Police in Pakistan have arrested the leader of a radical Islamist political party a day after he threatened the government with protests if it did not expel France’s ambassador over depictions of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed.

Saad Rizvi was arrested in the eastern city of Lahore to “maintain law and order”, said Ghulam Mohammad Dogar, chief of Lahore police.

Rizvi called on the government to honour what he said was a commitment it made in February to his party to expel the French envoy before April 20 over the publication in France of depictions of Islam’s Prophet.

The government has said that it only committed to discuss the matter in parliament.

Mr Dogar provided no further details about the arrest, which quickly drew condemnation from Rizvi’s supporters who began gathering near the party’s main office for a protest.

Clashes soon erupted in Lahore between police and Rizvi’s supporters, who were also rallying on the outskirts of the capital Islamabad, disrupting traffic and inconveniencing residents.

Protesters also blocked some roads in the southern port city of Karachi and elsewhere in the country, raising fears of violence amid a surge in cases of coronavirus in Pakistan.

Rizvi emerged as the leader of the Tehreek-e-Labai

k Pakistan party in November after the sudden death of his father, Khadim Hussein Rizvi.

His supporters have previously held violent rallies in Pakistan to pressure the government not to repeal the country’s controversial blasphemy laws.

The party wants the government to boycott French products and expel the French ambassador under an agreement signed by the government with Rizvi’s party in February.

Tehreek-e-Labiak and other Islamist parties have denounced French President Emmanuel Macron since October last year, saying he tried to defend caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed as freedom of expression.

Mr Macron’s comments came after a young Muslim beheaded a French school teacher who had shown caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in class.

The images had been republished by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to mark the opening of the trial over the deadly 2015 attack against the publication for the original caricatures.

That enraged many Muslims in Pakistan and elsewhere who believed those depictions were blasphemous.

Rizvi’s party gained prominence in Pakistan’s 2018 federal elections, campaigning on a single issue: defending the country’s controversial blasphemy law, which calls for the death penalty for anyone who insults Islam.

It also has a history of staging protests and sit-ins to pressure the government to accept its demands.

In November 2017, Rizvi’s followers staged a 21-day protest and sit-in after a reference to the sanctity of the Prophet Mohammed was removed from the text of a government form.

Tehreek-e-Labbaik promoted in Birmingham

In an exclusive to Faith Matters, we can today highlight how an Islamist extremist group, Tehreek-e-Labbaik, was being promoted in Birmingham in the run-up to the Pakistani elections, the results of which are expected tomorrow.

After a tip-off from a concerned member of the public, we came across mobile phone footage which clearly shows two clerics promoting Tehreek-e-Labbaik at an electioneering meeting in Birmingham, which also incorporates religious incantations in order to whip up interest from the crowd.

We have highlighted the extremist nature of this group before, and we have also pointed out the failure of Twitter to remove the social media account of the spiritual leader of Tehreek-e-Labbaik, Khadim Hussain Rizvi.

Khadim Hussain Rizvi

Rizvi has repeatedly inflamed tensions in Pakistan since November 2017 when he rallied his Islamist followers, in the tens of thousands, against perceived changes to a piece of statute law, Ordinance XX or Ordinance Twenty (introduced by the military dictator, General Zia-ul-Haq, it stripped Ahmadis of their right to call themselves Muslims). Rizvi mobilised his Islamist followers in an attempt to stop any perceived changes to this ordinance, which culminated in a humiliating set of pleas by the Pakistani military for demonstrators to leave, whilst simultaneously handing out money to them. Rizvi’s call to maintain the status quo and thereby to retain the isolation of the Ahmadis literally shut down Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan.

Furthermore, the primary campaigning theme of Tehreek-e-Labbaik is ‘Death to Blasphemers’. Rizvi has repeatedly praised the murderers of the late Punjab Governor, Salmaan Taseer, and the Glasgow-based Ahmadi shopkeeper, Asad Shah, who was brutally murdered on a Glasgow street in March 2016. Rizvi moreover has referred to the killers, Mumtaz Qadri and Tanveer Ahmed, as ‘ghazis’ or Islamic warriors, even highlighting in graphic detail, in one mosque-based sermon, the number of times Ahmed stabbed the defenceless Shah. Rizvi is adept at using the concept of blasphemy to whip up his audience into a frenzy, demonstrating the dangerous rhetoric of the man and his political party in Pakistan.

Facebook and Tehreek-e-Labbaik

Faith Matters has been at the vanguard of ensuring that the Facebook pages of Tehreek-e-Labbaik were taken down, although recently a whole host of Facebook pages supporting and promoting the extremist cleric, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, have gone up again. This demonstrates the weakness of social media platforms, which cannot stop new accounts from being opened by extremist individuals or groups.

