Radical Pakistani Cleric Plans Homicide Attacks If Mosque is Raided

Fox News is reporting Saturday that "a Pakistani cleric leading a Taliban -style drive against vice in the capital on Friday threatened suicide attacks if the government raided his mosque, and demanded the closure of brothels and video shops within a month." (Fox News article) The cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, brazenly challenged the authority of the Pakistani government by urging his followers to threaten shop owners selling music, movies, or anything not conforming to his ideals. In addition, his followers kidnapped a woman who allegedly owned a brothel and held her for two days. She was released upon making a public confession.

"Authorities have taken no action so far against Aziz and the students from the adjoining seminary, raising concern that "Talibanization" is spreading unchecked across Pakistan. Officials say force would only be used against students if negotiations fail.
'If the government says it will launch an operation against us as a last resort, our last resort will be suicide bombings,' Aziz told the crowd. Bearded young men from a seminary associated with the Red Mosque punched the air in response." (Fox News article) The Pakistani government, however, is not so easily intimidated.

According to Tariq Azim, the minister of information in Pakistan, Aziz isn't clearly assessing the situation. "'They have misjudged the government's resolve. We want to avoid the use of force against them. We want to resolve all issues through peaceful means,' Azim told The Associated Press. He accused the cleric of using female seminary students as a human shield." (Fox News article) At this time, the Pakistani government has no intention of meeting the demands of the radical cleric and his followers.

In addition to the boisterous calls for government action, jihad, kidnapping, and homicide attacks, Maulana Aziz and his followers have set fire to thousands of movies from the West and India, taken control of the only children's library in Islamabad, and are poised to unleash even more violence. The example of Aziz and his followers are but one example of a larger issue.

"Hard-line Islamists - who have gained influence by tapping popular opposition to Pakistan's support for Washington's war on terror - have pressed steadily for curbs on 'un-Islamic' behavior such as the distribution of Western movies. Most of the agitation for Taliban-style social controls has been in the conservative northwest, along the Afghan border, where sympathies run high for the fundamentalist Taliban militia that ruled Afghanistan before a U.S.-led invasion in 2001. The Taliban banned TV and largely confined women to their homes. The move to impose a similar style of restrictions in Islamabad has alarmed many in the relatively liberal city and added to the impression that mosque and its thousands of followers are above the law." (Fox News article) Aziz and his followers are but one threat to the relatively moderate Pakistani government.