Ex-Minister Prepares to Sue Lal Masjid

In Pakistan Nilofer Bhaktiar has served legal notice on Lal Masjid. Nilofer was the Tourism minister who resigned after having a Fatwah issued against her by the disowned, renegade madrassa

nilofer-bhaktiar.jpgIn Pakistan Nilofer Bhaktiar has served legal notice on Lal Masjid. Nilofer was the Tourism minister who resigned after having a Fatwah issued against her by the disowned, renegade madrassa.

From the Daily Times:

Former Tourism Minister Senator Nilofar Bakhtiar served a legal notice on the Lal Masjid ‘shariat court’ on Wednesday for issuing a fatwa asking her to apologise for hugging a male paragliding instructor in France. The notice served through Dr Aslam Khaki said the fatwa damaged Bakhtiar’s reputation, family honour and political career. The notice asks Mufti Yunus, who issued the decree, to apologise for un-Islamic and unlawful conduct that hurt the dignity of an honourable Muslim lady. The notice, seen by Daily Times, warned that failure to apologise would result in civil and legal proceedings.

I think this is perfect, as the Shariat court is illegal, and it is the legal institutions in Pakistan that should overthrow it’s increasingly bizzarre Fatwahs and proclamations. The mullah professes to interpret the Koran, but he’s crazier than the Imam who issued the breast-feeding fatwah when you  come down to it.

So right now Lal Masjid is after five Christian nurses, several employees of Octane magazine, the tourism minister, every CD store in Pakistan, everyone who doesn’t dress the way they like, every man who doesn’t wear his hair right, the government, the west, and anything else newer than the fourteenth century.

The madrassa has really gone entirely political, and by focusing on what everyone else is doing they are ultimately neglecting their students religious studies. They almost openly sympathize with the Taliban, and speculation has it that many of their students are licit and illicit children of old-guard ISI members, which is yet another reason the government hasn’t acted directly.

More on the political background here.