Asia-Pacific, Development & Aid, Education, Global, Global Geopolitics, Headlines, Human Rights, Religion

RELIGION-PAKISTAN: Shia-Sunni Tensions Surface on Campus

Aoun Abbas Sahi

LAHORE, Sep 27 2007 (IPS) - Prayer time at Pakistan’s hallowed University of the Punjab (PU), normally a solemn averment of the brotherhood of the faithful, is nowadays marked by the deep Shia-Sunni schism that has riven the Muslim world.

At mosques located within the many campuses of the university, spread around this historic city, groups of Shia students can be seen waiting patiently for majority Sunni students to finish saying their prayers before moving in to offer their own separately.

‘’I am seeing this happening for the first time… students of different sects offering prayers separately in the university mosques," says Muhammad Ali, a hostel watchman at PU since 1975.

According to Ali it all started at the beginning of the year when Shia students were prevented from attending congregational prayers behind a Sunni imam (prayer leader). &#39&#39They then offered their prayers after the Sunni students had finished,’’ he recalls.

The Shia-Sunni divide is a major feature of Pakistani society with the two sects maintaining separate mosques and avoiding joint prayers. Recent years have seen a flare-up in instances of attacks on each other’s mosques said to have been inspired by sectarian violence Iraq.

In the worst of these instances, on Oct. 1, 2004, 30 persons were killed in the bombing of a Shia mosque in Sialkot and, in what appeared to be a retaliatory massacre, a week later, 40 participants in a Sunni congregation in Multan city died.

Although similar sectarian attacks occur in Lahore, things were considered different at PU, which was founded as a centre of academic excellence by the colonial British in 1882. Until the 1947 partition of the sub-continent, PU had jurisdiction over prestigious colleges as far away as Delhi, now India’s capital.

Despite that truncation PU has always been huge by any standards and today consists of 70 departments and institutions with over 24,000 regular students on its rolls. It counts among its alumni two Nobel laureates – Har Gobind Khorana who claimed the 1968 prize for medicine and Abdus Salam for theoretical physics in 1979.

Post partition, PU quickly turned into a stronghold of right-wing Sunni students led by the Islami Jamiat Talba (IJT), the powerful student wing of the conservative Jamaat-e-Islami party that advocates rule under Shariah law.

The IJT flourished during the early 1980s through the ‘Islamisation’ programme of the military dictator Gen. Zia ul Haq. His regime was a time of concern among Sunnis over the revolution in Iran and through it the revival of Shia fortunes. Approximately 15 percent of all Muslims the world over are Shias but they are concentrated in Iran and Iraq and form significant minorities in countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

In Pakistan, Zia’s regime saw vicious persecution unleashed against the Shias, who form 20 percent of this country’s 165 million people, and against smaller sects such as the Ahmadiyas and Qadiyans.

At PU, Shias make up 15 percent of students enrolled, but members of the sect are never considered for appointments as imams in the university’s mosques which are heavily influenced by the IJT.

Muhammad Waseem, a Shia law student in PU’s law college, said: &#39&#39In January, following some friction, the university authorities promised to provide us separate prayer places. But, so far, they have not fulfilled their promise.’’

Another Shia student Muhammad Awais said Shia students have been offering their prayers behind the Sunni imams for decades. "We are asking the administration and the IJT to either allow us also to lead the prayers or give us separate mosques where we can offer prayers according to our belief,’’ he told IPS.

So far, the reaction of the administration has not been encouraging. In August, six Shia students were expelled from PU hostels for insisting on joining congregational prayers, though standing on the road outside the mosques.

PU student advisor Prof. Nazir Ahmad said it was not easy for the university administration to change its policy of requiring all sects to pray together. He told IPS that if separate prayers were allowed for Shias, other sects would demand similar rights.

Syed Farhan, spokesman for the Imamia Student Organisation (ISO) that represents Shia students in Pakistan, told IPS the main problem was that the administration of PU hostels was under the stranglehold of the IJT. He said the registrar of the university favoured allowing students to offer their prayers according to their faith, but a group of teachers owing allegiance to the IJT was not prepared to accommodate Shia students.

Interviewed by IPS, the registrar, Prof. Muhammad Naeem Khan, said the mosques were indeed intended for all students regardless of sect and that no single group could claim special rights over them. ‘’The university administration will solve the issue soon.’’

But other faculty members were not so optimistic. Prof. Muhammed Hafeez, who heads the sociology department at the university, said prejudices ran deep and it was difficult to blame the students. ‘’They are just acting in accordance with the kind of training they received during their childhood – from their parents and surroundings.’’

‘’Parents often do not allow their children to know about even the basics beliefs of other sects. They are taught that only their own sect follows the right path,’’ said Hafeez. The danger with that, he said, was that young people become vulnerable to exploitation by politicians with narrow interests.

Meanwhile, the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has slammed the PU administration for refusing to let Shia students join in congregations. It has also criticised the expulsion of Shia students as ‘’unjust’’ and a ‘’violation of human rights.’’

For its part the administration has offered to reinstate the expelled students, provided they give up their demand of being allowed to perform prayers congregationally or behind their own imams. Prof. Azhar Ikram, who has charge of the hostels, said: "We will not allow Shia students to offer their prayers separately behind their own prayer leaders in hostel mosques."

Ikram accused the expelled students of trying to start a Shia-Sunni clash. Those fears were not entirely unfounded as several clashes have occurred in the past. The worst was in 1994 when four members of the IJT were shot dead as they tried to stop a group of Shia students from holding a religious gathering on the university lawns.