The American agenda to divide the nation through dictatorship 

By: Shahnawaz Farooqui

After 9/11 when George W. Bush called for a hundred year war on terrorism, we asked the Ummah to take note of it in its historical perspective. We should be aware that America and its allies are not going to drop bombs all those years but they will surely try to deprive Muslims of their identity. It is not something new. The European powers did the same in their historic military invasions of Muslim states to arouse rebellions against Islam and Muslim culture. They first attacked Islamic religious institutes and introduced a new modernized system of education, which corrupted young Muslim minds and formed a whole generation of those who were only Muslims-by-name.

It was understood that whenever the western powers came to realize that there is a connection in between jihad and Salah  (Namaz), as it generates the spirit of Jihad, then they would surely attack its presence in the prescribed Islamic Studies syllabus in Pakistan. Incidentally, western agents in Pakistan are working for the same cause. General Musharraf has changed the whole terminology of jihad and now his Federal Minister for Education and the former Chief of the ISI have decided to expunge the method of Salah from the syllabus.

The decision was so ‘confidential’ that the Federal Minister for Religious Affairs, who is also General Zia-ul-Haq’s son, stated that he was kept in darkness over this issue. His statement supposedly gives the impression that if he was taken in confidence on this issue he would reject the plan outright and the gang of American agents would have to scrap the decision.

The justification for removing Namaz from the syllabus is quite ludicrous. It is said that this method of salah in the syllabus is actually creating differences amongst various religious sects in Pakistan, that the method of offering Salah by the Ahl-e-Sunnah differs from that of the Shi’ites and so on. But has this move really eliminated this difference or has it highlighted the issue more? After this they will think about resolving the tiny issues of contention between the Ahl-e-Sunnah and the Ahl-e-Hadith in the same way and maybe try to resolve the divergences on issues of Zakat.

This entire episode is not by chance but planned. The American think-tank has published many reports in which it is clearly stated that one line of demarcation in the world of Islam is clearly stretched between the secular and the religious, another between the fundamentalists and those who believe in political Islam. The sectarian differences are in addition to all that and the west must take advantage of these conflicts to generate hatred and to urge Muslims to fight amongst themselves.

As we look over this decision of expunging Namaz from the syllabus, the western target to arouse hatred between the Shi’ites and Sunnis becomes obvious. Divide and rule is the old doctrine of government and this doctrine is working effectively in Pakistan.

The method of offering Salah has now been taken out of the syllabus in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The experiences of the past four years are before us. General Musharraf has marched exclusively in the direction of a ‘modern’ and ‘liberal’ Pakistan and he knows well that he can’t change the psychology of 16 million Pakistani Muslims. For this he has planned to work in gradual levels and everything is to be enforced slowly and gradually and George W. Bush has confirmed this in a speech. He will not be dropping bombs on Muslims for 200 years. To produce a whole new generation by bringing liberal and secular education will surely take time. The British didn’t accomplish this in the subcontinent in four years. The birth of Deputy Nazir Ahmed’s “Ibn-ul-Waqt” took time so why should not these new ‘men of the times’ take time to be created. The facts are clear, the targets are apparent and the need of the day is to think and to resist.