The Mosque of the strange alliances

Miguel Murado

President Musharraf is a lucky fellow. Who would deny that? Not only he has just emerged unscathed from the fourth attempt on his life in four years, the jihadis who are barricading themselves inside the Red Mosque of Islamabad have presented him on a silver plate the political triumph he so badly needed. If the Army storms the mosque, which seems inevitable, Musharraf will improved his image improving in the eyes of the White House, impatient as it was with him for not doing enough against the Taliban and their allies in Pakistan. At the same time, the rebels’ showdown has been so out of proportion, so irrational, that even the less radical Islamist opposition parties in Parliament had to give the Government (grudgingly) their support. Musharraf sees thus his popularity enhanced just a few months before an election whose prospects were gloomy for him.

But the Red Mosque deserves some comment. Right at the centre of Islamabad, it lies at a walking distance from the HQ of the Pakistani secret services, the infamous ISI, whose members use to pray precisely in there. It’s koranic school was a first choice among the Pakistani upper classes for their children, and nobody said a word while, back in times of the pro-American dictator Zia Ulaq, scores of jihadis were indoctrinated, trained and sent to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. It’s current relationship with the Taliban and Bin Laden is nothing but the logical continuation of that pre-9-11 context.

Even after 9-11 there were reasons to leave alone the Red Mosque. Musharraf’s attitude towards this centre of learning is, in fact, quite revealing in terms of his policy of double appeasement toward Islamists and Americans. He did not dare touch such a prestigious institution, so well connected with the groups that control the Waziristans. Thus, the ISI agents were sent after the less dangerous Jihadist groups, in particular those who are more into the business of terrorism in the Shia-Sunni divide. Then, those very same agents would go and pray at the Red Mosque, as previously said, where they would occasionally hire some no less radical student ready to go and blow himself into pieces together with a number of civilians in Kashmir or India.

The problem is that now the students from the Red Mosque have go wild, and throughout this year they’ve trying to force the Shaaria Law in Islamabad, threatening video club owners and kidnapping poor Chinese masseuses with the aim of “rooting out vice” in the capital. Musharraf only needed to wait until they went to far, I too far they’ve gone. Not even their leaders can control them (one has given up, the other admits that he’d be kill if he compromises). The students want an Apocalypse now. And right now is precisely what Musharraf needs.

(Miguel Murado is a former Middle East correspondent and current political analyst for the Spanish newspaper La Voz de Galicia)

Miguel Murado
La Voz de Galicia,