Pakistan - The Lal Masjid challenge

Rage having overtaken fear of the murderous extremists in the wake of Peshawar schoolchildren's massacre, civil society members gathered at Islamabad's Lal Masjid on Thursday evening to 'reclaim' the public mosque from a Taliban ally, Maulana Abdul Aziz. They protested in a civilised manner, lighting candles on the roadside, writing the slain students names on a board, and raising slogans against the mosque's chief cleric for his refusal in a TV programme to condemn the massacre and call the children martyrs. He, in fact, had tried to justify the killings in a roundabout fashion, which is unsurprising given his own credentials. What is surprising, indeed sad, about the episode is that a section of the media should have no qualms about giving such elements airtime. Whether unintentional or for gaining Television Rating Points the media needs to avoid dignifying perverted thinking by broadcasting ruthless killers' narrative. It can cause confusion in impressionable minds and drive chinks in the nation's resolve to eliminate terrorists. 

Unfortunately, however, those at the helm also do not seem to have learnt any lessons from the Lal Masjid experience, which ended in a tragic bloodbath back in 2007. It needs to be recalled that a madrassah attached to the mosque, and run by the Maulana's family, to impart religious education to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, flourished under government patronage. What went on inside became known when the madrassah trained morality brigades began raiding what they called immorality centers, abducting people including Chinese citizens from their health clinics. Also, burqa-clad female pupils displayed baton charging skills on the madrassah rooftops to strike fear in the hearts of the capital's residents. Encouraged by governmental inaction, Kalashnikov- brandishing young men too appeared in the mosque-madrassah compound, leading to a standoff with the security forces that culminated in a horrific death toll, and the Maulana's arrest. 

Maulana Aziz and his wife, who headed Lal Masjid madrassah's girls section producing female zealots, are back in business. They have been provided with a new venue where hundreds of young people are enrolled. What they are learning is plain from the Maulana's latest expression of thinking, which clearly remains unaffected by the past event. Without a doubt, a new generation of violent extremists is in the making in his seminary. It is about time the power-that-be took notice and came up with a strategic response to the threat all such extremists poses to this State and society.