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View Full Version : who is sofi Muhammad ?



salimswati
06-16-2006, 11:11 AM
SUFI MOHAMMAD:
sufi Mohammad is the person who took most of the pakhtoon to Afghanistan for jehad against USA.He came back during the war and was arrested by the Govt of pakistan.
Now a days Western parts of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) are gradually coming under the grip of religious radicalism. People in Malakand and Swat districts, populated mainly by the Yousafzai Pashtun tribe, have been gathering in public places to burn personal electronics equipment such as television sets, tape recorders, VCRs, computers, CDs and other musical equipment. The significance of this development is that it has been motivated by the religious sect Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), the Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Laws.

TNSM was formed by Maulana Sufi Mohammad, one of the active leaders of Jamat-e-Islami (JI) in the 1980s. He left JI in 1992 and formed TNSM. One of the main objectives of TNSM was to enforce Islamic laws, by force if necessary. Sufi Mohammad encouraged and organized thousands of people to fight against the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan at the time of the downfall of the Taliban in 2001. Most of his mujahideen were killed or arrested by the Northern Alliance and only a few were able to return to Pakistan, including Sufi Mohammad. The Pakistani government immediately arrested him and for the past five years he has languished in jail. Locals argue that thousands of mujahideen were killed as a result of Sufi Mohammad's incompetence and lack of combat skills. As a result, Sufi Mohammad lost much of his support. Additionally, TNSM members have been killed and regularly arrested by Pakistani authorities, reducing the organization's effectiveness. TNSM has been almost completely dormant in its stronghold of Swat and the adjoining areas. Recently, however, this situation has changed.

After the devastating earthquake that hit the region on October 8, 2005, Sufi Mohammad's followers capitalized on the incident and are using it to revive TNSM. There is a strong and growing belief among the people of Swat and Malakand districts that the earthquake was punishment for their misdeeds. Remnants of the TNSM have been encouraging them to burn their valuable electronic equipment in order to avoid the sinful life and prevent further retribution.

The magnitude of this movement can be gauged from a news item reported by the newspaper Mashraq on April 15 that after a short period, once again people have begun to burn their electronic music appliances. According to the report, on April 14 hundreds of people gathered after Friday prayers at two different villages. Maulana Abdullah was leading the procession at the Bilogram village in Malakand when he and his followers gathered in a nearby area and set fire to thousands of audio and videocassettes, televisions, computers and CDs. The same episode took place simultaneously at Brikot village in Malakand. Furthermore, the aftershocks from the October 8 earthquake are still occurring and continue to frighten the region's inhabitants. On April 11, for instance, another powerful aftershock jolted the whole area. These aftershocks result in more determination by the local populations in these districts to set their music-related appliances on fire (Mashraq, April 19).

As a result of Sufi Mohammad's imprisonment, his son-in-law Maulana Fazalullah is now leading the TNSM movement. Although it is not operating at a high level and does not enjoy the influence of the past, the earthquake has revived the organization to the extent that thousands of people tune into its FM radio transmission. This radio station was recently banned by the government and, as a result, thousands of people staged demonstrations against this decision. Fazalullah established this FM radio station at Imamdairi, a small town in Swat district. The station is used to deliver teachings of the Quran and persuade people to destroy their musical appliances by arguing that listening to music and performing other sinful acts caused the recent earthquake. According to the broadcast, if believers do not give up their musical and electronics equipment, it may invite the anger of God. As a result of these teachings, thousands of inhabitants voluntarily destroyed their electronic goods in just a few days and this chain of events has continued with short intervals. Additionally, as a result of TNSM's religious urgings, 50 families announced the end of their years-old rivalries, hundreds gave up the use of drugs and unaccountable numbers disconnected their cable television connections.

Religious parties termed the government's decision to ban the radio station as a conspiracy to prevent religious teachings, and accuse the Musharraf government of acting on the orders of the United States (Mashraq, April 13). On April 20, the English-language daily The Post reported that so far 10,000 people have set their electronic goods on fire as a result of motivation given by the FM radio station of Fazalullah, who declared that watching television is un-Islamic.

The October 8 earthquake hit a vast area of northern NWFP and Azad Kashmir (the part of Kashmir controlled by Pakistan). Devastation in the rest of the areas, which were just as damaged as Malakand and Swat, did not lead to the same developments. The reason is that outside of Malakand and Swat, no leader is persuading people to destroy their electronic appliances on a powerful tool of communication like FM radio run by a cleric pushing extreme religious views does not exist.

The provincial government that banned this FM radio station must be concerned about the increasing influence of TNSM, an organization that once caused a major threat to the writ of the government in these areas during the mid-1990s when the government had to use force to control the volunteers of this movement who were demanding the enforcement of Sharia. The provincial government, due to political reasons, cannot afford the revival of TNSM. The ruling religious alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, and particularly JI consider Malakand and Swat their strongholds and will not allow TNSM to damage their positions in the region. It is worth mentioning that Sufi Muhammad is a JI dissident.

TNSM is now increasing its activities. Nawa-i-Waqt reported on May 1 that TNSM has decided to launch a movement-consisting of protests after Friday prayers and additional rallies-against the government. Five leaders of TNSM held a press conference on April 30 at Chakdara in Dir district and alleged that their workers are being harassed. They said that the government has failed to enforce Sharia in Malakand district against which TNSM will launch a movement; however, they did not specify when the movement would begin. While the leaders attempted to make clear that they are against terrorism and do not have any link with al-Qaeda terrorists, the revitalization of the TNSM movement could create further instability in Pakistan's NWFP, adding to Islamabad's existing difficulties of maintaining stability over the entire country.
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