Why is Imran Khan Trying to Rally US Support Via Jamaat-e-Islami?

The developments at ISNA 2019 on labor day shocked me .

First, I had not realized ISNA declared its ideological allegiance to Jamaat-e-Islami back at the moment ISNA was created. I was shocked that ISNA’s leader when it was created – and when it declared allegiance to Jammat-e-Islami – was Sayyid Syeed. the same man who chairs ISNA today.

Syeed’s newspaper – Islamic Horizons – used to reprint articles by Maududi, calling him a “great Muslim”! Their leadership attended Maududi’s funeral!

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The Ultimate Party-Pooper

For Pakistanis like me, Jamaat-e-Islami is the ultimate party-pooper. They are our self-appointed morality police and thought police. They have abducted students and beaten them on university campuses.

I remember at Punjab University campus the Jammatiya would do surveillance of the dorms. they would stare menacingly at guys and girls talking to each other. they would tear down campus posters for welcome parties. I remember them even disrupting a back-to-school party on campus because men and women were mingling together.

Imran Khan of All People

Second, I can’t believe that the once-playboy Imran Khan of all people is embracing the Jamaat-e-Islami front group in America to try to advance Pakistan’s interests. I remember when Imran Khan came to my Kannaird college. Girls were fawning over him and falling at his feet. He was the opposite of Jammat-e-Islami back then.

If Pakistan’s idea of winning over Americans on Kashmir is via a Jamaat-e-Islami front group, that is a disaster. And very likely, it will backfire and bite us in the behind. We Pakistanis are always partnering up with the wrong people, motivated by short-sighted interests. (Like our current sugar daddy: China.)

Rightwing Backlash On The Way

For instance, when this gets out, it will confirm in the minds of Americans that Pakistan is a terrorist-aligned country. It will facilitate Modi’s work: winning over America to his annexation of Kashmir – the Hindu nationalists are already blasting ISNA. You can bet that large swaths of the American rightwing will adopt the Indian position.

فٹے منہ

Pakistanis in the US and in Pakistan deserve to know the true face of ISNA and Sayyid Syeed, our brother who is doing us harm.