The following Facebook post by ‘Rivi Media’ clearly shows two clerics speaking at what seems to be a meeting of Barelwi Muslims in Birmingham. The first cleric commences by saying that he has been with and has served Rizvi for eight years and that Rizvi has worked tirelessly for the ‘deen’ – the faith of Islam. This is followed by cries of “SubhanAllah” (‘God is perfect’) by the young audience. It is clearly a sales pitch aimed at the youth who have come to listen, and who may well be eligible to vote in the Pakistani elections.

The young preacher then asks the audience to come to Pakistan to learn more about Tehreek-e-Labbaik and engage with them. What he neglects to tell the audience is that the whole basis of the political party is to lionise the murderers of ‘blasphemers’, meaning that anyone deemed to be a blasphemer effectively has a target on their head.

Worse still, the second preacher then breaks out into an anti-Hindu rant, stating that a vote for Tehreek-e-Labbaik is a vote for ‘martyrs’ in heaven such as the aforementioned Mumtaz Qadri, the bodyguard of Salman Taseer who murdered the latter for having defended a young Christian woman, Asia Bibi, from the nebulous charge of blasphemy. The preacher is heard to say that a vote for Tehreek-e-Labbaik blesses and honours individuals such as Qadri. He clearly is pushing for support both for Imran Khan and Tehreek-e-Labbaik.

Deep concerns

We are therefore deeply concerned as the extremism of Tehreek-e-Labbaik is bleeding into Muslim communities of Pakistani heritage here in the UK. We have seen how some British imams have cross-posted propaganda from this Islamist extremist cleric, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, and we now have tangible evidence of campaigning by representatives of Tehreek-e-Labbaik in places like Birmingham.

After the killing of Asad Shah, and open calls by Tehreek-e-Labbaik for murder, we strongly urge the Home Office to consider proscription of this group. The group has past form in promoting violent extremism from a highly tenuous fundament: they alone deem someone to have blasphemed Islam. This is not politics – it is the behaviour and rhetoric of extremists. It really is as simple as that.

Pakistani cleric Hafiz Saeed is one of the United States’ most-wanted terrorist suspects, accused of the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people. At home, his charities are banned, as is a new Islamist political party launched by his followers.

None of that has stopped Saeed from hitting the campaign trail for Pakistan’s July 25 General Election, denouncing the outgoing government as “traitors” and whipping up support for the more than 200 candidates he backs.

“The politics of the American servants is coming to an end!” Saeed thundered at a rally this month in the eastern city of Lahore, where supporters showered him with rose petals.

The main race in Wednesday’s vote is between the party of now-jailed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, which is seeking a second consecutive term despite its leader’s downfall on corruption charges, and the party of former cricket star Imran Khan, perceived as the favourite of the powerful military.

But a bumper crop of ultra-Islamist groups are also contesting the poll, with the potential to reshape the political landscape of the nuclear-armed Muslim country of 208 million people with anti-Western rhetoric and calls for ever-stricter interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law.

The proliferation of religious parties appears to be a fulfilment of a proposal made by Pakistan’s military to “mainstream” armed Islamists and other extremists into politics, though the parties and the army deny any links.

Even if, as expected, they win few seats, liberal and secular-minded Pakistanis say the sheer number of religious party candidates, combined with their ultra-conservative rhetoric, has already shifted the agenda in their direction.

With the new parties routinely accusing opponents of blasphemy or treason, mainstream parties have echoed their language in attacking Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

“The ostensible attempt to mainstream the religious right-wing is not making these parties take relatively moderate positions,” said Saroop Ijaz, a lawyer for Human Rights Watch. “But rather, it’s radicalising the mainstream.”

VIOLENT RHETORIC

Religious parties – some new, others established – are fielding more than 1,500 candidates for national and provincial assemblies, compared with a few hundred in 2013.

While Pakistan has always had Islamist parties, the new entries are notable for their alleged links to militants and their rhetorical attacks on mainstream politicians’ piety or patriotism.

Pakistan’s three main parties all stress devotion to Islam, but the new religious parties portray them – especially the PML-N – as leading Pakistan down a Western-inspired path away from the country’s Islamic values.

One new party, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, campaigns under the rallying cry “death to blasphemers” and is fielding 566 candidates.

Its candidates rail against the PML-N as blasphemers for a small abortive change last year to election law, which was quickly reversed after nationwide protests in which at least seven people were killed.

The change was to the swearing-in oath for candidates – from a religious vow to a simple declaration – stating the Prophet Mohammad was God’s last messenger, a central tenet of Islam.

In May, a man police identified as a Labbaik supporter shot and wounded then-Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal as he left a meeting. He told interrogators Iqbal had to die because he was a blasphemer.

