Profile of Abdul Aziz - the manager of Lal Mosque in Islamabad

The Firebrand Cleric And His 'Lal Masjid' Polemics
By Umer Farooq
A DesPardes.com Exclusive: April 13, 2007

ISLAMABAD, APR 13 - There is nothing exceptional about Maulana Abdul Aziz, the firebrand cleric of Islamabad 's famous Lal Masjid (Red Mosque).

Slim and slender, Abdul Aziz looks more like a foot soldier rather than the leader of an extremist group which has decided to take on the might of the Pakistani state. Nor he has any outstanding educational qualification.

He is simply a graduate of Pakistani Madrassa where he studied the customary Dars-e-Nizami, which is taught at the most elementary level of religious education in Pakistan. However, during the last two weeks he has eclipsed every other religious and political leader of the country.

The way Pakistani and international media has been covering every word Abdul Aziz utters in public makes the high profile figures of Pakistani politics envious.

Tension between the the government and the religious students led by Abdul Aziz have been continuing for the last three months over the demolition of illegally constructed mosques, however Islamabad was shaken out of its political stupor by the female students and teachers of the seminary in the last week of March. They announced to launch a moral crusade against all "immoral activities" in the federal capital. Coming on the heels of these actions by the female student was the announcement by the cleric, Abdul Aziz for the establishment of a parallel court system, which would punish perpetrators of moral crimes in the Federal capital. He issued a one month ultimatum from his pulpit to the government to clean Islamabad of all "immoral activities". He also warned the government in clear words that his students could resort to suicide attacks in case a violent operation was launched against the seminary.

"If the government fails to eradicate all these moral evils from the society within the specified period of one month the students of the seminary would themselves take actions against all the people involved in such activities" said Maulana Abdul Aziz while addressing a Friday Prayer congregation at famous Lal Masjid (Red Msoque). In his speech the cleric identified liquor, drugs, music, feature movies and women photographs displayed at public places as the moral evils against which he has decided
to launch a crusade.

The female students of the seminary assisted by the male students raided an alleged brothel house, kidnapped three women from there and held them hostage for three days before releasing them after securing confessional statements saying that there were involved in "immoral activities". All this happened under the watchful eyes of Pakistani and international media. The extra-ordinary coverage given to the activities of religious students have made Abdul Aziz an instant celebrity not only within the country but internationally as well.

There are around 7,000 students studying in the male and female sections of the religious seminary of which Abdul Aziz is the principal. "We know from the reports that 70 percent of the students are from tribal areas," senior officials of the Islamabad administration said. This makes the situation sensitive as Pakistani security forces are already engaged in bloody military operations against militants in the tribal areas of Pakistan close to its Western border with Afghanistan.

Initially the religious students restricted their activities to protests against the government campaign to demolish illegally constructed mosques in Islamabad. The protests continued for a month and the students claimed victory when a federal government minister, Ijaz-ul-Haq, son of the last military ruler of Pakistan, General Zia-ul-Haq, participated in the foundation laying ceremony of one of the demolished mosques in Islamabad. Since then the students feel more comfortable with their activities. During the last two weeks, the religious students -- both male and female -- along with their teachers started visiting video and music shops in Islamabad and
threatening the owners to close down their business or face dire consequences.

However Abdul Aziz remained in the background till the time he issued a warning to the government that any police operation against the religious seminary could compel the students to carry out suicide attacks in the country. Before this statement it was the female religious students of the seminary, attached with the mosque, who were spearheading the campaign to enforce Islamic law in the Federal capital territory.

However cleric's statement suddenly eclipsed all others. Now he seems to be giving the
impression that he is in command. He is seen as some one who is taking the law into his hands and challenging the writ of the government. However, he thinks that the strict observance of religious law is the only path to salvation for the people of Pakistan. Though he is full of appreciation for the Taliban of neighboring Afghanistan, he seems to be taking inspiration from Islamic movement of religious students of Indonesia, who according to him, independently enforced Islamic law in the 53 districts of Indonesia
and "banned music and dancing there."

