Abdul Aziz Ghazi
Encyclopedia
Muhammad Abdul Aziz is a Pakistani cleric, son of Maulana Muhammad Abdullah and elder brother of Abdul Rashid Ghazi
. He was the Khateeb (prayer leader) in the central mosque
of Islamabad
known as Lal Masjid
, which was the site of a siege
in 2007 with the Pakistani army. On July 4, 2007, he was arrested by the Pakistani police as he was trying to escape the complex while dressed in a burqa
.
of Mazari
tribe
in the town of Rojhan
at the border of southern Punjab
and Balochistan
. Pakistan's last military ruler, General Zia-ul-Haq, was said to be very close to Maulana Abdullah. Aziz came to Islamabad
as a six-year-old boy from his home town in Punjab
, when his father was appointed Khateeb of Lal-Masjid in 1966. He grew up in the liberal atmosphere of Islamabad
. After studying for few years in a public school, he was later sent to Karachi
to study in the most renowned religious seminary. He is recognized as a religious scholar by his contemporaries.
Maulana Abdul Aziz served as officially designated prayer leader in government constructed and owned Lal-Masjid until 2005 when he was dismissed from service (but never removed) after he issued a "fatwa
" (religious decree) against the army officers who were fighting against the Taliban and their supporters in the tribal areas close to the Afghan
border. In the fatwa he declared that none of the army officers who were killed in the fighting in tribal area was a martyr
and religious sanctions were not available for their funeral
. His fatwa irked the government and he was dismissed from service. But in fact, the government has not attempted to remove him from his post. A replacement cleric was appointed for Lal-Masjid, but female supporters refused to pray behind anyone other than Aziz. It is speculated that President Musharraf did not want to stir up popular unrest in an already tense national political atmosphere due to massive support for Aziz within Islamabad.
Since January 2007, his activities became more political than religious. He constantly issued fatwas on various public affairs and created the Lal Masjid brigade from students of Jamia Hafsa. He closely followed the supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Omar
, and typically resisted being photographed.
of Jamia-tul-Uloom-il-Islaamiyyah Banuri Town, a Madrassah in Karachi, where he studied the customary Dars-e-Nizami, which is taught at the most elementary level of religious education in Pakistan
.
s. 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 the launch of a "moral drive" against all "immoral activities" in the federal capital. Coming on the heels of these actions by the female students was the announcement by the cleric Abdul Aziz for the establishment of a parallel Taliban style 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 the case of a violent police operation 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 Friday Prayer congregation at Lal Masjid.
In his speech the cleric declared drugs
, music
, movies, and photographs of women as moral evils. His students subsequently resorted to various acts of vandalism, violence, kidnapping, and arson. They even ordered local barbers not to shave men to force them grow beards in accordance with the "teachings of Islam".
On July 3, 2007, the standoff with the government ended in bloody gun battles in which more than 100 were killed and scores wounded. A FIR
was later registered against brothers with charges ranging from kidnapping, and murder to treason, and terrorism.
To avoid collateral loss, on July 4, 2007 at 8.05 PM local time., the government offered amnesty to juvenile students if they surrendered. Hundreds of his student followers reportedly surrendered. Aziz was arrested while leaving the complex disguised in a burqa
.
Many people believe the way he was arrested does not fit a person who was preaching to others to sacrifice their lives for the cause. According to Shah Abdul Aziz, "He was deceived. He was called by a senior official of an intelligence agency with whom he has been in touch for long. Since this man could not enter into the mosque to meet him (to save his cover and identity) he asked Maulana Aziz to come down to Aabpara police station, situated on a walking distance from the mosque and asked him to wear a burqa to avoid identification."
Abdul Rashid Ghazi
Abdul Rashid Ghazi was an Islamist Pakistani cleric; son of Maulana Muhammad Abdullah, and younger brother of Abdul Aziz Ghazi. He was descended from the Sadwani clan of Mazari tribe in the town of Rojhan in Rajanpur, the border district of Punjab province of Pakistan.Abdul Rashid Ghazi was killed...
. He was the Khateeb (prayer leader) in the central mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
of Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
known as Lal Masjid
Lal Masjid
The Lal Masjid is a mosque located in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. A religious school for women, the Jamia Hafsa madrasah, and a male madrasah, Jamia Faridia are attached to the mosque.-History:...
, which was the site of a siege
Siege of Lal Masjid
The siege of Lal Masjid was a confrontation in July 2007 between Islamic fundamentalist militants and the Government of Pakistan led by General Pervez Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz Administration, then Prime minister of Pakistan...
in 2007 with the Pakistani army. On July 4, 2007, he was arrested by the Pakistani police as he was trying to escape the complex while dressed in a burqa
Burqa
A burqa is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic religion to cover their bodies in public places. The burqa is usually understood to be the woman's loose body-covering , plus the head-covering , plus the face-veil .-Etymology:A speculative and unattested etymology...
.
Background
Muhammad Abdul Aziz is the son of Maulana Muhammad Abdullah, the first prayer leader of Lal-Masjid. He is descended from Sadwani clanClan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...
of Mazari
Mazari
Mazari may refer to:*Mazari tribe, a prominent Baloch tribe settled in Rajanpur and Sindh, Pakistan*Abdul Ali Mazari, Afghan Hazara leader of Hizb-e-Wahdat*A local of Mazar-e-Sharif city in northern Afghanistan...
tribe
Tribe
A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists...
in the town of Rojhan
Rojhan
Rojhan Mazari is situated in District Rajanpur of Punjab at the foot of the Sulaiman Range, near the inter-provincial borders of Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab. This city is the Capital Seat and headquarters of the Mazari Baloch tribe who have held this territory since 1632...
at the border of southern Punjab
Punjab (Pakistan)
Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 45% of the country's total population. Forming most of the Punjab region, the province is bordered by Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the Pakistani province of Sindh to the...
and Balochistan
Balochistan (Pakistan)
Balochistan is one of the four provinces or federating units of Pakistan. With an area of 134,051 mi2 or , it is the largest province of Pakistan, constituting approximately 44% of the total land mass of Pakistan. According to the 1998 population census, Balochistan had a population of...
