There are nearly 12,000 madrasahs in Pakistan and Maulana Abdul Aziz is in charge of only two of them. Nevertheless, when he begins insisting that God gives he and his students the responsibility to force the community's adherence to Shari'ah law -- through violence, if neccessary, then even the Pakistani government realizes there's very serious trouble ahead.
The madrasahs are certainly not an insignificant force. These schools, which oversee the religious education and board for more than one million Pakistani children (often free of charge), develop intense loyalty from their students and many in the community as well. And they have long been criticized as being breeding grounds for religious extremism and intolerance, so much so that in recent months the Pakistan government has put the madrasahs under close scrutiny.
But now comes the call from Maulana Abdul Aziz that the students are ready to move in and enforce the Shari'ah law that the government is failing to do. In fact, Abdul Aziz and other clerics have set up a Shari'ah court and given a one month deadline to the government to implement Shari'ah law.
Bad news.
And when the crimes to be punished by Abdul Aziz's vigilante squads include not only prostitution but the catch-all category of "secular activities," that bodes religious persecution of the worst kinds.
..."We will start our Islamic revolution in Islamabad by launching a crackdown on CDs, DVDs and other secular activities," said Maulana Abdul Aziz, who is in charge of the two madrasahs.
"The exercise will be extended to the NWFP and other areas at later stages. We have full support of madrasahs in various cities," he claimed.
Abdul Aziz claimed that thousands of students were ready to sacrifice their lives to enforce Shari`ah...
Here's more from the DPM News Agency story and here is a report from ZeeNews.
