Is it religion or politics that has kept the Pakistan government from shutting down mosques? Opinion | akkhan81
Congregational prayers are, of course, a pillar of Islam and understood by many as a mandatory requirement, but throughout the world, Muslims are adjusting their religious duties to save lives. This is seen as necessary by the state to protect citizens and also well within the demands of Islam.
But Islam was not absent from the understandings of national identity either. In 1949, less than two years after Pakistan's founding, the Constituent Assembly passed the Objectives Resolution which declared: "Sovereignty belongs to Allah alone but He has delegated it to the state of Pakistan through its people for being exercised within the limits prescribed by Him as a sacred trust.
It was the military dictatorship of General Zia ul Haq that formalised and intensified the link between Islam and the state, making Islam the basis for state sovereignty. Moreover, the period witnessed the dramatic growth of madrassa education funded in part through the collection of zakat taxes and flow of funding from Saudi Arabia toIslam's symbolic importance grew throughout the next few decades. Zia's Islamisation expanded the political space for religious political parties and also led to the politicisation of the Islamic ulema who became increasingly involved in matters of the state.
Madrassas in Pakistan produce graduates who fill the mosques of Pakistan, and they depend on mosques for their livelihood. The mosque economy depends on alms and is therefore tied to the flow of bodies in the mosque. To demand a closing of mosques can, then, potentially invite the ire of one's constituency.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, a former cricketer and once-notorious playboy has reinvented himself as a born-again pious Muslim and routinely claims that the mission of his party is to create a "This vision of an Islamic society is not necessarily in keeping with that of the ulema, and Imran Khan has faced resistance and afrom Islamic groups and parties. But, to override the collective body of ulema is very difficult for a government that routinely affirms its Islamic credentials.
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