Kashmir Affairs - Security & Conflict Analysis of Kashmir

Obituary
Qari Saifuddin
former chief, Jama'at-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir

Ahmad Rashid
20 August 2008

In 1980, Islami Jamiat-e-Tulaba-then student-wing of Jamaat-e-Islami-called a conference in Srinagar for which Muslim scholars and speakers had been invited from several outside countries including Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, America, UK and Turkey. These were the days when Islamic revivalist movement across the world had got a phenomenal momentum by the Islamic revolution of Iran. Hundreds of Kashmiri youth, influenced by Iran’s revolutionary father Ayatulla Khumaini, were enthused by the conference, and it looked to end up in a big event. This perturbed the government and chief minister Shaikh Mohammad Abdullah imposed ban on the conference. Shaikh Tajamul Islam, chief of Jamiat, decided to defy the ban and prepared his boys for confrontation with the government. He went underground to escape police crackdown. Newspapers, which were not many that time, came out with big stories over the Jamiat challenging Abdullah’s authority.

Qari Sahab was then General Secretary of the Jamaat-e-Islami. He called me (I was editor of Jamaat’s official organ Azan) to his office. “Islam is averse to all sorts of confrontations that would stop an Islamic preacher from spreading the message of God. We are missionaries, we should not create an atmosphere which could restrict space for us to move around”, he told me to communicate this to Tajamul Islam. “It is better he should abandon the idea of conference”, he advised. Qari Sahab narrated a Quranic incident where Hazrat Aaron (AS), brother of Moses (AS), remained mute spectator to the calf-worship by his people in absence of Moses (AS), on the plea that he did not want confrontations with his own people.

A few months earlier, Qari Sahab had played role of a peacekeeper at another crucial moment. Jamaat-e-Islami had called an international Seerat Conference at Gole Bagh in Srinagar. Imam of Kaa’ba Shaikh Abdullah As Sabeel, besides dozens of Islamic scholars of India, Iran Saudi Arabia and other Muslim and western countries turned up to participate in the conference. The rostrum was erected at the extreme west of the ground. Hundreds of policemen swooped on the ground just hours before the start of the conference and asked to remove the rostrum to the extreme east, which was quite dusty part. Around 500 Jamaat men-all young and emotional-were there. They refused and shouted slogans against police. The scene seemed to be preparing for big confrontation as the police had got orders directly from chief minister Shaikh Mohammad Abdullah’s office. The atmosphere became over-charged with Ameer-e-Jamaat Moulana Saad-Ud-Din, otherwise a humble and respectful leader, ordering Jamaat men not to remove the stage. He admonished policemen in severest terms, and left the scene with the words “we will prefer jail rather than to remove it”. Jamaat men took it as order of the Ameer, and they decided to resist police. But here came Qari Sahab to defuse the situation. He used all his wisdom, skills and experience to convince the Jamaat men that it was in the interest of the party to remove the stage, and allow conference take place in peaceful atmosphere. But not a single person agreed with him, and they instead shouted at him. He however was a man with vision, and knew how to get things done. Qari Sahab got to the podium and began to remove it himself. He was joined by police. After a few minutes when it appeared that Qari Shab meant business, willy-nilly the Jamaat men also joined and the stage was set at the place where police had sought. Just a few hours later when the conference began, around two lakh people gathered to attend the conference. Those were the days when Jamaat-e-Islami was pushed to a sought of isolation at public front. The hanging of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in Pakistan, a few months ago, had generated a strong reaction in Kashmir, and opponents of the Jamaat, more particularly National Conference, had directed this anger against the supporters and leaders of the Jamaat. At least six persons were killed, around 20,000 houses of Jamaat supporters were burnt and orchards of hundreds of Jamaat leaders and supporters were cut down in frenzy that swept the valley for four days. The frenzied mobs were led by National Conference leaders and activists, (in some parts of Kulgam, communists also were also seen in the forefront) with police acting as mute spectator.

The Seerat Conference gave a new public face and image to the Jamaat, and its leaders and cadres came out with their heads high again. The Jamaat used the occasion to reach out to the people in all quarters of the valley, and in the ensuing days held several other conferences with Imam of Kaa’ba as chief guest at various places. Though most people came to see the Imam but Jamaat leadership exploited it to its advantage.

Qari Sahab always argued that Makkan life of Prophet Mohammad (SAW) was the best guide for Islamic preachers in Kashmir. “Compromise (in strategy, not in principles) rather than confrontation is the best deal to spread the word of God. You cannot go the Madina way while living in Makka”, he used to say.

The most disappointing moment for Qari Sahab came when Jamaat-e-Islami let a section of its cadres and leaders to join militancy. He virtually dissociated from the Jamaat. His argument was that Islam’s message was universal and there was no concept of “Tahreer-e-Wattan” (freedom of nations) in Islam. He would at times break down and rue how a party (Jamaat), raised on the principles and values Islamic polity, has been turned into a party of “goons and assailants”. In October 1990, when Indian Prime Minister Chander Shakher offered for dialogue with Kashmiri separatist groups, it was under the influence of Qari Saifuddin that Jamaat-e-Islami accepted the offer, and showed its readiness for talks with government of India. Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), opposing the Jamaat initiative, then-in satire-said “Jamaat has to settle the pension case of Qari Saifuddin with government of India”.

Qari Sahab was never impressed by the person and perceptions of Pakistan Jamaat chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad. He would always castigate him as an emotional activist little fit for leadership. In 1990, when Qazi Hussain, in a very emotional speech said that the idea of Pakistan would be complete only when Islamic flag is hoisted at Lal Qilla, Qari Sahab wrote the epitaph of the Pak Jamaat. “This man (Qazi Hussain) does not deserve any place even among the common workers of the Jamaat. It is disgusting to see him at the position of Ameer. I think Pakistan Jamaat has lost the direction and it will no more exist as an ideal Islamic group”, he told me.

Just a month before his death, I along with two other friends went to see him at his Rawalpora residence. Because of weak eyesight, Qari Sahab could not recognize me. I told him my name. He felt happy. I stayed with him for about an hour. I asked him whether he has any regrets over what overtook the Jamaat in the past 18 years. “Degradation is a natural process. It is not unusual but I had never thought that it will start during our lifetime”, he said. Qari Sahab’s death has closed a leading chapter of the Jamaat. He was the last of the first line leaders of the party.