by NAQIB HAMID
We are living in an increasingly multicultural, pluralistic world where the concepts of ‘sacred’ and ‘profane’, that were once easy to specify and fix in pre-modern, monolithic societies, are increasingly hard to define
The present times have seen the establishment of the Difa-i-Pakistan Council (Pakistan Defence Council), an umbrella organisation for more than 40 religious, political, sectarian, jihadi outfits and former intelligence officials with an aggressive standpoint on US-Pak and Pak-India relations. The Council has recently held three gigantic congregations in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan with an upcoming event in Karachi, and has clearly displayed its capacity to be able to mobilise people, particularly the madrassa population. This article seeks to analyse the discourse of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), a central member of the Council, from the sociology of religion perspective, focusing on its major themes and symbols while trying to explore the worldview of the JuD members, particularly Hafiz Saeed who is the chief ideologist of the group.
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(Thanks to Abdul Hamid Khan Bashani)