Ali Baba

WHEN a hawk starts cooing like a dove, you know something8217;s up. So when Fazal-ur Rahman crossed Wagah two weeks ago and began spouting ...

WHEN a hawk starts cooing like a dove, you know something8217;s up. So when Fazal-ur Rahman crossed Wagah two weeks ago and began spouting peace, peace, peace, it wasn8217;t exactly music. There was distrust, suspicion as the creator of the Taliban journeyed to Deoband. What business did he have at Darul-Uloom? Hadn8217;t he done enough damage to the Deobandi school by raising the Taliban in his madarsas? What more did he want?

But in the true rote tradition of madarsas, Fazal-ur stuck to his peace chant. There were few takers: he8217;s masking it, he8217;s up to something, someone8217;s sent him here, someone8217;s called him over. Yet no definite answer. And distrust gave way to bewilderment once the face of Pakistan8217;s hardline Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam showed up in Delhi: he locked himself in closed-door sessions with the very men who threaten to tear down mosques while they swore they were not against Muslims. From the VHP to RSS to Atal Behari Vajpayee, Fazal-ur Rahman met them all and returned to Pakistan, chanting peace, peace, peace. What message did he carry? No one8217;s wiser on either side. Except that it takes all kinds to work the tricky path to peace.

Fazal-ur Rahman8217;s not new to India. His father, Mufti Mahmood, was brought up on the Deobandi diet in a Moradabad madarsa. In Pakistan8217;s Dera Ismail Khan, they remember him as the deeply religious man who defeated Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in the 1970 elections.

It was Mufti Mahmood8217;s death which propelled the son to the political arena. A product of the Darul-Uloom Haqqania, Khatak, Fazal-ur inherited his father8217;s support base. He lost only two elections 8212; in 1990 and 1997 8212; and blamed it on the machinations of Nawaz Sharif.

When it comes to the heady mix of religion and politics, you have to hand it to Fazal-ur. Long before the Taliban, he gave Pakistan an idea of what he was capable of: he walked out of Maulana Darkhawsti8217;s JUI over the issue of backing General Zia-ul Haq, turned against the Army by lending steam to the Movement for Restoration of Democracy. When Benazir Bhutto returned to power, he surprised many in Dera Ismail Khan. He decided to back the daughter of the man his father had once defeated. People couldn8217;t understand how he stood to gain by joining hands with the PPP which was hardly religious. But it proved to be an alliance which was to shape the region8217;s future. Teaming with Benazir8217;s Interior Minister Nasrullah Babar, Fazal-ur sent the Taliban straight from the madarsas to the badlands of Afghanistan. The rest, as they say, is recent history.

The Taliban8217;s been gone a while but Fazal-ur, almost like a father grieving for his children, maintains the exit of the Taliban has driven peace out of Afghanistan. Very few will agree, especially in India where the Army8217;s nightmare is the fidayeen. But there are many who point out that Fazal-ur too realises the world changed after 9/11. His Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal coalition now controls the NWFP and is Pervez Musharraf8217;s latest headache 8212; he almost became Pakistan8217;s PM after the coalition8217;s remarkable performance in the last elections, riding an Islamic wave with a liberal dose of anti-Americanism 8212; by promising the rule of the Sharia. But India can take heart: Taliban8217;s creator does not see room for jehad in Kashmir. He8217;s put a lid on it, it8217;s been capped for some time now. That8217;s probably one reason why he has been chanting peace, peace, peace.