Ghaus Siwani, New Delhi

Pakistan-born religious scholar Maulana Javed Ahmed Ghamidi often gets into controversies due to his unique views and bold talk. For this reason, the narrow-minded Pakistani society could not accept him and he had to leave the country.

Living in the USA, Maulana Ghamidi expresses his views through media and social media freely, enjoying real freedom of expression that was not possible in his native country. He openly criticizes Pakistani society, judiciary, army, and its scholars.

Ghamidi alleges that all these sections of people in Pakistan support religious extremism and terrorism which are flourishing in Pakistan. He feels these are the twin causes of the destruction of his country.

He is highly critical of Pakistan's policies and behavior with India in Jammu and Kashmir and Afghanistan.

Maulana Javed Ahmed Ghamidi believes that Pakistan should not interfere in Kashmir and only the people of Kashmir (J&K) should have the right to decide about their future. He strongly believes and advocates openly that Pakistan should not sponsor terrorism in India in the name of the Kashmir issue.

He also disapproves of Pakistan's intervention in Afghanistan and is also a critic of the Taliban regime in Kabul.

In the past few days, Maulana Javed Ahmed Ghamidi also spoke openly on topics like terrorism and extremism, the situation in Pakistan, and the need for ijtihad.

On the recent incident of the burning of the Holy Quran in Sweden, GamIdi said it is the book of Allah. “It is the responsibility of all of us, the Muslims, to convey its message to the rest of the people. Have we Muslims spent all our energy in explaining to the world the message of the Quran? What is its significance? Our job is to introduce his message and if someone criticizes, he has the right to do so, if someone objects he has the right to object.”

He further said that the Holy Quran answers all the objections that people raise about the Book and Islam. “The Qur'an is the book of Allah, many surahs of the Qur'an were revealed to clarify this fact. What the Qur'an did then, we still have to do.”

Soon after the incident of the burning of the Quran in Sweden, he said, “If a person goes beyond the objection and does something that causes pain to us, then the Holy Quran has said that be patient, be patient with whatever pain is given to you”.

Quoting from Prophet Muhammad’s life, he said such incidents happened in the lifetime of the Prophet and will continue to happen until the Day of Resurrection. “Your job is to convey the message of the Quran to the people. By protesting one doesn’t not much; it only brings more ridicule. It increases the opportunities for more people to become angry and become reluctant (to listen to the message of the Quran)

 He said that the teaching of the Quran is that if the Quran is mocked, one should leave such a gathering immediately.

On the blasphemy laws of Pakistan and some other countries, Gamidi said that the punishment for various crimes has been prescribed in the Holy Quran, but the punishment for blasphemy has not been prescribed.

“The Holy Quran does not mention it (Blasphemy). Even in the Prophet's era, there were incidents of people insulting the Prophet, but no punishment was prescribed for it.”

Maulana Ghamidi said there is a belief which speaks about Hazrat Umar bin Khattab beheaded a person for not obeying the decision of the Prophet. However, this incident is not supported by any fact or hadith.

On Pakistan, he said the country has been suffering from conflict since its inception. There has been controversy over the style of government. He criticized the extremism in Pakistan and said that if Pakistan wants a Taliban-type system it must invite the Afghan rulers and see the “worst government”.

Maulana Javed Ghamidi severely criticized the Taliban government in Afghanistan and said that the Taliban have no right to rule against the will of the Afghan people. He further said that no government has a right to interfere in the personal affairs of the people. God has not given it this right.

On the instability in Pakistan, Maulana Javed Ghamidi says that Pakistan is born with a duality. “The Military emerges more powerful in the conflict between it and democracy.

He says Pakistan’s second ailment is the conflict between religion and the nation-state. “The era of empires ended after the First World War, followed by the era of nation-states. The states that became independent, adopted the path of nation-states. The era of nation-states started first in Europe and then in Asia. A nation-state means that the people living in a region are one nation, irrespective of their religion,” he explains.

He states in the modern nation-state nobody can be discriminated against based on religion, caste, or colour. On one hand, there is a democracy, and on the other hand a religious state. “This means that there can be a state of one religion, it can be Sunni scholars, it can be Shia scholars, it can be a nation like the Taliban. There is a big difference between religion and nation-state. It is like the difference between East and West.’

“In a religious state, only the people of one religion will be given the power, and the common man will have no role. People of other religions will live as second-class, third-class citizens. Let me submit here that the government of Muslims in which Sharia is followed is a third type of government.”

On the future of Pakistan, Maulana Ghamidi says that it is high time Pakistan is treated for its ills.”Neither democracy nor dictatorship will work here; the experiment is over.  If this conflict does not end and the judiciary and the army do not follow the constitution, then nothing will change. The Constitution is a contract. I give importance to the constitution of 1973 as it is the sole guarantor of the survival of Pakistan. Every constitution has some problems, we can correct them. But this constitution has never been accepted wholeheartedly by the Army and, regrettably, neither has it been wholeheartedly accepted by the judiciary.”

​I would like to say with apologies that our judiciary is also disgraced. Our religious parties do not believe in democracy. Democracy is a strategic thing for them. If democracy has to be built as a ladder to establish a religious government, they accept it.

Talking about religious extremism and terrorism in Pakistan, Javed Ahmed Ghamidi says that “if you have an ideology and adopt violent behavior to convince others, this is extremism and you would want to oppress others. You want to convince others with a gun; it is extremism. This extremism has taken a form, various groups have organized, and they have started slitting each other's throats, this has given birth to terrorism. That is, human lives are in danger.”

On Ijtihad, they say that the way to knowledge is that you do ijtihad, research. Be it scientific studies or religious studies, Ijtihad and research are needed in all. We have fallen here because the door of research and reflection has been closed. This door must be opened. As long as we do not allow questions in the matter of religion, knowledge will not advance.

Religion is a matter of Allah but questioning is necessary to understand religion. Religion always requires understanding.

, he said.Is it necessary for women to cover their heads with a dupatta? On this, Javed Ahmed Ghamidi says that it has been said in the Quran that old women can remove their dupatta from their chest, but it is better not to remove it.

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“If women are going to face men and they are wearing jewelry, then it is necessary for them to cover it. However, if they have not worn jewelry and have not done any adornment (makeup), they can go out without a dupatta, but they should cover their head with a dupatta.

Javed Ghamidi says that the dupatta is a part of our culture.