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Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi--(1964-July
11, 2007)
Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi was an
Islamic cleric who is best known as the
leader of the Islamic militants involved
in the Siege of the Red Mosque in
Islamabad, Pakistan in July, 2007.
Abdul Ghazi was the son of a cleric,
Maulana Abdullah, who founded Islamabad's
Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in the 1960s and
led the mosque until his assassination in
1998. Maulana Abdullah was heavily
involved in recruiting Mujahadeen fighters
for the Islamic Jihad (Holy War) against
the Soviet occupation forces in
Afghanistan in the 1980s. He was also
allied with an anti-Shiite terror group in
Pakistan. Most Pakistanis are Sunni
Muslim, and relations between Sunni and
Shiite Pakistanis are often tense, and
frequently deadly.
Ghazi grew up rebelling against his
father's strict Islamic teachings, leading
a secular, or non-religious lifestyle.
After his father's death, Ghazi returned
to an Islamic lifestyle, encouraged by his
brother, Abdul Aziz, who had inherited
leadership of the Red Mosque from their
father.
Ghazi and his followers challenged the
government of Pakistani President
Musharraf by enforcing their own brand of
justice based on Sharia, or Islamic law.
They acted as vigilantes in the name of
Islamic morality, or at least morality as
defined by Abdul Ghazi in Islamabad, and
challenged the government for its support
of American and other allied forces in
Afghanistan. Ghazi and his followers were
at least sympathetic to the Taliban and
al-Qaida, if not actively allied to
them.
After the 2001 American-led invasion of
Afghanistan, Ghazi and his brother became
leaders of a growing Islamic movement in
Pakistan. Although the Pakistani
government was allied to the U.S., Ghazi's
anger at President Musharaff's regime
reached a peak with the beginning of the
Waziristan
War in 2004, as the Pakistani Army
attempted to gain control of the
semi-autonomous border with Afghanistan.
The main opponents of the army were local
tribes, Taliban forces, and mostly foreign
al-Qaida fighters.
Ghazi issued a fatwa, which is a
religious order issued by an Islamic
cleric, which stated that Pakistani
soldiers killed in combat against the
militants were to be considered "killed,"
while the militants they fought were to be
honored as "martyrs" when they died in
combat. Not long after this fatwa, the
Pakistani government accused Ghazi of
plotting to kill the president, and
presented as evidence a truck filled with
explosives which they claimed belonged to
the Red Mosque leader.
On July 3, 2007, tensions with the
government led to the start of the Siege
of the Red Mosque (Lal Masjid). Ghazi and
his militant followers barricaded
themselves and hundreds of women and
children inside the mosque in defiance of
the Pakistani government. On July 10, the
Pakistani Army stormed the Red Mosque, and
cleared it of militants in a room-by-room
battle that left one hundred dead,
including the leader of the Red Mosque,
Abdul Ghazi.
His funeral was performed by his
brother, Abdul Aziz, who was under heavy
guard as a government prisoner due to his
militant activities.
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