Pakistan

Clerics in policy flip-flop over polio vaccination

Scholars who condemned polio vaccination are now in favour of it.

Fazal Khaliq November 10, 2010

SWAT: Religious scholars and clerics are issuing edicts in favour of polio vaccination in urban centres of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Yet the same clerics had condemned polio immunisation as anti-Shariah during the Taliban rule in Swat Valley.

The hard-liners among them had called it a “conspiracy” hatched by non-Muslims to stop Muslim women from bearing children. People in Swat are now questioning the hypocrisy of clerics.

“Today’s mullah is caught in the splitting hair over scholastics. He has strayed away from the essence of Islam,” said Hamayn, a resident of Mingora. “If he was against polio vaccination, it wasn’t that he was able to reflect but rather because it was the demand of the day in a Taliban-ruled Swat,” he told The Express Tribune.

“Today if one notices a 180-degree shift in his stance, it is purely under the influence of the army,” he added.

Most people in Swat are of the view that the role of religious scholars during the insurgency was of wholly negative because they responded to the tumult in Swat either with silence or justified the “illegal and un-Islamic” deeds of the Taliban by favouring them.

“Actually the main cause behind this dual policy of clerics or ‘mullahs’ is their state of fear. In order to avoid harsh consequences, they tried to be in the good books of the Taliban. And now they are toeing the official line to favour with the ‘other party,’” Dr Sultan-i-Raum, a renowned scholar and historian, told The Express Tribune.

Dr Raum said that he was disappointed with the role of these religious scholars, because they did not dare to challenge the Taliban to protect their religion while they were bringing bad name to the religion.

Shilmani, a noted lawyer from Swat, also questioned the role of these clerics. “They had cold feet and then to avoid reprisals from the Taliban. They blindly followed the Taliban’s directives. And now they are openly flouting their own edicts against polio vaccination,” Shilmani told The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2010.

COMMENTS (7)

Fazal maula Zahid | 13 years ago | Reply You have touched a very importent and sensitive issue for discussion. I have gone through the the article and comments from friends. since I have done a good chunk of research on role of mullah (pesh i imam) in the society and got diverse opinion from friends local and abroad and some of the feeedback I received is worth mentioning. Fact is that there is manufacturing fault in our Madrassah who producing Mullahs. Before discussing the role of Mullah in any social or political activity in our society, it is important to explore this manufacturing fault of Madrassas who also produced narrow minded people called Mullah or Talilbs. During the Khan Shaheed time there were very important Mullahs having nationalist approach across the Subcontinent and unaware/not involved of the establishment perks and privileges, now the time has changed a lot and Mullah seen and experienced the privileges of siding with establishment. Fact is that 1) Mullahs are part of us 2) Mullahs are not the disease but they carry it 3) Mullahs are mainly excluded from the mainstream development and social scene which has made them exclusive as well. Tracing the process of promotion of Pashto literature in the Southern Pukhtunkhwa one see that very significant and progressive role of some of Mullahs who were meaningfully engaged by Khan Shaheed Abdul Samad Khan. So we must welcome them, we should talk to them and we should respect them so that we can find a way to initiate dialogue with this important but potentially nightmarish majority controlling the braines and faiths of Pashtoons Particulalry. I m of the view that the religious characters and institutions have been used and are using by the establishment for their particular purposes, now and then. Many Mullas always play double role in our society. They are doing like ''Meettha meettha hup hup karwaa karwaa thooo". Problem is that our society is dominated by rural class who blindly follows them. The reason is that they have carpeted floor, a loud speaker, a 'teek taak' trained tongue, an authoretative position in religious and day to day affairs and the audience who are obligatory to listen his speeches and act accordingly, no matter what he says. taking these consideration in view, what we need is to involve Mullahs for mass awareness in development sector and put our words in his mouth by paying them monthly emulments/ honorarium. Further to this, to what extent Mullahs should be involved in re-shaping society has to be preceded by the need to have a new concept of Islam instead of the ignorant one prevalent in our country. Take the example of Turkey…there the government of ERdogan has set up a commission to re-interpret Islam so that there is no dichotomy between the concepts “modern” and “Islamic”. This is what we need too. Your thoughts, please! Fazal Maula Zahid Global Peace Council Pakistan

prasad | 13 years ago | Reply I think the problem runs deeper than mullahs spouting a puritan brand of Islam. The problem is anyone who stands up for progressive values can be denigrated very easily. I watched a programme where a Jamat Islami spokesman Mr. Paracha (I think) spoke against education reform as put forward by Mr. Nayyar (a physics professor and human rights activist). "Are you against Deen?' "Should we now say that Qasim is a villain?" "Should we say that all Hindus are good?' "Should we say that Nehru and Gandhi had an equal role in the Independance struggle as Jinnah?" - While all his assertions sound ridiculous, it would find easy acceptance among the rural Muslim women who objected to a Christian woman from using their well. Mr Paracha does not care about the educated, enlightened bloggers and contributors on the Tribune - his constituency is oblivious to all this. The challenge is to reach out to that constituency.

VIEW MORE COMMENTS

Gulalai | 13 years ago | Reply Could anyone face the death of slaughtering, if they went against the Taliban, they would be beheaded and hanged in the Square of Mingora Bazar, so in my view the mullahs were very much clever

Amjad Ali sahaab | 13 years ago | Reply Dear Fazal. I just read out your story on the role of Mulla specially in Swat. It cleared my mind on the dubble dealing of mulla. Let me say that the person in question is the root of all evil. You really spoke my mind. thank u very much

IZ | 13 years ago | Reply @Qasim - there is also a significant movement in the west which claims Barack Obama is a Muslim who was born in Kenya and secretly is trying to destroy the USA. You will notice that the two groups overlap in membership to a large degree - most of the same people claimed the H1N1 vaccine was an attempt by Obama to murder America. Please don't believe everything you read on the internet. Why not try and ask any doctor or person with scientific training? There is a reason the Taliban is going around blowing up schools in Swat and FATA. Because a little bit of education can undermine the authority of the ignorant. Furthermore the polio vaccines have been used throughout the world and have virtually wiped out the disease. The only place it exists is in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria - in all three because of this ridiculous conspiracy theory which stops people from getting vaccinated.

Qasim | 13 years ago | Reply Actually there is a significant movement in the west, with people protesting and rejecting some vaccines. The recent H1N1 vaccine issue in the US, where after some people began exhibiting severe problems after taking a vaccine and a 13 year old boy died, many many people refused to get the vaccination. And Bill Gates, who's "Bill & Melinda Foundation" funds billions of dollars to provide vaccines to poor people in Africa and other places, has publically been on record saying that vaccination would be a wonderful way to bring the human population down to an "optimum" level, which according to him, is 0.5 billion - from the current 6.5 billion population. And it's a quantifiable fact that in our modern era of administering droves of vaccinations to most people in the educated world(and funding vaccination programs in the not-so-educated world), fertility problems have reached unprecedented levels. All I'm saying is - this issue is not so cut-and-dry, and people should do their own research into this stuff and form their own opinions, rather than parroting whatever Uncle Sam says because we think that makes us seem like modern well-informed liberal people.

Shahryar Ahmed | 13 years ago | Reply All these clerics should be put on a long cruise! These mullah's are Pakistan's real problem, all they have done is pull us back to stone ages. These were the very same people who opposed Sir Syed Ahmed on education for Muslims & these are the same people who justify suicide attacks. All they want is Qorma & Halwa on Qoran Khani's. When is demanding a permanent seat of the Security Council, these guys are fighting against Polio Vaccines, on the pretext of a Jewish conspiracy. My God!

Replying to X