In a chat with Friday Journal — Khateeb-e-Akbar Maulana Mirza Mohammad Athar Saheb — in his own inimitable way describes the way forward for the Shia youth.
Following are excerpts of an interview.
Where do you think the Shias stand globally and nationally?
Globally today the Shia community has a good standing. Iran, which use to be considered a Shia nation, has grown. You will come across Shias majorly in every part of the world such as entire Middle East, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Europe and elsewhere. Nationally Shias have a good standing too and yes of course financially Shias are doing quite well especially the Shias of Pakistan, India and Middle East.
The oppressed and the oppressor have always existed. How do you see the current Israel-Palestine conflict?
If you look at history prophet Musa (a.s) gave freedom to Bani Israel from the oppression of Firaun (Pharaoh). During Hazrat Esa’s (a.s) time his followers were oppressed by the Israelis. The incident of Karbala is completely different from other incidents. Here a tribe and a sect was oppressed. Yazid was a super power of his time. He ruled 1/3rd part of the world and in Karbala he was not oppressing a nation but only Imam Husain (a.s.). Yazid just wanted bayat of Imam Husain (a.s) as he was not interested in bayats of others. It was Imam Husain (a.s) who used minimum resources and minimum time to win the war of Karbala. Palestine is fighting, Afghanistan is fighting but till date there is no result. But Imam Husain (a.s) vanquished the entire empire of Yazid and his evil motives till Qayamat and that too in a matter of six months — from Rajab till Moharram.
Israel attacking Palestine is not a small issue. Merely protesting the atrocities inflicted on Palestinians in different parts of the world will not provide any solution. The voice of the protests goes on for a few before it fades away. If today the Muslim world wants to end this merciless killings of Palestinians, then all the Islamic countries and it’s people should unite and take strong action against Israel. All Muslim countries should first talk and if a solution is not found then all bilateral relationship with Israel and its backers should come to an end. That will be called a strong protest.
These days we see youngsters talking ill about the Marjae and Ulema. Why do you think this is happening?
A well-financed group called Akhbaris is behind this. They are a product of the super powers and they have been trained to weaken the community. That is because the super powers are only too well aware that if they have to break the Shias it can only be done by its own people. It is as if Marjaeyat is finished Shiyat is finished. So there are some anti-social elements who are carrying out this drive of attacking the aalim, Ulema and Marajae. Secondly, the speaker should be very clear during majalis of what he is saying and what the crowd will perceive. Due to less knowledge of our speakers who are new it is also affecting our community. They are not fully aware about Quran, history, fiqh and other topics. This keeps the youngsters confused because they don’t get satisfactory answers to their questions and that leads to misinformation.
There are a few others who wear the dress but don’t have complete knowledge and it is them who are creating problems. A youth’s mind is as clean as a board and so it is easy to divert. So the youth from the community are being misguided as they don’t get satisfactory information from our speakers.
How should youth take advantage of the social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter?
Social networking sites are very good mediums to exchange views, ideas and information with large number of people with just a click of a button. But we are all aware that everything in this world has its pros and cons. Using internet, watching TV to gain knowledge is good, but on the other hand, if you are using it for other negative purposes it can corrupt your mind. It completely depends on yourself. It is the duty of the elders who should keep a watch on youngsters as to what they are doing on the net.
