| Musharraf's threat to fight extremists met with scorn -
July 14th, 2007
General Pervez Musharraf's pledge to root out extremism in Pakistan and crack down on the madrassas has been greeted with anger and scorn after more than 80 militant students were killed at the Red Mosque.
The actions of Pakistan troops in clearing the notorious Lal Masjid provoked further protests yesterday across the country as demonstrators denounced General Musharraf's government, while the authorities stepped up security fearing a possible backlash.
In Karachi, 1,200 demonstrators gathered, while in Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar, Islamabad and elsewhere there were smaller protests as 13,000 religious schools called for nationwide demonstrations.
Maulana Zahoor Ahmed Alvi, the principal of Jamia Muhammadia madrassa in the heart of Islamabad, claimed General Musharraf's threat to the religious schools would find little support among the public because the majority supported such institutions, which provide free board and lodging. He claimed the majority of people in Pakistan supported Sharia Law.
Mr Alvi's thoughts about General Musharraf were rooted in the political realities of Pakistan. "The Musharraf government needs the support of the US and UK so they are making an issue of the madrassas. That speech was for the Americans," said the senior cleric. "Yes, the madrassas are increasing ... It will be hard for him to finish off all the madrassas." in his televised address on Thursday evening, the military leader had not threatened to close down all the country's 15,000 religious schools but simply to take action to prevent them becoming hubs of extremism, something that had been allowed to happen at the Lal Masjid. But in addition to reaction from people such as Mr Alvi, the President's comments drew scepticism from observers who said the general's relationship with the madrassas was more complicated.
Writing in the Friday Times newspaper, Khaled Ahmed said that despite pressure from the US, madrassas had proliferated since the 11 September 2001 attacks and that there were now 88 such seminaries in Islamabad alone. Forty-two of these institutions opened in 2006 and many have received government funding. "It is not for nothing that every second male in Islamabad keeps a jihadi beard and looks scary to foreigners," wrote Mr Ahmed. He said that madrassas had not increased under previous military rulers.
The government appears to be bracing for further backlash against the storming of the mosque. On Thursday there were two suicide bomb attacks reported in the north of the country and yesterday police raided a house in the north-western town of Dera Ismail Khan and arrested three people allegedly plotting more attacks. Violence across north-western Pakistan has claimed at least 35 lives since the fighting at the mosque began last week.
Mr Alvi visited the Lal Masjid during the siege to talk with the cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi and urge a peaceful conclusion. While he was critical of the government's actions, Mr Alvi did not support the behaviour of Mr Ghazi and his followers, who had established morality squads of burqa-clad women who harassed shopkeepers selling DVDs and videos and even kidnapped six Chinese women.
"The aims were correct ... but the way was wrong," he said. "We made a request to Mr Ghazi not to have weapons there. We said that is a place for education." | 
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