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‘Karachi could have a Jamia Hafsa too’

By Fareed Farooqui

KARACHI: Clerics and scholars whose madrassas are affiliated with the same education board as Jamia Hafsa have been debating the incident in Islamabad but as one of them said “the people of Karachi have nothing to be afraid of”.

Lal Masjid is affiliated with the Wafaqul Madaris, which is a madrassa education board with members in Karachi. The largest madrassa in Karachi, Jamia Darul Uloom Islamia Allama Binori Town at Guru Mandir, is also a member of this board. “The Jamia Hafsa people made their own policy according to the Quran and Sunnah but they did not consult us,” said Qari Mohammad Iqbal, in-charge general affairs, Jamia Darul Uloom Islamia Allama Binori Town. “They should have consulted the ulema. But in any case, this is a welcome move.” Qari Iqbal added that the scholars were debating this issue but the people of Karachi had nothing to be afraid of.

Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Karachi Dr Merajul Huda Siddiqui also backed the suggestion that the ulema should have been consulted. “In Pakistani society, if the government takes decisions against the ground realities, this will be the outcome,” he said, adding that just as the government could not enforce its writ in the tribal areas it had failed in Islamabad. “President Pervez Musharraf and his team seem to think that people are with them – if this is so then they should call upon people to rally in their support in Islamabad.”

Mufti Mohammad Usmanyar Khan, principal Darul Uloom Darul Khair (in Gulistan-e-Jauhar) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Samiul Haq (JUI-S), was of the opinion that if the government had enforced the Shariat beforehand, the Jamia Hafsa people would not have had to enforce it themselves. “There should not be a state within a state and religious groups and madrassas do not support this,” he said. “This was the decision of one man alone.” On the “open” sale of CDs and DVDs in Karachi, Khan said that the people in this business should think for themselves about whether this was Islamic or not.

Mufti Mohammad Yousaf Kasuri, Shaikhul Hadith, Jamia Darul Hadith Rehmania, Soldier Bazaar, also Sindh amir of the Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith, said that Jamia Hafsa complained about the “one woman who was spreading evil in Islamabad” but no action was taken. “If Jamia Hafsa took action on its own then, this is against Islam,” he said. “It is not alright to take the law into your own hands. But if the government does not fulfill its responsibilities there is the chance that such incidents will continue.”

Top cleric Mufti Munibur Rehman, the chairman of the Ruet-e-Hilal committee and the principal of Darul Uloom Naeemia in Federal B Area, Karachi, declined to comment on the issue in detail. “This is a matter that should be asked of the Wafaqul Madaris,” he said, while referring to the Ahle Sunnat Deobandi madrassa organization. “Handling the Jamia Hafsa incident was the government’s responsibility which is its decision.”

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