. Pakistan's last military ruler, General Zia-ul-Haq, was said to be very close to Maulana Abdullah. Aziz came to Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
as a six-year-old boy from his home town in Punjab
Balochistan (Pakistan)
Balochistan is one of the four provinces or federating units of Pakistan. With an area of 134,051 mi2 or , it is the largest province of Pakistan, constituting approximately 44% of the total land mass of Pakistan. According to the 1998 population census, Balochistan had a population of...
, when his father was appointed Khateeb of Lal-Masjid in 1966. He grew up in the liberal atmosphere of Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
. After studying for few years in a public school, he was later sent to Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
to study in the most renowned religious seminary. He is recognized as a religious scholar by his contemporaries.
Maulana Abdul Aziz served as officially designated prayer leader in government constructed and owned Lal-Masjid until 2005 when he was dismissed from service (but never removed) after he issued a "fatwa
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
" (religious decree) against the army officers who were fighting against the Taliban and their supporters in the tribal areas close to the Afghan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
border. In the fatwa he declared that none of the army officers who were killed in the fighting in tribal area was a martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
and religious sanctions were not available for their funeral
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
. His fatwa irked the government and he was dismissed from service. But in fact, the government has not attempted to remove him from his post. A replacement cleric was appointed for Lal-Masjid, but female supporters refused to pray behind anyone other than Aziz. It is speculated that President Musharraf did not want to stir up popular unrest in an already tense national political atmosphere due to massive support for Aziz within Islamabad.
Since January 2007, his activities became more political than religious. He constantly issued fatwas on various public affairs and created the Lal Masjid brigade from students of Jamia Hafsa. He closely followed the supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Omar
Mohammed Omar
Mullah Mohammed Omar , often simply called Mullah Omar, is the leader of the Taliban movement that operates in Afghanistan. He was Afghanistan's de facto head of state from 1996 to late 2001, under the official title "Head of the Supreme Council"...
, and typically resisted being photographed.
Education
Maulana Abdul Aziz is a graduateGraduation
Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become Graduates. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as Graduands. The date of graduation is often called degree day. The graduation itself is also...
of Jamia-tul-Uloom-il-Islaamiyyah Banuri Town, a Madrassah in Karachi, where he studied the customary Dars-e-Nizami, which is taught at the most elementary level of religious education in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
.
Lal Masjid
Tensions between the government and religious students led by Abdul Aziz had simmered over the demolition of mosqueMosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
s. However, Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
was shaken out of its political stupor by the female students and teachers of the seminary in the last week of March. They announced the launch of a "moral drive" against all "immoral activities" in the federal capital. Coming on the heels of these actions by the female students was the announcement by the cleric Abdul Aziz for the establishment of a parallel Taliban style 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 the case of a violent police operation 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 Friday Prayer congregation at Lal Masjid.
In his speech the cleric declared drugs
DRUGS
Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows are an American post-hardcore band formed in 2010. They released their debut self-titled album on February 22, 2011.- Formation :...
, music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, movies, and photographs of women as moral evils. His students subsequently resorted to various acts of vandalism, violence, kidnapping, and arson. They even ordered local barbers not to shave men to force them grow beards in accordance with the "teachings of Islam".
Final Showdown
The Lal Masjid brigade came to public notice when they kidnapped accused prostitutes from Islamabad's residential areas and then later kidnapped several police officers. The brigade increased their activities and took to the crime of kidnapping Chinese workers from very famous massage centers. This particular event created international pressure on Pakistan, especially from the Chinese government.On July 3, 2007, the standoff with the government ended in bloody gun battles in which more than 100 were killed and scores wounded. A FIR
First Information Report
A First Information Report or FIR is a written document prepared by the police in India, Pakistan and Japan when they receive information about the commission of a cognizable offence. It is a report of information that reaches the police first in point of time and that is why it is called the First...
was later registered against brothers with charges ranging from kidnapping, and murder to treason, and terrorism.
To avoid collateral loss, on July 4, 2007 at 8.05 PM local time., the government offered amnesty to juvenile students if they surrendered. Hundreds of his student followers reportedly surrendered. Aziz was arrested while leaving the complex disguised in a burqa
Burqa
A burqa is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic religion to cover their bodies in public places. The burqa is usually understood to be the woman's loose body-covering , plus the head-covering , plus the face-veil .-Etymology:A speculative and unattested etymology...
.
Many people believe the way he was arrested does not fit a person who was preaching to others to sacrifice their lives for the cause. According to Shah Abdul Aziz, "He was deceived. He was called by a senior official of an intelligence agency with whom he has been in touch for long. Since this man could not enter into the mosque to meet him (to save his cover and identity) he asked Maulana Aziz to come down to Aabpara police station, situated on a walking distance from the mosque and asked him to wear a burqa to avoid identification."
Release
Maulana Abdul Aziz was released on April 16, 2009 by the Pakistani supreme court as he awaited trial on charges of murder, incitement, and kidnapping. He was greeted by throngs of supporters.External links
- Lal Masjid
- DAWN.COM | Archive | Your Source of News on the World Wide Web Newspaper report on Maulana Aziz's arrest.