At a time when Pakistan’s political debate is centred around restoration of democracy, the hardline cleric of the controversial Lal Masjid, located in the heart of Pakistan’s capital, says he is “against democracy” and would rather have the country governed by the rules of Islam.Maulana Amir Siddique, the head of Lal Masjid and nephew of Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was killed last July in the Pakistan Army operation on the mosque-madarsa complex, told The Indian Express: “In democracy, the weightage of votes by an illiterate or a drug addict is the same as that of an educated, pious person. Numerical majority doesn’t mean that the capable are being elected.”The Maulana says he feels sorry about Benazir Bhutto’s death, but adds, “We lost thousands of our daughters and sisters in the Lal Masjid operation, who were staying in the adjacent madarsa.” “In today’s elections, people are gaining power using money. What else can you expect from people who consume nicotine or alcohol? They get sold out to people who lure them with money,” says the 42-year-old madarsa-educated Maulana, who took charge of the family-run Lal Masjid about three months ago when it re-opened following the Pakistan Supreme Court’s order. Though the Lal Masjid has been supported by various influential parties in the past, including General Zia-ul Haq, Maulana Siddique claims they are not with any political formation.“We feel that democracy is not the solution, because it’s the writ of Allah that is supreme and not the writ of the people,” he says. However, he qualifies his “anti-democracy” stance by saying he believes in an individual’s democratic rights of freedom. His Lal Masjid isn’t red anymore — the government has repainted it limestone yellow and the minarets and the dome are white. “They wanted to wash away the blood and the smoke and the soot on the walls. but, can you just whitewash blood-stained walls,” he asks. The Lal Masjid, once the centre for hardline Deobandi teachings, now just holds prayer services. The almost two-acre Jamia Hafsa madarsa complex has been razed to the ground completely. His aide, Syed Ali Hussain, a telecom engineering student from Islamabad’s Jamia Hamdard, says, “We don’t know how many of our brothers and sisters are buried beneath this ground. There were around 3,000 students. even if we subtract 1,300 young men and women who surrendered, there are still 1,700 students missing.” The Maulana describes “possession of weapons including rocket launchers and machine guns” as pure government propaganda, but says, “there were 13-14 guns in the seminary for self-defence. and according to UN guidelines, one can keep weapons for self-defence”. The Maulana adds that “violence always begets violence, it never achieves peace”. “The siege of Lal Masjid was not an action, but a reaction. in our Islamic traditions, there is no room for violence,” he says.On whether he supports “suicide bombing”, the cleric doesn’t give a straight answer. “The Ulemas who are engaged in jehad are better placed to answer this question, but we have to see the root cause of why people turn to suicidal missions.” As for the current civil unrest following Benazir’s death, he says, “All this is happening because the nation is deviating from Islamic traditions and practices.”
