Table Of ContentIn the name of Allah, the most Merciful and
Compassionate
Ansar al-Mujahideen English Forum
Translation and Languages Department
presents
An English Translation of
the interview with the Khateeb of Laal Masjid
Moulana
Abdul Aziz
-May Allah Protect Him-
Dozens of cases have been
made against our women,
while the killers roam free !
The seminaries in Rajanpur were attacked at midnight. After violating the
sanctity of the religious and sacred books not even the women were
spared. The orders of Supreme Court were neglected. – Khateeb Red
Mosque Maulana Abdul Aziz
The worries of Maulana Abdul Aziz, who is the Khateeb of the Red
Mosque (Lal Masjid) and the leader of Jamia Faridiya and Jamia
Hafsa, have not ceased yet.
At 2am in the night between Tuesday and Wednesday the police
raided the seminaries of Abdullah bin Ghazi and Umm Abdul
Rasheed Ghazi, Lil Banaat in Rajanpur, disgracing the Holy Qur'an
and other religious books. The sanctity of the houses of the teachers
were violated, and at the same time Maulana Abdul Aziz is facing
twenty-one cases lodged against him. And so are his wife and
daughter, and the widow of Maulana Abdul Rasheed Ghazi - Umm
Haroon - and many students and teachers of the seminaries are
presented in the court every second day. The numbness of the
authorities is such that on Wednesday morning at 11 am IESCO
(Islamabad Electricity Supply Company) cut the electricity supply of
the Red Mosque due to lack of paying the bill. The Auqaaf
organization, which the Red Mosque is under, has been unable to
pay the bill of 1 600 000 rupees owed for many months.
On all these matters we talk to Maulana Abdul Aziz the Khateeb of
the Central Red Mosque, Islamabad.
Q. How many seminaries do you have in Rajanpur, and why
was that one raided?
A. The district of Rajanpur is our native land, and there we have set
up seminaries in the name of our martyred father Maulana
Muhammad Abdullah and our martyred mother, for male and female
students to serve the religion. It is a half-tribal area, where there is
less implementation of law (though there isn’t any law in the whole
of Pakistan), instead of the law being supreme, tribalism is.
Even before this event, the Punjab Police and sometimes the Sindh
Police have raided the seminaries many times, in so-called 'search
operations', as this land is situated on the border between Sindh and
Punjab. Apart from these two seminaries in our village there are
fifteen other branches in the vicinity, where hundreds of students
are attaining religious education, and our seminaries dedicate their
time only for the service of Islam.
This incident took place the previous night at around 2 to 2.30 am.
There were forty to fifty armed policemen, as well as some in civilian
clothes, in four or five vehicles, and they broke in suddenly.
The leader of the seminary, brother Muhammad Riaz, told me that
the police surrounded the Masjid and the seminary, and went inside
the Masjid with their shoes on. The grave of Maulana Abdul Rasheed
Ghazi is located within the complex of the Masjid and the seminary.
After passing through the Masjid the police turned towards the
seminary. The young students were awoken with slaps and the kicks
of boots. The cupboards were broken immediately. The sacred books
were desecrated, and the same behaviour was ordained as during
the operation of Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa. The sacred books were
thrown outside . And those teachers and students who tried to stop
them from this disgraceful act were tortured. After that, the police
went over to the houses of the teachers which were adjacent to the
complex. The sanctity of the houses was violated; the women were
badly shoved and beaten. The houses were all searched, and from
some houses the police even took the gold and jewellery. The same
tragedy took place in the Madrassa of the sisters. The female
teachers and students were badly treated. After two hours of
searching the police finally left. We have said before, and we say
again, that there are some unseen forces behind all this, who also
worked before to make the circumstances bad in this country, and
now again they are trying to create anarchy. Whenever the countries
situation starts to get better these forces commit such acts, and try
to make things worse again.
Q. Was anybody arrested, or did the police give a reason as
to why they came?
A. The police station is about three kilometres from the seminary.
According to brother Riaz, the police used to come in normal
circumstances and even used to drop by for cold water. They never
had any problems with us, even though we have been raided many
times, but we bore all this with patience, and we did not do any
protests or block any roads, and we bore the oppression at the
hands of these oppressors. These evildoers will achieve nothing but
to desecrate the sacred books. On one side these tyrants are after
us, whilst on the other the thieves and looters of this area think of
us as an obstruction. In similar events my close relative was killed at
the hands of these looters. I have requested the government many
times to give us a license to bear arms for our safety, but they are
numb to our request. Such behaviour with those people who serve
the religion is shameful.
Q. The cases that were filed against you and your family
after the tragedy of Lal Masjid, are they finished, or still
under way?
A. All these cases are ongoing. Nowadays the governmental officials
and officers are bringing witnesses against us, so many hours are
spent outside the court and within the court listening to these
witnesses against us. I have twenty-one cases filed against me. Five
in one court, and fifteen in another, and one case is filed in the
special court for terrorism. Eleven cases have been filed against my
wife, Umm Hassan, and seven cases against my daughter. And three
cases have been filed against the wife of the martyr Abdul Rasheed
Ghazi .
Apart from the cases against our family, many of the teachers and
students also have many ongoing cases against them. I have to say
with regret that my martyred father Maulana Abdullah, his case did
not ever get the chance to be heard in court, even though five
people, including myself, identified the killer. But the police allowed
him to escape from their custody, and the case is long forgotten.
This so-called law of the government is apparent when 'Aunty
Shameem' was running a prostitution center, and the whole street
was sick of her, was taken by our students and after making her
realise her sin, she was released the next day, that case is being
heard against us since past 3 years . While more than one hundred
scholars were martyred in Lal Masjid and hundreds of female
students got martyred, yet there is no case for them, but instead
many cases have been filed against our women... Only those
people who are near to their religion have to suffer these trials.
Q. What are the difficulties that you and your students are
facing at this time?
A. We have no objection on the personal difficulties, because we
were taught from day one that if you traverse on the path of religion
you will have to face lots of difficulties. We are the people who trust
on Allah alone. More than thirty branches are working from rented
houses in Islamabad. In our country there are many seminaries that
have stock for a yearly and monthly basis, yet we are unable to fulfil
it even for daily basis.
When there is no stock left in Jamia Faridiya or any other branch
then its announced that there will be no food, and its written that
today the Sunnah of Muhammad (saw) and his Sahaba will be
brought to life. It has been 25 years since the formation of Jamia
Hafsa and and Jamia Faridiya, and I can say this on record, that we
have never had arrangements apart from daily basis.
A few days ago , the leader of Jamia Safia called and said that even
last night the teachers and the female students had nothing to eat,
and even for morning we put the notice for starvation, now please
do something for the lunch. The same situation is in many of the
branches. We consider this as the love of Allah (swt), and are living
with patience. We neither have any ambassador nor any institution
that collects donations for us, within the country or outside. My
martyred father Maulana Abdullah, may Allah have mercy on him,
used to say what ever food you get give it to the teachers and
students and if there is none then go without and ask Allah's
assistance. If we are unable to give the teachers their pay then it is
a debt on us, and from the past ten to fifteen years alone the debt
of the female teachers pay is around 100 000 000 rupees against
us. But, all praise be to Allah, not a single teacher left the Jamia due
to lack of pay up until now, and with the help of Allah the serving of
the religion continues.
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- Translated from Daily Ummat Newspaper , Karachi , Pakistan.
- www.ummat.com.pk
