The strange rebirth of the "Radio Mullah."

Submitted by mmghosh on Thu, 05/22/2008 - 9:14am. Tags:

Foreign Affairs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Swat_NWFP.svg

The Taliban in Afghanistan have traditionally had links with Pakistan's FATA, often targeted by US remote missiles killing unspecified numbers of people, on the grounds that some Taliban might be hiding in that area.

In 2001, a militant organization in the more remote Swat valley, the TNSM under their leader Sufi Muhammad led thousands of fighters into Afghanistan for the Taliban against the Northern Alliance.

The Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) was founded in 1992 with the objective of a militant enforcement of Sharia (Islamic law).

Ideology and Objectives

The TNSM is a militant Wahabi outfit whose primary objective is the imposition of Sharia in Pakistan.
Ideologically, it is dedicated to transform Pakistan into a Taliban style state. In an August 1998-speech in Peshawar, Maulana Sufi Mohammed, its leader who is currently imprisoned in Pakistan, reportedly declared that those opposing the imposition of Sharia in Pakistan were wajib-ul-qatl (worthy of death).

The outfit while rejecting democracy has termed it as ‘un-Islamic’. In an interview, Maulana Sufi Mohammed said, "We want enforcement of the Islamic judicial system in totality: judicial, political, economic, jihad, fi sabilillah, education and health. In my opinion the life of the faithful will automatically be moulded according to the Islamic system when the judicial system is enforced."
TNSM rejects all political and religio-political parties as, according to it, they follow the western style of democracy.
TNSM openly condones the use of force in what they see as a Jihad.

Backed by the US after September, the Northern Alliance decimated the fighters, leaving their leader Sufi Muhammad to limp back into Pakistan where he was promptly arrested by Pervez Musharraf, as he remains to this day. The TNSM appeared to have been defeated and in disarray.

In October 2005, however, an earthquake devastated the Swat valley. The TNSM, having regrouped under the leadership of Maulana Fazlullah, son in law of Sufi Muhammad, proclaimed that the earthquake was the result of the sins of the local people, and led a movement to destroy TV sets, computers and videocasettes, together with organising aid for the stricken population. Some of their more novel proscriptions were against polio vaccination. He also started a pirate FM radio station from where he broadcast his sermons, earning himself the sobriquet of the "Radio Mullah". Predictably, Musharraf banned the radio station and struck at the headquarters of the "Radio Mullah" in 2006.

However, by 2007, Maulana Fazlullah was powerful enough to declare open war against Musharraf, cutting the China-Pakistan Karakorum highway. In response, Musharraf mounted a major campaign to drive out the "Radio Mullah" out of the Swat valley.

Over 5,000 military and paramilitary troops, 300 men of the Frontier Constabulary and 1,200 policemen were deployed in the region

Since the spring of 2008, however, the initially successful military push could not be maintained. Leaving the Swat valley, the "Radio Mullah" regrouped in the mountains, inaccessible to the Pakistani military. In April, the jailed leader of the TNSM, Sufi Muhammad was released. And yesterday, a deal was signed between the TNSM and the Govt of Pakistan, ensuring the establishment of Sharia law for the first time, in a province near Afghanistan.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\05\22\story_22-5-2008_pg1_1

Senior NWFP Minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour read out the deal to the reporters. Asked if Fazlullah would be given amnesty, he said: “That will be discussed later.”
Taliban representative Ali Bakht told reporters that there were around 200 Taliban under detention who would be released in two weeks.
Army: Geo News reported ISPR spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas as saying that the army would not oppose the peace deal.

So what did the Pakistan Government gain? Polio vaccination will not be opposed, and music shops will not be targeted. Calls have been made to stop training suicide bombers and IEDs. TNSM fighters will not carry weapons "openly".

OTOH, the TNSM seems to have gained a great deal more, which is why there was considerable US opposition to the deal

The 15-point pact was signed despite explicit expressions of concern from the United States about such truces -- the latest warning delivered only a day earlier by Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte in Washington.

