Why Is Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan Chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi, The Barelvi Cleric, Protesting France Caricatures In Pakistan
By Zeeshan Shaikh
November
17, 2020
Hundreds of
protesters from the far right Islamist organisation Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan
(TLP) have been holding protests outside Pakistan’s capital Islamabad against
the publication of caricatures of the Holy Prophet in France. The TLP is led by
the hardline Sunni Barelvi cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi.
Khadim Rizvi, centre on
wheelchair, head of 'Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, a religious political party,
leads a rally against the French President Emmanuel Macron and the republishing
in France of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad they deem blasphemous, in
Karachi, Pakistan, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
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Who is Maulana Khadim Hussain Rizvi?
The
54-year-old wheelchair bound preacher is a former Pakistan government employee
and hails from Attock district in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Rizvi has
memorised the Quran and is an ardent follower of the Islamic theologian Ahmed
Raza Khan Barelvi, who was born in Bareilly in undivided India in the 19th
century and founded the Barelvi school of thought. Khadim Hussain took up the
name Rizvi as a tribute to Ahmed Raza Khan.
As the
government appointed Imam of the Pir Makki Mosque in Lahore, Khadim Rizvi
earned a reputation as a firebrand speaker and charismatic leader among his
followers. He has a penchant for the poetry of Allama Iqbal, and his sermons
are replete with Persian couplets written by the great poet.
Supporters of hardline
Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan carry placards and shout slogans during a protest
against the reprinting of cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad by French magazine
Charlie Hebdo, in Rawalpindi on September 4, 2020. (Aamir Qureshi / AFP)
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When Did Khadim Rizvi Emerge As A Player In Pakistan’s
Political Scene?
The
Barelvis are close to 50 per cent Pakistan’s population, but they do not have
the political profile of the Deobandis and the Ahl-e-Hadees. The Barelvi school
of thought was once sought to be projected as the softer face of Islam, but
that project went to pieces in 2011 after the assassination of former Punjab
governor Salman Taseer.
Salman
Taseer’s assassin Mumtaz Qadri was a Barelvi, who proclaimed that he had killed
Taseer because he had spoken out in support of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who
had been jailed for alleged blasphemy.
Qadri was a
follower of Khadim Rizvi, who has been vocal in opposing any reforms to
Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, and sees any attempt to do so as an attack on the
Holy Prophet’s honour.
Rizvi was
instrumental in starting the Tehreek Rihai Mumtaz Qadri (Movement to free
Mumtaz Qadri). After Qadri was hanged in February 2016, Rizvi’s supporters
posted a video of him on social media weeping at the funeral, and putting his
turban at the feet of Qadri for not being able to save him.
The
movement to free Qadri was subsequently renamed as Tehreek-e-Labbaik Ya
Rasoolullah (TLYRA) in 2016, which then transformed into the political party
Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan. The TLP contested the 2018 Pakistan general
elections, and won two seats in the Sindh Assembly.
What Does The TLP Want?
The TLP
sees itself as the guardian of Hurmat-e-Rasool (Prophet Muhammad’s honour) and
the custodian of Pakistan’s infamous blasphemy laws.
At a time
when questions have been raised about the use of blasphemy laws in the country
which recently saw a bank manager being shot dead by its security guard
allegedly over blasphemy allegations in Punjab’s Khushab district, Rizvi and
TLP’s other top leaders have vowed to defend these laws with their lives.
The TLP has
called for the death penalty for anyone proposing amendments to these laws.
TLP spokesman, Shafiq Amini,
said the government had accepted the protesters' demands and would put the
issue of expelling the French ambassador before Parliament in three months
[Anjum Naveed/AP Photo]
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Has Rizvi
held such protests earlier too?
Yes, he
has.
In 2016,
Rizvi led protesters into Islamabad’s high-security Red Zone, and staged a
sit-in demanding that Asia Bibi be hanged.
In 2017, he
staged another sit-in, blocking the main highway connecting Rawalpindi and
Islamabad seeking the resignation of Pakistan’s then law minister Zahid Hamid
over changes in a law related to the Khatm-i-Nabuwwat
(Finality of Prophethood) oath in the Elections Act, 2017.
Rizvi’s
group alleged that the action undermined Islamic beliefs, and linked it to
blasphemy. The protests were called off after the resignation of Hamid and with
the intervention of the Pakistani Army, which had said it would not use force
against the protesters.
A video
from the protest site had showed the Director General of Punjab Rangers Major
General Azhar Naveed Hayat handing out cash-filled envelopes to the protesters.
He later said the money was being given to them as travel expenses for reaching
their homes.
The TLP had
last week announced plans to gather and march from Rawalpindi Press Club till
Faizabad in Islamabad against the publication of caricatures by the French
satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. It has also called for a boycott of French
products, and the expulsion of the French ambassador from Islamabad.
“We are not
emotional or fanatics. People who bombed Syria and hanged Saddam Hussein on Eid
are fanatics. We are only talking about the honour of our Prophet. Whenever you
talk about Islam your tongues slip. People need to keep control over their
tongues,” Rizvi said in the course of a speech in Karachi last week. ?? Click to follow Express Explained on
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Original Headline: Who is Khadim Hussain Rizvi,
the Barelvi cleric whose supporters are protesting France caricatures in
Pakistan?
Source: The Indian Express
URL: https://newageislam.com/radical-islamism-jihad/tehreek-e-labbaik-pakistan-chief/d/123515
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