Not surprisingly, Abdul Aziz's acts created scare among the residents of Islamabad as the rumor started spreading in the city that religious students would attack women with uncovered faces. These fears were reinforced by the groups of religious students visiting video and music shops in Islamabad threatening them of dire consequences if they did not close down their "immoral" businesses.

After coming face to face with this extra-ordinary situation, the government and the local administration of Islamabad started sending religious scholars to Lal-Masjid to convince Abdul Aziz to back down. The government even managed to send one of the teachers of Abdul Aziz to meet and convince him to refrain from flouting the law. But he won't listen to anybody. "We are striving to enforce Islamic law in the society. We say the state of Pakistan belongs to Allah. Sovereignty belongs to Allah" he told Friday prayers last week." 46-years old Abdul Aziz is hardly recognized as a religious scholar by his contemporaries.

Interestingly, the mainstream religious political parties are maintaining a distance from the actions of Abdul Aziz and his followers. One prominent religious political leader, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehmen termed the action of the fundamentalist group as insanity.

Abdul Aziz was serving as officially designated prayer leader in government constructed and owned Lal-Masjid until 2005 when he was dismissed from service after he issued a FATWA (religious decree) against the army officers who were fighting against Pakistani Taliban in the tribal areas close to the Afghan border. In the FATWA he declared that none of the army officer who got killed in the fighting in tribal area was a martyr and religious sanctions was not available for their funeral, "His FATWA irked the government and he was dismissed from service. Since then he has been illegally occupying Lal-Masjid," said a government official.

Abdul Aziz's father, Maulana Abdullah was a much more well known figure in the religious circles of Pakistan. Abdullah, who was killed during the sectarian strife in 1990s, was the first prayer leader of Lal-Masjid. "Pakistan's previous military ruler, General Zia-ul-Haq was said to be very close to Maulana Abdullah, who was famous for his speeches on jihad," said a senior journalist familiar with the political history of Pakistan.

According to his family sources, Abdul Aziz came to Islamabad as a six year old boy from his home town in Balochistan, when his father was appointed Khatib (prayer leader) of Lal-Masjid in 1966. "He has grown up in the liberal atmosphere of Islamabad but at a time when his father was a poor man. Later his family became affluent and he was sent to Karachi to study in the most renowned religious seminary after studying for few years in a public school," said a journalist who was a friend to Abdul Aziz's father.

The followers of Abdul Aziz like to compare him with the one eyed supreme leader of Taliban, Mullah Omar. Just like Mullah Omar, Abdul Aziz is a recluse who can react violently at any attempt to photograph him. His followers told Asharqalwsat that Abdul Aziz was angry to see his photographs in the next day's newspapers after he announced to carry out suicide bombings in Islamabad during the Friday prayers last week.

Senior citizens of Islamabad still vividly remember the strong speeches on Jihad Abduaziz'z father used to deliver from his pulpit in Lal-Masjid. This was during the 1980s when the Mujahideen's fight against Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was at its peak. This gave a chance to Abdul Aziz and his brother Abdul Rashid Ghazi to interact with the Afghan Mujahideen and their Pakistani partners involved in the Afghan Jihad.

Even now the government officials say that Abdul Aziz is surrounded by activists of Jasiah-e-Muhammad (Army of Muhammad) -- a banned extremist organization, who are acting as his main advisors. Lal Masjid was a regular meeting place for the leaders of banned militant organizations until recently. The two brothers claim to have close contact with the leadership of militant organizations that the Musharraf government banned as part of a crackdown on extremist organizations in the wake of Sept. 11. "We have confirmed information that there are number of wanted men inside the precincts of Lal Masjid and associated Madrassa of Jamia Hafsa and whatever Abdul Aziz is doing he is taking advice from these people who are wanted in number of terrorism related activities in the country," said a senior government official.

