This is Siraj ul-Haq, a leader of the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, detained by police at a demonstration against Musharraf in Islamabad.
He will be the second Jamaat speaker on the upcoming tour of the UK, alongside former party head Qazi Hussain Ahmed.
The man is certainly accustomed to struggles with the authorities. As well he might be – he thinks he is on a cosmic mission for Islam which demands fighting.
For example, when just one idiotic American pastor threatened to burn the Qur’an earlier this year, ul-Haq saw it as evidence of the global Jewish and Christian conspiracy against Islam:
Mr. Siraj said the American priest wanted to spread ‘fasad’ [disorder, corruption] on the earth by burning the Holy Quran. “The Jews and Christians can not defeat and defame Islam by their hollow threats but they are testing our pulses through sensational announcements across the globe”
Closer to home, jihad is the solution. Why is the Afghan war dragging on and on? In part because jihadis find sanctuary in Pakistan. So don’t dare attack them:
Maulana Siraj-ul-Haq, the Emir of Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, has warned of a nationwide jihad if the U.S. forces attack the Pakistan’s tribal region in the pursuit of the Taliban militants.
According to a report in the Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Jasarat, Maulana Siraj-ul-Haq said that should the U.S. attack the tribal region, jihad will be launched in the region from Karachi through Chitral in the NWFP on the Afghan border.
According to the report, the Jamaat-e-Islami leader said that mosques and minarets are the fortresses of Islamic revolution.
He said that in 2008. This is just one scene from a very long story. Here he is back in 2000:
Jamaat-e-Islami has urged Afghanistan’s Taliban not to hand over Saudi national Osama bin Laden to the United States or any other country.
The demand was made by Jamaat-e-Islami provincial Secretary General Sirajul Haq in a meeting with the acting Governor of Eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar Maulvi Sadr-e-Azam during his three-day visit to the war-ravaged Afghanistan, reports Radio Tehran.
Sirajul Haq assured every kind of help and support to the Taliban on behalf of the Jamaat. The Jamaat delegation pledged strong support to the Taliban on Osama bin Laden’s issue and urged Taliban not to hand him over to the United States or any other country.
After 9/11, even FBI investigators were not welcome in Pakistan. In fact, they should be threatened. Here he is in 2003:
Of the FBI presence in the region, Mr Haq said: “Pakistan considers operations conducted in the name of the hunt for al-Qaeda as false operations.
“We hope that no one will displease us, otherwise it will be very harmful for everyone.”
When jihadis are hit in Pakistan, ul-Haq stands up for them. In October 2006 Pakistani forces attacked a madrassa near the Afghan border that had been used by the Taliban and al Qaeda to shelter and train fighters. Ul-Haq was furious:
“The government has launched an attack during the night, which is against Islam and the traditions of the area,” he said. “They (the victims) were not given any warning. This was an unprovoked attack on a madrassa. They were innocent people.”
Indeed, ul-Haq led prayers at the funeral of the jihadis.
It is inexcusable that the UK Islamic Mission (UKIM) is bringing such a horrible extremist to Britain. Lord Ahmed, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, Labour MP Anas Sarwar and Farooq Murad of the Muslim Council of Britain should be ashamed of accompanying him on his tour.
Then again, if Theresa May does the right thing, the tour may never happen.
