Welcome, just don't ask me about Osama...
Posted: Thursday, August 23, 2007 12:43 PM
Filed Under:
Islamabad, Pakistan
By NBC News' Mujeeb Ahmad and Carol Grisanti
It was not the fact that a large gathering of Muslims was taking place last weekend that drew our attention to the event – it was where it was and who might attend that attracted our curiosity.
"I traveled for five days," said Maroof Asad from Tajikistan. "The Pakistani officials detained me for 24 hours at the border, but I was determined to get here."
We were determined too; we wanted to see just who might show up at the Tableghi Jamaat (Islamic missionary group) festival in Qila Saifullah, near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
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| NBC News/Mujeeb Ahmad |
| A group of men gather at Tableghi Jamaat's annual festival in Qila Saifullah, near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. |
The village was hosting more than 75,000 Muslim men who had come for three days of prayers and sermons to learn to emulate the life of the Prophet and then to instruct and convert others.
Similar gatherings of pilgrims belonging to the movement take place all over the Muslim world every year, but the location of this one along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border was enough to make us hop in the car to check it out.
Welcome, just don’t ask me about Osama…
Qila Saifullah is a village in Baluchistan, Pakistan's largest province where many of the Taliban leadership reportedly keep safe havens. The Afghan Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah was often seen in Qila Saifullah before he was hunted down and killed last May by American Special Forces in Afghanistan.
We drove two and a half hours from Quetta, the provincial capital, through the craggy wilderness of the Baluchistan desert. The temperature was well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. And since the monsoon rains have been late in coming this year, the ground was particularly dry and we stirred up clouds of brown dust as we drove by. But eventually the sand-colored landscape gave way to the green valley of Qila Saifullah.
"Don't ask me any questions about Osama or Mullah Omar," said Abdul Kabir, sporting a long black beard and black turban – a common "look" among the Taliban ranks. "I don't know where they are, but if I did, I would welcome them into my home and protect them from the American invaders."
Kabir and his group of more than 100 similarly dressed young men said they were from South Waziristan, one of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal areas, and did not want to mingle too much with the others. "Too many people ask us too many tricky questions about Osama," he said.
Festival-like scene
The scene of the event was like a country fair – large multi-colored tents were erected along the road outside the main square of Qila Saifullah – the same road that leads to Pakistan's tribal areas. On the tents and trees were signs welcoming foreigners and stressing the goal of the event – to spread the word of Allah all over the world.
Vendors hawked water, soft drinks, melons, coconuts, and kebabs.
We met Muhammed Bakir, 25, from Bangladesh sitting cross-legged outside one of the smaller tents. "Muslims must unite and prepare to use jihad at the proper time," he told us in a soft voice, barely audible as the call, "Allahu Akbar" summoned the faithful for prayer. Bakir hurried off to join the others in prayer before explaining just when the proper time for jihad might be.
There were Arabs, Sudanese, Afghans, Uzbeks and Tajiks all trying to communicate with each other in the local Pashto and Urdu languages, or through an interpreter. A group of Afghans told us that they knew for sure that some Brits and Americans were in the crowd, but as hard as we searched, we couldn't find them.
But almost everyone we spoke with seemed to know where the spies of ISI, Pakistan's intelligence agency were -- and they were just about everywhere.
An Islamic recruiting group?
Western intelligence analysts believe that Tableghi Jamaat, the missionary group that organized the event, is a major recruiting arm for Islamic terrorist groups. Others argue that it is an apolitical group of missionaries dedicated to spreading Islam across the globe, not much different from Christian missionary groups.
Two of London's July 7 suicide bombers attended Tablighi sermons and Richard Reid, the so-called "shoe bomber," who was jailed for trying to blow up a commercial airliner with a bomb hidden in his shoe, is also believed to have belonged to the group.
Last year when the same three-day celebration of faith was held in North Waziristan, a tribal area of Pakistan, pamphlets were distributed with greetings from Osama bin Laden.
Abdul Majid, wearing traditional white baggy pants and long shirt with a black and white turban came from Zabul, Afghanistan. He said he was trying to find some peace from all the bloodshed and misery.
"First Russia, and then America, has made Afghanistan a laboratory of death and destruction," he said. "The fall of the Taliban has brought us occupation once again by foreign troops."
Tea-time debate
A group of young bearded men from the Kakar tribe, one of the largest of the Pashtun tribes invited us to drink some sweet milky tea – a Pashtun specialty. The Kakars inhabit the northeast of Pakistan's Baluchistan province as well as across the border in Afghanistan. They are an ancient tribe and claim to be the ancestors of all the Pashtuns – the ethnic group comprising 15 percent of Pakistan's population, most of whom live in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border areas.
Shamsullah, a local Kakar tribesman said that he believes that the Taliban and al-Qaida bore equal responsibility for the crisis facing Muslims today. "Islam preaches tolerance and forbids the killing of innocent civilians," he said. "Al-Qaida and Taliban were wrong to use our land as a springboard for their own goals."
Salman Harifal stared into his teacup as he listened to Shamsullah speak. Harifal disagreed with his opinion.
"The Taliban and al-Qaida are sincere and are fighting for the renaissance of Islam," he shot back in an angry tone. "It is the double standards of the West that has caused all the bloodshed."
Asad, from Tajikistan, was listening to their now high-pitched voices from under the shade of a nearby pomegranate tree. "Muslim rulers are responsible for this pitiful situation," he said. "They made the alliances with the United States."
