ISLAMABAD, 16 August 2003 — Like many people in Pakistan’s capital, college student Ali Raza agrees with a new edict by hard-line Islamic clerics that opposes the possible deployment of Pakistani troops to Iraq.
The edict, or fatwa, is severe, warning troops they won’t be eligible for martyrdom if they die helping the US-led coalition forces. The clerics also said that the soldiers wouldn’t deserve an Islamic funeral.
It makes perfect sense to 20-year-old Raza, who yesterday strolled through the streets of Islamabad dressed in a shalwar kameez, a traditional outfit with baggy pants and a long tunic. “How can someone helping the infidels be a martyr?” he asked. “Infidels should be fought, not helped.”
The clerics issued the fatwa Thursday during Pakistan’s Independence Day at a rally of nearly 10,000 people in Rawalpindi, a city next to Islamabad. The religious scholars, part of an eight-member council, warned that troops sent to Iraq will be “deprived of their wealth of faith.”
The United States and Britain have asked Pakistan to send troops to Iraq. Pakistani officials have said the government would send troops but under the auspices of the United Nations or another international organization.
A coalition of hard-line Islamic political paties, which organized Thursday’s rally, is leading the opposition to sending troops to Iraq. The alliance is the second major opposition bloc in the Parliament.
A lawmaker from the alliance said the group will keep pressuring the government.
“We will inform the people that the government is making decisions against Islam,” said Maulana Hamid-ul Haq, a member of the National Assembly or lower house of Pakistan’s Parliament.
Amjad Mahmood, a driver, said Pakistan has already made a mistake by helping the US-led fight against terrorism in neighboring Afghanistan. “Troops should not be sent to Iraq. A lot of Muslims have already been killed there,” said Mahmood, as he waited in his car as his employer shopped. Opposition to the US is common in Pakistan where religious leaders usually draw support through anti-American rhetoric.
