An Ulema convention held by the MQM party on Sunday the 19th of April united scholars from different schools of thought to denounce the Swat accord and Talibanisation. In this meeting, Altaf Hussain sought the opinions of scholars and to talk about Islam. They agreed Islam is a religion of peace and that it is not a religion that believes in burning down of girls’ schools, violence of any kind, bombarding shrines, suicide bombings, etc. This went against the teachings of our beloved Prophet (SAW) and the holy Quran.

Whereas the political parties of Pakistan had failed to recognise and condemn the misuse of Islam vis a vis appeasing Talibans, it is only the MQM party and the learned Islamic scholars who have spoken out against this. MQM chief Altaf Hussain gathered the scholars from different schools of thought to ask them for their opinions on the Swat accord and whether they welcomed the Taliban’s shariah Islam, which is Taliban’s own interpretated version. This was outrightedly rejected by the members of the invited Ulema. And what is more interesting is that majority of the invited Ulema criticised Sufi Muhammad for declaring democracy as a system of infidelity. They said if democracy was a system of infidelity, then they were all part of this system, including Fazlur Rehman, Maudoodi, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, etc, as they were all struggling for democracy.

What is even more interesting is that the current government who wanted to bring democracy to Pakistan (and I still remember Bilawal Bhutto’s cheesy liner ‘democracy is the best revenge’) is now having to hear Sufi Muhammad’s tirade against democracy in Pakistan and his claims that democracy in Pakistan is unislamic. Now one shouldn’t ask why did Sufi Muhammad made an agreement with a so called democratic government...because that’s not an important question. That’s irrelevant. We should ask why our so called democratic government decided on an agreement with an anti democratic element. Why?

Everything seems like a bad dream for Pakistanis. It seems like our current government is taking us from one nightmare to another. As if this wasn’t bad, to hear that Lal Masjid cleric was released without any reason just makes our journey through this nightmare even more prolonged.

What MQM had done is a wake up call for the Ulemas to stand united and to be vocal in opposing Talibanisation and the Swat accord. Ulemas are respected in Pakistan and to have them propose a strong lobby against Talibanisation would prove powerful and help strenghten Pakistan’s fight against Talibanisation.