Abdul Aziz is himself a wanted men and was declared a proclaimed offender in number of cases two years ago. "I have not been out of the precincts of the mosque during the last two years. I know they will arrest me if I go out of the mosque," said Abdul Aziz in an interview in the courtyard of Jamia Hafsa.

Abdul Aziz was in the headlines when in July 2005 Pakistani security forces tried to raid the mosque following the suicide bombings that month in London. At that time baton wielding female students of the madrassa protected him from Pakistani security forces. "We were met by baton wielding women who refused to let us enter the mosque or seminary when we went there to search the precincts and arrest some of the wanted people," said a senior security official.

Lal Masjid is located near the headquarters of Pakistan's powerful ISI, the combined military intelligence service which helped train and fund the Afghan holy warriors, and a number of ISI staff are said to go there to say their prayers. Throughout most of its existence, the Lal Masjid (Red mosque) has long been favored by the city elite, including prime ministers, army chiefs and presidents.

The impunity with which this new fundamentalist group is pursuing its agenda has led many observers to believe that Abdul Aziz and his baton wielding female students have the support of some powerful segment of Pakistan government. Abdul Aziz doesn't deny this. He told Asharqalwsat that a lot of people from the administration and police are coming to us and extending secret support. "We have examples from history, for instance, Prophet Moses grew up in the home of Pharaoh. So I think that God is directly using the religious students for a good cause. We don't have any connection with the influential people within the government. But the relatives of some of our students are influential people and they have conveyed to us that what we are doing is right," he said.

However, this is not the only reason why people think that the fundamentalist group enjoys the backing of powerful people from within the government. The precision and dexterity with which Abdul Aziz and his brigade of female students have so far handled the so-called movement to enforce Islamic law in the country has compelled many analysts to believe that there is a mastermind pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

Most of the senior journalists agree that the group has managed the media very skillfully and has defeated the government on this front at least.

However, Abdul Aziz is hardly a genius who could have supervised the media campaign of the movement. When this scribe reached Jamia Hafsa to interview Abdul Aziz, his media savvy younger brother, Abdul Rashid Ghazi asked that the interview should be cleared by him before publication as Abdul Aziz was not familiar with the tricks of handling the media. "Kindly get it cleared from me before you publish it because Maulana Abdul Aziz sometime says things which are not acceptable in the society, because he is too straightforward," Abdul Rashid Ghazi told me.

Ghazi even clarified to the media that his brother had not vowed to launch suicide attacks and he was misquoted by the media. "What happened was that some of the students approached Maulana Abdul Aziz for permission to launch suicide attacks against the government in case there is a police operation. He denied permission to the students, though he warned the government that things could head in that direction if there is a use of force," Abdul Rashid Ghazi clarified in an interview with a television channel.

However, Abdul Aaziz insisted on his initial statement and repeated what he said while addressing the Friday prayers last week, "if there is a violent operation then we will consider suicide attacks. We want a peaceful change in the society although I know that revolutions are always violent," he said. In his assertions, the threats of suicide attacks in Islamabad are always followed by praises for Taliban and al-Qaida and other militant organizations, "we love Taliban and al-Qaida, they are the one spreading the message of Jihad in the Muslim world, we love them," said Abdul Aziz.

However there are many in Islamabad who see Maulana Abdul Aziz as a petty land grabber. After all, the ongoing tensions between the government and Abdul Aziz led seminary started three months back when Islamabad administration issued notices to Jamia Hafsa administration for illegally constructing the building of the seminary on a valuable government owned land. Again, the baton wielding female students of the seminary obstructed the Islamabad administration from demolishing the building.

Administration officials said that they had served more than 20 notices to the administration of Jamia Hafsa for illegal construction. "But what we get in return are threats and public display of force," said a senior official of Islamabad administration.

For Abdul Aziz there is always a religious dimension to any issue that confronts him, "the land belongs to Allah and if government does nothing to facilitate the construction of religious educational institutions then it is the duty of religious scholars to come forward and build the seminary on government owned land," said Abdul Aziz.

The views expressed herein are the writers' own and do not reflect those of DesPardes.com