Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi has declared Yemen’s Houthis terrorists and said they have no connection with Islam. Fine. He is entitled to that opinion.
But the bigger question is this: who represents Pakistan?
Pakistan has millions of Muslims belonging to different schools of thought. They do not have one cleric, one political party or one foreign policy position. There is no law that says a Pakistani religious scholar can speak for all of them, especially on a foreign war involving Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United States, and Israel.
The Makkah Defense Alliance
This topic matters because Pakistan has just entered a much deeper security relationship with Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
The Makkah Joint Defense Agreement says an armed attack on Pakistan, Turkey, or Saudi Arabia will be treated as an attack on all three. Pakistan has also described the agreement as defensive and not directed against any particular country.
So there is a perfectly legitimate debate about Pakistan’s foreign policy. If our leaders believe the Houthis are a threat to Saudi Arabia, they can say so.
If Pakistan wants to defend Saudi territory under its new defense arrangement, that is also a matter for the government and Armed Forces to consider. But turning that foreign policy into a religious verdict is another matter.
Ashrafi’s comments are especially interesting because the Houthi war is not simply a Sunni versus Shia argument. The Houthis themselves describe their fight as resistance against Saudi intervention and foreign influence in Yemen.
Their opponents describe them very differently. That is precisely why the issue is political as much as it is religious.
And Pakistan has a history of paying a heavy price when regional wars are imported into domestic religious politics.
There is another uncomfortable question.
Do Pakistani Clerics Represent all Pakistanis?
The answer should be obvious. They represent themselves, their organizations and, in some cases, particular schools of thought.
Pakistan’s Constitution itself recognizes different Muslim sects in its Islamic provisions. It also provides for the Council of Islamic Ideology as a constitutional advisory body.
That does not mean every cleric gets to issue a national religious position. And it certainly does not mean a declaration from one cleric changes Pakistan’s legal position.
If Pakistan wants to formally designate the Houthis as a terrorist organization, that is a decision for the state under the country’s legal framework.
Ashrafi’s statement does not do that. And perhaps Pakistan should be careful about something else.
Calling an entire movement “un-Islamic” can easily turn a geopolitical dispute into a sectarian one inside Pakistan. That helps nobody.
Honestly
Pakistan can stand with Saudi Arabia without pretending that every Pakistani Muslim has been consulted.
It can protect its strategic relationship with Riyadh without making every foreign-policy disagreement a religious test.
And if the state wants to call the Houthis terrorists, it should do so through the state. Not through a cleric speaking as if he represents 250 million people.
The views expressed here belong to the author.
The post Should Pakistan Declare Houthis Terrorists? appeared first on ProPakistani.
