Hypocrisy at galore, by Mudasir Lateef

Hypocrisy at galore, by Mudasir Lateef
Sunday, April 10, 2011

I do not subscribe to the killing of innocent people, not even of 'Mujrims' by individuals or groups who have no legal authority to pass on judgements and execute them. So when Molvi Shoukat Shah was killed I took at as yet another innocent killing. I have never met Molvi Shoukat nor do know much about him. I know him through newspapers as chief of Jamiat-e-Ahal-e-hadees, as khateeb of their mosque at Gaw Kadal.

About life and politics of Molvi Shoukat I know him through other people. I know people in religious and political organizations as well in media. There is no single person I have come across who had ever word of appreciation for Molvi Shoukat. I always used to hear people calling him as "Indian agent", who was paid for working against "our movement".

When for the first time he held Eid prayers at TRC ground some years back, there was no dearth of people who called it a "show organized by India" (I however offered my prayers there). The live telecast of the namaaz by Doordarshan and out of proportions publicity by Indian official and private media lent much neened credence to this impression.

On occasions Molvi Shoukat himself authenticated what his advresaries believed about him. In 2008 during thick of Amarnath Land row, Molvi Shoukat traveled down to Raj Bhavan and met Governor S K Sinha, the villain who was believed to be working at destroying Kashmiri identity. Shoukat Shah extended his support to the Governor's chreished plan of setting up the Sharada Vidyapeeth, a Hindu denominational university funded by the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board in Srinagar in lieu for allowing him to set up islamic University. The Sharda Vidyapeeth, in all its objective was seen as part of a larger Indian project to subvert the integrity of Islam in the State.

Shah was also the only single individual who appeared to be the supporter of general Sinha while even the pro India parties, PDP, NC and Communists were opposing him as communalist. “People say Gen. Sinha was a Hindu fanatic but that is not my experience of him. He was sometimes ill advised, but he was not a communalist. (Interview to Praveen Swami--Hindu--ugust 21, 2008).

During last year's uprising Shah came out with another fatwa calling stone-pelting as unIslamic. Quoting Hadees he fatwed that stone-pelting was against the islamic principals of protests. That time too Shah was at the centre of all the criticism and curse of common people. Facebookers used every filty language available in lexicons to express their anger against him and saw him an "astute Indian agent who is paid for every action".

His association with Yasin Malik was also seen as a part of "Indian masters advice to flock together". Otherwise Yasin Malik did share little in terms of politics and religious thoughts with Shah. Yasin had always posed to be a man with secular ideas with a sofi bent of mind notwithstanding the fact that most of the Kashmiri Pandits were killed by JKLF cadres.

It shivers me to recall the rape and murder of Pandit woman and her daughter at Habba Kadal by JKLF cadres in 1990. There are other dozens of Pandits including Information joint director P L Handoo, Tik Lal Taploo, Nel Kant Ganjoo, Lassa Koul, advocate H N Koul besides communist leader Abdul Sattar Ranjoor whose killing was claimed by JKLF cadres in newspapers, belying their secular claim. But if for argument sake, we take Yasin Malik's claim right even then he had no reason to tie with Molvi Shoukat Shah, who represented staunch salfi ideology quite opposed to the soft Hanfi views of Islam.

Molvi also faced strong opposition from within the jamiat. It is in his tenure as Jamiat chief that the Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-hadees got divided with his opponents accusing him of siphoning off huge sums of party funds. He is the second Jamait chief to have been murdered in the past 10 years. Earlier professor Ramzan was shot dead under mysterious circumstance some years back. A murmer that time spread in political and media circles was that he fell victim to "money battle" within the party.

How would one judge Molvi Shoukat when IG Kashmir says that his killing was personal loss for him.

What I mean by all this is not to see a justification in Molvi Shoukat's killing. It was indeed a henious crime committed by those with criminal mindset. What I mean to say by all this is that those who are shedding tears on his killings and issuing statements mere hypocrites. They believed in one thing and say another thing. That is true of common people as also those associated with the Ahal-e-hadees jamiat.

Let one person come forward who had word of appreciation for Molvi Shoukat when he was alive.

When Moaqbool Butt was alive we called him Indian agent. He suddenly became hero after he was hanged in Tihar jail. Even today I see people calling leaders as agents of India or Pakistan and tomorrow if the same leaders meet any fateful tragedy, they would become heroes.

This hprocicy has been part of our culture right from the begining. Molvi Shoukat has been buried in Martyrs' Graveyard of Eid Gah. Who knows the killer of Molvi will also be bruried just by his side tommorow. We see Molvi Mohammad Farooq and Mohammad Abdullah Bangroo, Abdul Gani Lone and Rafiq Ahmad Dar alias Lidre and dozens others (killed and killer) buried side by side in the martyrs' graveyard. isn't it disrespect to the real martyrs. Let us learn to call a spade a spade. If our political and religious leaders are a sacred lot we should give them that respect in their life time and those who indulge in criminal activities against them should be denounced publicy. But if the case is vice versa let us honest and muster the courage to tell the truth or at least keep our mouths shut.