Pakistan's new coalition government, which took office seven weeks ago after winning parliamentary elections in February, has said it is willing to talk with extremists who are prepared to renounce violence. But the Bush administration and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization say they believe that Islamic militants will use respites to strengthen and rearm themselves and resume attacks when it suits them. They also say cross-border strikes aimed at Western troops in Afghanistan have edged up since negotiations began.

The "Radio Mullah" gets official broadcasting privileges, and his stronghold in the valley is to be converted into an Islamic University, run by his group and Government officials. Given that government officials in the area are likely to be his own men in any case, and the recognition that Sharia law overrules the law of the land, it now seems that the "Radio Mullah", extraordinarily, can be said to have achieved many of the original TNSM aims. And the Taliban have now, officially, gained a safe area to regroup in.

Let us wait and see what happens next.
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Gen Petraeus to focus on Pakistan (#95644)

by mmghosh on Fri, 05/23/2008 - 12:54am

as reported in Dawn

During the hearing, Senator Jack Reed, a Democrat, reminded the general that soon he would be in charge of US military operations for the region that included Pakistan. He then recalled that a recent US intelligence assessment suggested that Al Qaeda had reconstituted itself in FATA and that the next 9/11-style attack on the US soil might come from Pakistan.

“Do you agree with those intelligence assessments?” asked the senator.

“I do, Senator,” said Gen Petraeus. “Clearly, Al Qaeda’s senior leadership has been strengthened in the Fata, even as though their main effort still is assessed to be in Iraq by them, as well as by us. But the organisation of an attack, if you will, would likely come from the FATA.”

“What does that say about our strategy?” asked Senator Reed, blaming the Bush administration for failing to engage the Pakistan military in effective counter-insurgency operations. He reminded the general that recently, the government of Pakistan had entered into another “stand-down” agreement with the tribal leaders in FATA.

“It seems to me that we have not made (this) existential threat, the main effort in our campaign plan for your theatre of operations. What’s your thought?” the senator asked.

“Senator, clearly we have to provide additional assistance to the new Pakistani government,” the general responded. He noted that Islamabad’s new rulers were “still solidifying” their coalition, developing a counter-insurgency strategy and an approach for dealing with Fata.

The new Pakistani government, he noted, inherited this problem, which “was causing extraordinary violence in their country before they were elected”.

Gen Petraeus said that two weeks ago he had “a very long” conversation with the US ambassador in Islamabad and others during a visit to Qatar and was convinced that the US had very substantial programmes for Pakistan.

“But I think that the key need is to assess whether the overall concept that is guiding those on the Pakistani side, in particular, of course, is adequate or not,” he added.

“And one of the first trips that I would make, if confirmed as Centcom commander, would be to Pakistan, to sit down with a fellow US Army Command and General Staff College graduate, General Kayani, to talk at some length about that and, obviously, to do the same with the leaders of the Pakistani government.”

He said the problem of terrorism in FATA had global implication and not just local extremist implications, for Pakistan.

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Butlerian Jihad (#95588)

by Steve Peterson on Thu, 05/22/2008 - 2:57pm

Fascinating article. Anyway, wanted to comment on this thing you said:

In October 2005, however, an earthquake devastated the Swat valley. The TNSM, having regrouped under the leadership of Maulana Fazlullah, son in law of Sufi Muhammad, proclaimed that the earthquake was the result of the sins of the local people, and led a movement to destroy TV sets, computers and videocasettes, together with organising aid for the stricken population. Some of their more novel proscriptions were against polio vaccination.

I think another example of Frank Herbert's prescience -- for those who aren't familiar: the back-history of his novel series, Dune, posits something called the Butlerian Jihad, a period of history where there was a massive war against technology, and after which thinking machines and a variety of other techs were outlawed.

