a humble and peace loving person and was regarded as a moderate scholar. Yet Sarfraz Naeemi received threats from certain quarters because of his stance on the present situation, he said.
Raghib Hussain Naeemi, the only son of Dr Sarfraz Naeemi, told the media persons after the assassination that his father always stood for peace and laid down his life for peace and security of the country.
He urged upon the angry students of Dr Naeemi to stay calm, refrain from taking law into their hands, and carry forward the mission of peace of their teacher. Talking to The News, Raghib said his father had no direct role in the ongoing insurgency since he was a strong advocate of Muslim unity and had never spoken anything harsh against the sect of those working in the name of the Taliban.
“My father always regarded the Taliban as criminals and enemy agents having no religion or sect. He had always termed so-called Taliban as US agents working on a conspiracy to disintegrate Pakistan,” he said.
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EDITORIAL: Death of Mufti Naeemi...
Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud has admitted the killing of Mufti Sarfraz Naeemi in Lahore through a teenaged suicide-bomber after the Friday prayer congregation at Jamia Naeemia. The reason for this murder was not far too seek. Mufti Naeemi, arguably the most influential of the Ahle Sunnat-Barelvi school of thought in Pakistan, had recently presided over an all-Barelvi conference in Islamabad condemning the Taliban practice of suicide-bombing, and presenting to the nation, as it were, a choice between the extremist Deobandi Taliban and the moderate Ahle Sunnat clerical confederation.
“Barelvi” is not an epithet that Ahle Sunnat favour, but it is a convenient way of describing a whole religious trend in Pakistan that is based on the shrines of the great saints of Islam, truly representing the grassroots culture of Pakistan which is free of sectarian bias. That is not to say that the Ahle Sunnat don’t have madrassas. Together with Mufti Munibur Rehman, the Barelvi chairman of the moon-sighting committee, Mufti Naeemi administered the 6,000 Barelvi madrassas. But the conduct of covert jihad by the state had thrown the Barelvis into obscurity and lack of street power over the years. Their mosques, once in majority in the country, were either grabbed by the more powerful Deobandis with trained jihadi cadres who could be violent, or simply outnumbered by the more resourceful Deobandi-linked ones.
Mufti Naeemi and his Ahle Sunnat clerics had no hesitation in condemning the pronouncements of Sufi Muhammad in Swat. The Deobandis, led by Karachi’s powerful Mufti Rafi Usmani, were not as forthcoming, thus putting on record the Barelvi-Deobandi split. When in 2005 Mufti Munibur Rehman and dozens of clerics produced a collective fatwa that the use of suicide-bombing against fellow-Muslims was not permitted in Islam, he received threats and there was severe criticism from the Deobandi clerical community. The hardness of the Deobandi school of thought springs also from non-acceptance of the Shia community as true Muslims. One bone of contention between the Barelvis and Deobandis is that the former don’t apostatise the Shia.
The Taliban attack on mosques is not new. In the 1990s and early 2000s, a large number of Shia mosques were attacked with large casualties. In Dera Ismail Khan, Shia mosques have been attacked and after that funerals of the Shia dead have been blown up by suicide-bombings. In Quetta, organisations linked to the Taliban and Al Qaeda have attacked ashura processions with high casualty. The Barelvis have been attacked too for being “soft” on the Shia while the state of Pakistan and the Taliban were fighting a “relocated” war against Iran. In 2006, a grand Barelvi congregation celebrating the birthday of the Holy Prophet on Eid Miladun Nabi at Nishtar Park, Karachi, was suicide-bombed. Out of the 1500 that had gathered, 57 died while over a hundred were injured, literally decapitating the Ahle Sunnat community of the city.
The power of the Deobandi clergy is owed to two jihads that the state fought in the 1990s. The “non-state actors” that went into Kashmir were trained in the camps of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, but only the Deobandis qualified since the Deobandi-dominated Pashtuns of Afghanistan did not accept any Barelvi recruits. Their trained manpower is their street power against the Barelvis. Small-time clerics in the countryside have begun to lean in favour of the tougher Islam of the Deobandis because it gives them a sense of empowerment against the state, especially after the union of the Deobandi jihadi militias like Jaish-e Muhammad and Lashkar-e Jhangvi with the Taliban of Baitullah Mehsud and its patron Al Qaeda.
When Mufti Naeemi spoke against the Taliban he was careful to dub them not Taliban but “agents of America” and enemies of Islam; yet he must have known that the power of the Taliban lay in South Punjab from where teenaged suicide-bombers were taken by Baitullah Mehsud and trained by his infamous lieutenant Qari Hussain. The power of the Taliban lies not so much in the tribal areas as in Punjab — and that includes elements close to the madrassa of Mufti Naeemi in Garhi Shahu, Lahore. This power also lies in the well-endowed Deobandi madrassas of Karachi revealed to be over 3,000 with mostly Pashtun students from the FATA region. His animus against the jihad-promoting state was owed also to this unspoken factor. *
SECOND EDITORIAL...and the obligation of the state
President Asif Ali Zardari, speaking to the nation late Friday night, said that the army and the people were united in the war against the Taliban. He said that the national consensus against the Taliban was represented by the parliament which had condemned the acts of violence of the Taliban and given the army the mandate to fight them. But the state of Pakistan too must follow by modifying its conduct. The first obligation of the state is to move against the spread of extremist thinking adopted by the people at large in consequence of almost 30 years of jihad that the state had sponsored.
The state must protect the unarmed clergy against the armed clergy but without “empowering” the Barelvis as a counterforce against the Taliban. After the Barelvi consensus developed under Mufti Naeemi there was some opinion in favour of “enabling” the Barelvis to fight the Deobandis — “fight mullahs with mullahs”. If this is done it will simply compound the dereliction of the state that has encouraged the world to regard Pakistan as a kind of rogue state which also kills it own people. What has to be done is to empower the state itself against killers espousing extremist programmes. And this will have to be done by increasing the strength of the police and by training it better than we do today.
That the people of Pakistan are neither extremists nor sectarian by birth is proved by the fact that Pakistan has chosen Mr Zardari, a Shia, as their president. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is a direct descendant of the greatest mystical saint of Islam, Sheikh Abdul Qadir Gilani. (Mr Gilani’s son is actually named Abdul Qadir Gilani!) Ahle Sunnat-Barelvis usually have names ending with Qadri to show their devotion to the great saint. In the eyes of the Taliban and their Wahhabi patrons this leadership may be anathema, but for Pakistan it is proof that the people of Pakistan are not sectarian-minded and even today revere the founder of the nation, Quaid-e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who was a Shia. The state however went astray and must now mend its ways. *
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