Tehreek-e-Labbaik leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi condemned Iqbal’s shooting. But this month, he said the party could not be held responsible.

“We didn’t instigate anyone. These are the emotions of the nation,” Rizvi told Reuters, adding. “In a way, it rightly happened.”

Leaders of the mainstream opposition parties all condemned the attack on Iqbal.

Still, Imran Khan has also invoked the blasphemy controversy in campaign speeches, defending such language in a recent interview with Reuters.

“You cannot be a Muslim if you don’t believe that the Prophet, our Prophet, is the last prophet,” Khan said. “So to reiterate and support it is just standing with your faith.”

BANNED GROUPS

While Tehreek-e-Labbaik is a legally registered party, other movements fielding candidates are officially banned in Pakistan but have bypassed the legal restrictions.

Pakistan’s Election Commission this year rejected Saeed’s Islamic charity’s application to register a political party, the Milli Muslim League, but the group later registered candidates under the name of an existing party, Allahu Akbar Tehreek, which now campaigns with Saeed’s image on its posters.

Saeed is accused of masterminding the 2008 attacks on India’s financial capital. The United States offers a $10 million reward for his conviction over the attacks, in which several Americans were killed. Saeed denies any involvement.

Another party, the Sunni extremist Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), is also fielding dozens of candidates under a different name, even though it is banned as the political wing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), which has killed hundreds of minority Shi’ite Muslims. The party denies links with LeJ.

Last month, ASWJ leader Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi’s name was removed by a caretaker government from Pakistan’s terrorism watchlist, cementing his own candidacy.

A spokesman for the Election Commission of Pakistan, Altaf Khan, asked about the banned groups’ candidates, said no illegal group had been registered.

“If some political party is registered with us, and it has come through the (legal) process, what’s wrong in it?,” Khan said.

He added that the commission was investigating complaints of banned parties campaigning under different names.

A military spokesman declined to comment on religious parties. The army denies interfering in politics.

However, the military did propose “mainstreaming” militant-linked groups into politics in a 2016 National Security meeting, military and government sources have told Reuters. The plan was pitched as a way to reduce violence and extremism under the model of the Northern Ireland peace process.

Critics say the real goal is for new ultra-religious parties to cut into the conservative base of Sharif’s party and confer legitimacy to Islamist militants the army has long been accused of nurturing as proxies in its rivalry with India.

“They have to be taken care of,” political commentator Raza Rumi said of such groups. “So this election is a test case as to how far the goal of mainstreaming these groups can be achieved.”

Analysts say that even with the increase in candidates, Islamists are unlikely to win more than a dozen or so seats in parliament.

But that might not be the point. Pakistani author and analyst Ayesha Siddiqa, a longtime critic of the military, believes the army, tired of civilian governments challenging its grip on foreign policy and large chunks of the economy, is seeking to weaken mainstream parties.

“The military wants to alter, engineer the national discourse,” Siddiqa said. “They want to build a new nationalism. They want a new identity, and that is Islamic identity.”

You can imagine our shock when we realised this evening that an Islamist extremist who lauded the brutal murder of Glasgow shopkeeper, Asad Shah, was on Twitter. Worse still, he had a ‘verified’ blue tick next to him, giving him some legitimacy in the eyes of member of the public.

The individual, Khalid Hussain Rizvi has been highlighted by us in Faith Matters many times. If you want to know what Rizvi is about, just take a look at this video which we compiled on just a few of his sayings to large congregations in Pakistan. In a bizarre twist, we even commented on Rizvi in 2016, and his comments were made to fawning congregations where he describes a telephone conversation with Tanveer Ahmed, the brutal murderer of Asad Shah. Rizvi has called Ahmed a ‘hero’ on many occasions and a ‘lion’ for the brutal stabbing to death of Asad Shah, a much loved shopkeeper in Glasgow.

In September 2017, Rizvi’s political party, Tehreek-e-Labaik, polled 7,000 votes in local municipal elections in a by-election in Lahore. The only campaigning point was the lionising of bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri, who murdered Punjab Governor, Salman Taseer. The murder was based on Taseer’s defence of imprisoned Christian female, Asia Bibi. Tehreek-e-Labaik have also latched onto Tanveer Ahmed as another person whom they have lionised, thereby pushing the view that ‘blasphemers’ and those who protect minorities, are fair game for murder. Twitter are therefore providing a ‘verified’ Twitter platform to the spiritual leader of Tehreek-e-Labaik, Khalid Hussain Rizvi.

Rizvi, is in effect, an Islamist sympathiser who agrees with the violent extremism, particularly if it is against those protecting and advocating for minorities and Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan.

Given the facts, there is no justification that Twitter can provide for keeping Rizvi’s Twitter account open.