Red Mosque madness and Islamic extremism

How does it feel to see a tragedy about to happen? Especially when you can do little to prevent it? Utterly helpless and impotent! Watching the Red Mosque drama unfold in Pakistan over the past couple of weeks, you knew a catastrophe was about to take place. Yet you could do little about it. I had felt the same impotent helplessness on the eve of the Iraq invasion.

Perhaps for once President Pervez Musharraf is right. The bloody siege of the Red Mosque that dragged on for more than a week might not have ended in any other way. The General is right. It was indeed inevitable. To be fair to the Pakistani leadership, it gave enough time and a long, long rope to the clerics inside the mosque to tie themselves with. It was as though the whole world knew what was going to happen to those inside Lal Masjid. Only those at the centre stage and in the thick of action didn't seem to know it. Why didn't Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi see reason and what was so obviously coming his way? Why did he have to give up his own life and play with thelives of those in his custody? What was he trying to prove? And what has he if anything achieved?

We may never know the answers to these questions. But what I know for sure is that the Lal Masjid episode has inflicted yet another deep wound on Islam's already bruised and battered visage. This is yet another example how Islam faces the greatest threat from not some alien enemies but its own so-called followers. With friends like these, does Islam need any more enemies?

Islam has no concept of clergy. But most Muslims respect Islamic scholars or Ulemas as the intellectual and spiritual heirs of the Prophet. But the antics of the Lal Masjid clerics did not exactly make you proud of these champions of the faith. The highlight of this tragicomedy had been the attempt by the older of the two brothers to flee in a head-to-toe veil.

It wasn't always like this though. Many simple believers initially had a word of praise or two for Lal Masjid boys and girls when they ran an anti-vice campaign in Islamabad. Okay, in their missionary zeal they might have ended up on the wrong side of the law. But they sought to do what Pakistani authorities had ostensibly failed to do. However, the Lal Masjid folks took matters a tad too far by turning the mosque into a fortress and taking on the state.

Islam and its most noble Prophet would never have allowed young boys and girls get entangled in an armed conflict like this, let alone use them as bargaining chips in a bloody and pointless confrontation with the powers that be. I am no fan of Musharraf. Indeed, whenever possible I've added my voice, for what it's worth, to the chorus against the Pakistani leader's role in America's absurd war on terror. The General has a lot to answer for; the widespread human rights violations on his watch being only one of them.

Hundreds of innocents from Pakistan and Afghanistan have simply disappeared as men like Musharraf and Karzai bend backwards to 'cooperate' with their friends in Washington. This, however, does not mean individuals like Maulana Ghazi should set up their own state within the state. That too right in the heart of the capital!

In the end, what has the outfit behind the mosque drama achieved? Little. Nearly 150 innocent people have died, majority of them young religious students.

The day the curtain came down on the Red Mosque saga, a concerned host of a Pakistani television channel asked one of his guests what he thought of the armed conflict. "Since both sides in the conflict happened to be Muslim, who would be considered martyrs?" wondered the TV host. "Pakistani soldiers storming the mosque or those inside?" Pertinent question, indeed.

But the religious scholar on the panel understandably had a tough time answering it. So, were Maulana Ghazi and his followers true martyrs or misguided soldiers of Islam?

Increasingly, extremists are using Islam's fair name to pursue their agenda. From Pakistan and Afghanistan to Iraq and Palestine, Muslims helplessly watch as all kinds of thugs sully the image of their great faith and distort its teachings. How could anyone condone what is going on in Iraq?

I know this war has been imposed on Iraq by the US. But what noble cause do the so-called insurgents serve by targeting those innocent men, women and children - all of them obviously Muslim? Resistance to foreign occupation is fine. But what are the insurgents - or whoever they are - trying to prove by unleashing this murderous campaign against the fellow Iraqis?

Extremists have hijacked Islam, exploiting and abusing it to promote their hate-filled agenda. There is a dangerous fringe that will stop at nothing to achieve its objectives. More alarmingly, it seeks to speak and act on behalf of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims. From targeting innocents in Muslim countries to unleashing terror on Western targets, this fringe continues to invent new ways of distorting Islam's humane message and teachings - turning the whole world against Muslims.

I know and for years I have myself repeatedly argued that the centuries of Western exploitation of the Muslim world and ongoing injustice in places like Palestine are at the heart of extremism in the Muslim world. I still stick to my stance. The world will continue to burn as long as the West ignores the sources that fan these flames.

That said, it is time for the mainstream in the Muslim world to assert itself. Muslim intellectuals, scholars, politicians, journalists and ordinary people must speak out -- individually and in unison - against these attempts to distort and destroy their great faith.
After the July 7 bombings in Britain two years ago, I had pleaded with Muslims around the world to assert themselves against extremists, presenting the real and true visage of Islam. There had been few lone voices like mine then. Today it's growing into a chorus. Following the recent failed terror strikes in Britain, Muslims there came out on the streets declaring: NOT IN OUR NAME!
It's time for all of us -- every Muslim from Morocco to Malaysia -- to say in one voice: Not in Our Name! Trust me, silence is not an option now. If we remain silent, Islam's enemies will speak for us.

Red Mosque madness and Islamic extremism - View from Dubai