Not long ago, a civil society protest outside the Lal Masjid – where he leads the Friday prayers – would be unthinkable. Not any more.
“This den of terrorism must be razed,” said rights activist Farzana Bari, one of the organizers. “Down with Abdul Aziz,” shouted a protestor on megaphone. “Down with Abdul Aziz,” the crowd repeated.
The protestors alleged that the cleric and his gun-toting guards had threatened them. They registered an FIR against the cleric and his guards in Aabpara police station.
Maulana Abdul Aziz is not pleased. “I never threatened anyone. It is a totally fabricated and baseless allegation by the so-called civil society,” Maulana Abdul Aziz told me. He said such protests must not be allowed at a time when a national consensus was most needed, and admitted that the street agitation his own followers had carried out in the past was also wrong.
The Islamabad administration removed Maulana Abdul Aziz and replaced him with his nephew
Meanwhile, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain upped the ante further, when he demanded the demolition of Lal Masjid and shutting down of its affiliate seminary Jamia Hafsa. The seminary had already been under strong criticism for releasing a video message in which the students eulogized ISIS and the self-proclaimed Caliph Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. Maulana Abdul Aziz’s wife, Ume Hassaan, runs Jamia Hafsa. The MQM leader also demanded the arrest of the cleric.
Maulana Abdul Aziz hit back in a video message criticizing MQM and its leader. The MQM said he had threatened to kill Altaf Hussain, and lodged an FIR against him in Karachi.
Although the protest began after Maulana Abdul Aziz’s refusal to condemn the Peshawar attack, it has a deep historical significance.
Legally speaking, Maulana Abdul Aziz has nothing to do with Lal Masjid. The mosque operates under the aegis of the federal government. Clerics are paid from the national exchequer. After the Lal Masjid military operation, the Islamabad district administration had removed Maulana Abdul Aziz as the head cleric. Interestingly, his nephew Maulana Amir succeeded him. Maulana Amir was said to be an enlightened man who even socialized with Shias. A source says he may have differences with his uncle.
Maulana Abdul Aziz had always been known for his fiery speeches. He despised being photographed and moved around with masked gunmen. He had built an aura of mystery and secrecy around him unlike his younger brother Abdul Rasheed Ghazi. Before the Lal Masjid military operation in 2007, he repeatedly threatened the security forces of imminent suicide attacks if they trespassed the mosque premises.
The mosque was established by Gen Ziaul Haq who had appointed Maulana Abdullah Ghazi – the father of Abdul Aziz – the head cleric. Maulana Abdullah was assassinated in 1998.
After three quiet years in the Lal Masjid, Maulana Abdul Aziz came into the spotlight after 9/11, when the mosque became an epicenter of anti-America and anti-Musharraf protests in 2001. Controversial religious leaders were frequent visitors.
Despite calls for neutralizing the threat, the Musharraf administration kept on ignoring the Lal Masjid clerics. The situation aggravated in 2006 when the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa students occupied an adjacent children’s library and began vigilante patrols. They wanted the immediate reconstruction of six illegally built mosques that the Capital Development Authority had demolished.
Soon, the vigilante brigade broadened its operations. They threatened music shop owners to shut down their “un-Islamic” businesses and set fired to thousands of CDs during a protest. They abducted a woman and several girls who they said were running a brothel. They also abducted several Chinese nationals for operating a massage parlor. They set up pickets around the mosque and started searching passersby. Eventually, they kidnapped police officials, set nearby public buildings on fire, shot a Rangers personnel, and holed up inside the mosque complex in a standoff with the militaty.
During the military operation, in July 2007, Maulana Abdul Aziz tried to flee in a Burka, but was caught. His younger brother Abdul Rasheed Ghazi was inside the complex, fighting against the military.
A Quaid-e-Azam University graduate, Ghazi was a media savvy person. Fluent in English, he was a sought-after cleric by news hungry foreign media that had encamped in Islamabad after 9/11.
“We watch what you report on Lal Masjid. Most of the times you bitterly criticize us. But I don’t mind. And that’s why you are always given free access inside the mosque,” Ghazi once told me.
The Lal Masjid had its own media room, crammed with volunteers and computers equipped with multiple CD writers. They produced and copied whatever literature they wanted. The stalls outside the mosque distributed the literature with impunity. Everything was happening right under the noses of intelligence agencies.
The Maulana spent almost two years in jail after the military operation. Upon his release, he was given a big welcome. Thousands of people thronged to listen to his first Friday sermon after his release. His tone was rational. He kept his cool and tried not to brew another controversy. But it did not take him long begin expressing controversial opinions on sensitive religious matters again.
He is indeed in the middle of a serious controversy with his latest statement. The MQM and the People’s Party have called for his removal from the Lal Masjid. But there is a technical problem with that. He doesn’t have the official capacity to lead prayers. He does it because of his influence.
The calls to raze Lal Masjid will not be entertained though. And rightly so. If it happens, there might be a severe reaction. And the nearby Imambargahs and public buildings will be the most vulnerable.
Shahzad Raza is an Islamabad-based journalist
Twitter: @shahzadrez