Importing Intolerance

The proliferation of madrassas is posing a threat to Sindh’s non-violent Sufi landscape.

By Salam Dharejo



"I have had nothing to eat since last night; Ghazi Baba has stopped feeding us and deprived us by closing his doors,” says a 60-year-old woman who has been living at the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi for the last 20 years. The shrine was shut down by the police on June 18, 2009, after it received a terrorist threat.

This marks the first time that a shrine in Sindh has been closed due to the fear of an extremist attack. Shrines of various Sufi saints have been under threat ever since the Taliban began targeting places of pilgrimage, forcibly trying to impose their own religious agenda upon the masses that have been living in peace and harmony for centuries. Due to the deep-rooted influence of Sufism, fanaticism has never flourished in Sindh. However, the proliferation of extremist elements is posing a potential threat to what has been a liberal Sindhi society for many years.

An increasing number of young worshippers in mosques and the trend of growing beards indicate the visible impact of religious preaching. The majority of religiously inclined people seem to live in the urban areas of the province. Abdul Wahab, the peshimam of the Babul Majeed Mosque in Sukkur, is happy to note the increasing number of worshippers: “I have noticed that in the past few years many young, educated persons have been visiting mosques to pray five times a day. It’s worth noting that people do not only come to pray here; most of them help organise religious ceremonies and collect contributions for the expansion and construction of mosques,” Wahab tells me.

The growing inclination towards religion can be gauged through different indicators. The practice of azadari (maatam) for example, has dramatically increased in both urban and rural areas. Today, religious festivals are gaining in popularity; besides Eid, many other religious days are being celebrated all over the country. Modern techniques of celebrating such festivals or days have become an effective tool to engage young people in religious-cum-entertainment activities. For example, Awais Qadris’s style of singing naats has brought significant changes to the age-old form. Consequently, naats have become more popular and younger people now excitedly take part in naat competitions.

Singing has always been a popular form of entertainment in Sindh. Throughout history, singers and poets have enjoyed the patronage of rulers and the monetary support of the public. Today, however, even in the semi-urban areas of the province, extremists are trying to discourage the practice. Just recently in 2008, in Sujawal, a small town in the Thatta district, organisers were warned not to organise a musical function in the town. “Some students from a local madrassa interrupted the show and warned us that they would not allow anti-religious activities and said, ‘If you do not heed us, we will forcibly stop the event,’” poet Akash Ansari, organiser of the musical programme, tells Newsline.

Ishaque Mangrio, a writer and social reformer, is not concerned. “I don’t believe in exceptions; the people of Sindh are liberal in their lifestyle,” he says. “If you look at their culture, you will find that Sufi traditions of tolerance and non-violence form an essential part of their nature. People have a great attachment to their saints: every year, hundreds of Urs are held all over the province and the numbers of devotees are increasing with the passage of time. In interior Sindh, not a single incident of suicide bombing has occurred, and people do not fear going to the shrines of famous Sufi saints.”

On the contrary, Mohammad Ali Manjhi, a local intellectual of Thatta, believes that the preaching of extremist groups is gradually affecting traditional Sufism. “In urban and semi-urban areas, unchallenged religious intolerance and violence is gaining ground. In Sanghar, an addict was killed in front of the police on charges of blasphemy. Not a single protest was carried out by the citizens against the culprits, even though many people knew that the person had not committed any blasphemous act.”

Evidence of a religious tilt in interior Sindh includes the increased number of madrassas in the province. A rapid growth in the construction of madrassas has been witnessed in both the upper and lower parts of Sindh in the last few years. In Sukkur district, the Panno Aqil taluka is famous for religious education – a madrassa is to be found in almost every village. Similarly, in Umerkot district, there are more than 400 madrassas, which proves the all-pervasive religious influence in the area. Growing extremism has played a pivotal role in destabilising religious harmony in the area. Recently, in March, Hindus – who comprise half of the total population of Umerkot – were attacked by Muslims on the day of Diwali, on charges of blasphemy.

The forced conversion of Hindus to Islam has never been a widespread practice in Sindh, but in recent years, thousands of Hindu girls have been forcibly converted. Many Hindu girls in upper Sindh have also been encouraged to marry Muslims. Amrot Sharif in Shikarpur district has become a shelter of sorts for converted Hindu women and, Aziz Shah, the sajjada nasheen, provides all kinds of support and legal aid to the converts. In the past, he has even ensured that their weddings were celebrated and highlighted in the media to help spread the practice.

Similarly, Gulzar-e-Khalil, the village of Pir Ayub Jan Sarhandi in Umerkot, is home to several Hindu women who have been converted to Islam. Pir Ayub Jan Sarhandi claims that he has seen more than 10,000 such conversions. These practices, which threaten the secular fabric of society, have never been publicly condemned by any local organisation or civil society institution, while the religious parties and institutions have actively extended their moral and monetary support for the continuation of such practices.

Although there is no concrete evidence of the involvement of Sindhis in suicide bombings in Pakistan or abroad, many people belonging to interior Sindh have, in the past, participated in jihad. “A lot of people belonging to the Brohvi and Memon communities of Shikarpur took part in the jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan. Many of them were killed during the war, and their coffins were brought to their ancestral graveyards,” says Paryal Marri, a Shikarpur-based human rights activist.

Earlier, Sufi thought and practices received political and public support. Gaining the support of local pirs and the sajjada nasheen was used by rulers as a means of strengthening their political power. At the time, business communities in Sindh mainly consisted of Hindus, who spent money on the development of shrines and charities. However, business communities are now overwhelmingly Muslim and are thus more likely to extend money to Islamic welfare institutions and madrassas. Additionally, the political patronage of religious forces has increased their influence. Arbab Ghulam Rahim, the former chief minister of Sindh, was actively involved in consolidating Wahhabi institutions in Sindh by providing state support. Furthermore, in upper Sindh, Abdul Haq, the sajjada nasheen of the Pir of Bharchoondi Sharif, Abdul Samad Halejvi of Panno Aqil, Mufti Abdul Wahab Chacher of Rohri and Aziz Shah of Amrot Sharif, are all staunch supporters of Wahhabism and have an immense influence on local politics.

Mazhar Laghari, a political analyst, is of the view that in the absence of any progressive movement and ideology, the growing inclination of the youth towards religion is only to be expected. “I have grown up in the village of Kunri in district Umekot, where my grandfather, Ghulam Mohammad Leghari, the leader of the Hari Tahreek (a farmers’ movement in the late ’70s) turned the village into a camp of revolutionaries. The same village is now nurturing jihadis. The decorated graves of two young persons from the village, who were killed during the jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan, fascinate the young minds as they are considered to be shaheed.”

Tolerance, equality and non-violence – the fundamentals of Sufism – are rapidly vanishing from Sindhi society, while institutionalised violence, as preached by religious forces, is swiftly proliferating in the province. Shrines have failed to become institutions from where an effective message of non-violence and tolerance can be passed on to the masses. “They (the shrines) are becoming places of rituals that merely provide entertainment to people,” says Manzur Kohyar, a member of the executive committee of Sufi International. So what will be the end result? “Obviously, violence and intolerance will destabilise the social harmony in a society that is already fragile,” Kohyar concludes.