Steven Palmer Peterson

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There's a slightly different way of looking at it (#95598)

by BlaiseP on Thu, 05/22/2008 - 4:13pm

from a Muslim viewpoint. Lots of people accuse Muslims of Fatalism, but it's not quite so simple. Muslims, even the most retrograde old hardliners like Maulana Faizulla do take on aspects of technology, rather like the Amish take on new technology. You haven't lived until you've seen a group of Amish girls on rollerblades swooshing down a back country road.

Inoculation is a particular problem: observant Muslims are supposed to trust in the Almighty to reward and punish both in this life and the next. Forestalling a disaster is a troublesome thing for the most conservative sects. We see it in Christianity, every so often, we hear of a Jehovah's Witness or some other fundamentalist group trying to pray the sick back to health, despite the efforts of others to put the person in the care of a physician.

Back in the days of the Black Plague, Europe went berserk, blaming the plague on Jews, sinfulness, everything but their own nasty modus vivendi.

The Butlerian Jihad was more about the prohibition on intelligent machines and genetic manipulation. The Bene Gesserit were all about genetic manipulation, though, which caused all sorts of drama.

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My understanding of the Amish relation to technology (#95665)

by hobbesist on Fri, 05/23/2008 - 9:37am

... is that innovations are forbidden if they are not deemed necessary by the community's authorities, and (therefore?) serve no purpose but that of inflating the would-be user's pride or self-importance.

If that's right--and it may be way off--that's something different than the fatalism you mention. How does that compare to the 'hardline' Muslim viewpoint?

Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.

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The two points are less-related than might be supposed. (#95669)

by BlaiseP on Fri, 05/23/2008 - 10:16am

Mullah FM likes the idea of his own voice on the air, jut not musical voices.

The Amish have confined themselves to a life largely without electricity and automobiles, largely to keep themselves segregated into their own small communities. Their symbols are the carriage and the lantern. They aren't a monolithic group, and they're not guided by communal authorities so much as by a shared sense of purpose. As you say, they take a dim view of any manifestation of pride: their church leaders are humble people, reticent to speak, and they make all sorts of concessions to technology. In one case, an arthritic old farmer was ordered by his bishop to buy a tractor because he had no sons.

The Muslims are different, because they have stern authority structures over them and an entirely different view of God. The worst thing an Amish congregation will do is shun you, Islam will kill you.

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Unfortunately sharia law is a reasonably (#95672)

by mmghosh on Fri, 05/23/2008 - 11:11am

popular option, especially among men, because it reinforces patriarchial authority very strongly.

Secular law is administered so late, and so badly that it doesn't have much respect.

Of course, for the educated, most mullahs are usually laughed at, even in Pakistan because really, it is the relatively dumb kind of person who goes for mullah-ship.

But the educated do not necessarily fight for the secular principle (unlike Turkey). The Army in Pakistan used to, before Zia-ul-Haq started the Islamisation during the course of the Afghan war in the 1980s.

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The educated also know better than to go into mullah territory (#95673)

by BlaiseP on Fri, 05/23/2008 - 11:49am

The great genius of the American constitution was the Establishment Clause. Everything else in the Constitution was around before then: bicameral legislatures, independent judiciary, free press and the like.

Locke had sorrrrrta said the same thing. But Locke only went as far as Tolerating other religions. In the USA, for the first time in human history, religion was liberated from the state.

It's the Islamic State of Pakistan. While that's still true, expect only more trouble. The educated of Pakistan don't give a damn about what happens out in FATA or other parts of Mullah Land. When the hammer falls, as it is falling in places like Peshawar and Quetta, they'll leave. The remaining poor souls are not their concern and never were.

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It seems you have saved me much of the legword for Part 2 (#95574)

by BlaiseP on Thu, 05/22/2008 - 1:53pm

of my Tale of Two Treaties. I'll still write something, but this is a useful article. Acha heh.

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