Book Review
Islam in Pakistan (by Muhammad Qasim Zaman)
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- Objectives Resolution, 1949. BPC report, 1953. First constitution, ‘56. All pretty Islamic in nature — and this rightly frightened the minorities, of which there were many. Ayub Khan tried to introduce modernism from a political standpoint. ‘62 resolution even dropped the Islamic republic from the name, but that was reintroduced in ‘64 amendment. Ayub promoted the ideas of Fazlur Rahman, a modernist scholar. Bhutto and Zia-al-Haq introduced further Islamization, the former declaring Ahmadis non-Muslims and the latter promulgating his Hudood ordinances. Part of why Ayub had to accept the amendment and Bhutto did what he did was because of political pressure from the ulamas — who had galvanized the masses into motion. First, the anti-Ahmadi agitations of ‘53. Then, the protests against a Westernized govt later on. These concessions were a compromise — an implicit acknowledgement of the importance of the ulamas. Benazir and Nawaz pandered even more to the ulama, while Musharraf was more modernist and undid much of the Hudood. Ghamidi, another modernist, whose ideas dovetailed with Musharraf’s, fled into exile.
- Traditionalists = Khalifa abdul Hakim, Thanawi (Ashraf & Ihtisam-al-Haqq), Mufti Muhammad Shafi, Tariq Usmani. One of the biggest reasons the govt has failed (first under Ayub and later on too) to reform madrassas is that it is incompetent. Public schooling is terrible — where, but madrassas, should children go? Later, madrassas ballooned to house the Afghan fighters in the late 70s and 80s. Moreover, they enjoyed — and still do! — govt patronage. Haqqaniya madrassa got $2.8 MM from the KP budget.
- The state (read military) has blown the Islamic horn when it needed to muster public opinion toward causes, like wars vs India, in Kashmir, against the soviets. But this backfired as the state didn’t cultivate modernist ulamas who could later side with them. So, it failed to muster public support against the Taliban after it turned on Pakistan. Traditionalists like Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed formed the JeM and JuD — LeT now — took over public opinion. However, that was as much due to their social justice initiatives (and frankly, the Taliban’s social justice too): justice, safety, security, respect, food, governance. Even Mawdudi, who opposed Kashmir “jihad” early on, was deemed a heretic for his views.
- Other modernists who pushed back were assassinated, e.g. Muhammad Faruq Khan. There wasn’t a counter-narrative.