Amanda Hodge, South Asia correspondent March 06
CRICKET is akin to a religion in Pakistan, which might explain why it is so loathed by Islamic extremists there.
While few believe Tuesday's terror strike on the Sri Lankan team was designed as a specific attack on the sport of cricket, the ambush has highlighted one of the more peculiar preoccupations of Islamic extremists.
Following the Indian cricket tour of Pakistan in 2004 -- the first in a decade -- the Lashkar-e-Toiba terror group in Pakistan issued what amounted to a fatwa against the sport.
"The British gave Muslims the bat, snatched the sword and said to them: 'You take this bat and play cricket. Give us your sword. With its help we will kill you and rape your women'," the LET magazine Zarb-e-Toiba said in its April 2004 edition.
The magazine article commented: "It is sad that Pakistanis are committing suicide after losing cricket matches to India. But they are not sacrificing their lives to protect the honour of the raped Kashmiri women. To watch a cricket match we would take a day off work. But for jihad, we have not time!"
More fitting for a mujahid (or holy fighter), the magazine said, were the sports of archery, horseriding and swimming.
"The above are not just sports but exercises for jihad," Zarb-e-Toiba told its readers.
"Cricket is an evil and sinful sport. Under the intoxication of cricket, Pakistanis have forgotten that these Hindu players come from the same nation that raped our mothers, sisters, daughters, wives and daughters-in-law."
The Punjab-based LET is a prime suspect for the Lahore attack, with analysts suggesting it could be motivated by a desire to retaliate for the recent arrests of six top operatives linked to November's Mumbai terror strike.
The other major suspect for the ambush, the Tehrik-e-Taliban -- which has waged a bloody campaign for control of the northwestern tribal areas and Swat Valley -- has also made clear its distaste for flannelled fools.
Just days before Tuesday's attack, Sufi Mohammad, the Taliban-linked cleric who brokered the dubious peace deal between militants in the Swat Valley and the Islamabad Government in return for the imposition of sharia law, condemned cricket as a distraction that needed to be curbed.
But cricket is not universally condemned among Islamists. During its years in power, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan applied -- unsuccessfully -- for membership of the International Cricket Council. The sport was played in Afghanistan during that time, although with a distinct Talibani flavour. Players were forbidden from wearing short-sleeved shirts, and crowd participation of any sort was banned, as were women spectators.
Several of Pakistan's national cricket team are devout Muslims.
But there is a growing movement against the sport among Pakistan's increasingly powerful Islamist militants now waging war within Pakistan for the overthrow of the civilian Government.
The Hindu newspaper noted yesterday that the weekly radical Islamist magazine al-Qalam last year attacked Pakistan's plans to reform its religious schools, or madrassas, which included plans for an inter-schools cricket tournament it branded as "evil".
"We, the ulema (arbiters of sharia law) of the Deoband school, will have nothing to do with this tournament," al-Qalam's editors wrote in April last year, saying the West was "promoting obscenity" in Pakistan's schools.
CRICKET is akin to a religion in Pakistan, which might explain why it is so loathed by Islamic extremists there.
While few believe Tuesday's terror strike on the Sri Lankan team was designed as a specific attack on the sport of cricket, the ambush has highlighted one of the more peculiar preoccupations of Islamic extremists.
Following the Indian cricket tour of Pakistan in 2004 -- the first in a decade -- the Lashkar-e-Toiba terror group in Pakistan issued what amounted to a fatwa against the sport.
"The British gave Muslims the bat, snatched the sword and said to them: 'You take this bat and play cricket. Give us your sword. With its help we will kill you and rape your women'," the LET magazine Zarb-e-Toiba said in its April 2004 edition.
The magazine article commented: "It is sad that Pakistanis are committing suicide after losing cricket matches to India. But they are not sacrificing their lives to protect the honour of the raped Kashmiri women. To watch a cricket match we would take a day off work. But for jihad, we have not time!"
More fitting for a mujahid (or holy fighter), the magazine said, were the sports of archery, horseriding and swimming.
"The above are not just sports but exercises for jihad," Zarb-e-Toiba told its readers.
"Cricket is an evil and sinful sport. Under the intoxication of cricket, Pakistanis have forgotten that these Hindu players come from the same nation that raped our mothers, sisters, daughters, wives and daughters-in-law."
The Punjab-based LET is a prime suspect for the Lahore attack, with analysts suggesting it could be motivated by a desire to retaliate for the recent arrests of six top operatives linked to November's Mumbai terror strike.
The other major suspect for the ambush, the Tehrik-e-Taliban -- which has waged a bloody campaign for control of the northwestern tribal areas and Swat Valley -- has also made clear its distaste for flannelled fools.
Just days before Tuesday's attack, Sufi Mohammad, the Taliban-linked cleric who brokered the dubious peace deal between militants in the Swat Valley and the Islamabad Government in return for the imposition of sharia law, condemned cricket as a distraction that needed to be curbed.
But cricket is not universally condemned among Islamists. During its years in power, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan applied -- unsuccessfully -- for membership of the International Cricket Council. The sport was played in Afghanistan during that time, although with a distinct Talibani flavour. Players were forbidden from wearing short-sleeved shirts, and crowd participation of any sort was banned, as were women spectators.
Several of Pakistan's national cricket team are devout Muslims.
But there is a growing movement against the sport among Pakistan's increasingly powerful Islamist militants now waging war within Pakistan for the overthrow of the civilian Government.
The Hindu newspaper noted yesterday that the weekly radical Islamist magazine al-Qalam last year attacked Pakistan's plans to reform its religious schools, or madrassas, which included plans for an inter-schools cricket tournament it branded as "evil".
"We, the ulema (arbiters of sharia law) of the Deoband school, will have nothing to do with this tournament," al-Qalam's editors wrote in April last year, saying the West was "promoting obscenity" in Pakistan's schools.
Source: The Australian
Posts
