The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
A video released by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (the Movement of Pakistani Taliban, TTP) has criticized Pakistan for a landmark 2018 law that protects the rights of transgender persons. The video features a statement by radical Afghan Islamic scholar Maulana Zahid Azizkhil who justifies jihad against Pakistan and urges Pakistanis to take up arms against their government.[1]
The video is titled "Zer-e-Nazar: Parliament Kay Faislay – 1 (Under Review: Parliament's Decisions – 1)," implying that a second part will follow. The video is produced by Umar Media, the media wing of TTP. The thirteen-minute video has commentary in Urdu language and is aimed at a Pakistani audience. It incites Pakistani people to take up arms against the Pakistani government, affirming that it is useless to simply protest against the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights), Act 2018, a law protecting the rights of the LGBTQ community in Pakistan.
Afghan cleric Maulana Zahid Azizkhil, who is presented in the video as Mufti-e-Azam (Grand Mufti) of Afghanistan, speaks in Pashtu with Urdu subtitles. It does not appear that Azizkhil was ever appointed to the position of Mufti-e-Azam by the Afghan government, either the current one run by the Taliban, or the previous democratic governments.
Afghan cleric Maulana Zahid Azizkhil
In the video released online by the TTP, Maulana Zahid Azizkhil declares that the TTP is justified in conducting jihad against Pakistan because it allows men to marry men, and women to marry women. Although the law was enacted in 2018, it is only recently that some Pakistani clerics have been speaking out against it in the media.
Showing pictures of the Parliament House in Islamabad and a clip of Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, the former speaker of Pakistan's National Assembly, supervising a vote on the transgender welfare bill in the parliament, the video states that the Pakistani parliament, in violation of human and natural norms, passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2018 in order to appease the West.
"The Pakistani Muslims should now realize that the parliament, GHQ [General Headquarters of Pakistan Army], governor houses [in provinces], and people in other ministries have started striking deals on your honor for usury-based loans. Rise up and realize that empty-handed protests, attractive slogans, and making noise [against such laws] is of no use anymore. When you do not have a gun in your hand, speaking against the satanic lawmakers is useless," the Urdu commentary declares while showing a group of armed TTP fighters praying.
"We have the same expectations from the anti-Islam parliament as what it is doing now. However, the problem of the general public is that they are confused under what law they live their lives. Whenever there are issues of adultery, or feigning laws, soodi [usury] market, or wine bars, vulgarity, or [genders] mixing, the parliament always stands to appease the West," the commentary to the video states.
Title of the video: Zer-e-Nazar: Parliament Kay Faislay –1
The centerpiece of the video is a Pashtu-language statement by a radical Afghan cleric Maulana Zahid Azizkhil. Reacting to the Transgender Act, Maulana Zahid Azizkhil says sexual relations between a man and a man, or a man and a boy, are completely haram ("forbidden") in Islam. However, in spite of that, the parliament of Pakistan got this law passed with agreement from the president, the prime minister, and the ministers.
With this law, the parliament allowed a man to celebrate nikah ["Islamic wedding"] with another man and a woman to marry a woman, the cleric says, adding that those who declare a completely forbidden act as permissible are considered unbelievers and apostates, and are removed forthwith from the circle of Islam.
"Those who passed this resolution, those who voted for this resolution, and those who called this resolution legitimate have all become infidels and are persons out of the circle of Islam until they repent it," Maulana Zahid Azizkhil declares, adding: "Seizing their wealth is halal [permissible] and shedding their blood is halal. They are complete apostates."
In the video, the Afghan cleric advocates jihad against Pakistan and justifies the jihad being waged by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan against the Pakistani military and other state institutions. "From now on, unless the Pakistani government repents for it [the law] as illegitimate and publicly announces that all this is illegal, jihad against them is completely mandatory for all Muslims. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has the right and is justified to wage jihad against them. Anyone who dies while fighting against this cruel and wrong apostate [Pakistani] government is a martyr," concludes the Afghan cleric.
The video shows the TTP fighters offering their duas (supplications)
Pakistan Parliament in Islamabad
[1] October 14, 2022.
The full text of this post is available to subscribers.
Please login or register to request subscription information from MEMRI
