Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan
Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, is a Pakistani Islamist political party. It is the Pakistani successor to Jamaat-e-Islami, which was founded in colonial India in 1941. JIP is a "vanguard party", whose members are intended to be leaders spreading party beliefs and influence. JIP members are sometimes called Rafīq. Supporters not thought qualified to be members may become "affiliates", and beneath them are "sympathisers". The party leader is called an "Ameer". Although it does not have a large popular following, the party is quite influential and considered one of the major Islamic movements in Pakistan, along with Deobandi and Barelvi.
Jamaat-e-Islami was founded in Islamia Park, Lahore, British India in 1941 by the Muslim theologian and socio-political philosopher, Abul Ala Maududi, who was widely influenced by the Sharia based reign of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. At the time of the Indian independence movement, Maududi and the Jamaat-e-Islami actively worked to oppose the partition of India. In 1947, following the partition of India, the Jamaat split into two organisations, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. Other wings of Jamaat include Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir, founded in 1953, Jamaat-e-Islami Azad Kashmir founded in 1974, and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, founded in 1975.
Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan came under severe government repression in 1948, 1953, and 1963. During the early years of the regime of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Jamaat-e-Islami's position improved and it became seen as the "regime's ideological and political arm", with party members at times holding cabinet portfolios of information and broadcasting, production, and water, power and natural resources.
In 1971, during the Bangladesh Liberation War, JIP opposed the independence of Bangladesh. However, in 1975, it established Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh with Abbas Ali Khan as the first ameer. Since the early 1980s, it has also developed close links with Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir and acted as the vanguard of the armed insurgency in that province.
History
Syed Abul A'la Maududi (1941–1972)
Jamaat-e-Islami's founder and leader until 1972 was Abul A'la Maududi, a widely read Islamist philosopher and political commentator, who wrote about the role of Islam in South Asia. His thought was influenced by many factors including the Khilafat Movement; Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's ascension at the end of the Ottoman Caliphate; and the impact of Indian Nationalism, the Indian National Congress and Hinduism on Muslims in India. He supported what he called "Islamisation from above", through an Islamic state in which sovereignty would be exercised in the name of Allah and Islamic law would be implemented. Maududi believed politics was "an integral, inseparable part of the Islamic faith, and that the Islamic state that Muslim political action seeks to build" would not only be an act of piety but would also solve the many social and economic problems that Muslims faced.Maududi opposed British rule but also opposed the Muslim nationalist movement and their plan for a circumscribed "Muslim state". Maududi agitating instead for an "Islamic state" covering the whole of India – this despite the fact, Muslims made up only about one quarter of India's population.
Jamaat-e-Islami thus actively opposed the partition of India, with its leader Maulana Abul A'la Maududi arguing that concept violated the Islamic doctrine of the ummah. The Jamaat-e-Islami saw the partition as creating a temporal border that would divide Muslims from one another.
Founding of JIP in colonial India
was founded in colonial India on August 26, 1941 at Islamia Park in the city of Lahore, before the Partition of India. JIP began as an Islamist social and political movement. Seventy-five people attended the first meeting and became the first members of the movement. Maulana Amin Ahsan Islahi, Maulana Naeem Siddiqui, Maulana Muhammad Manzoor Naumanai and Maulana Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi were among the founders of Jamaat-e-Islami along with Syed Abul Ala Maududi.Maududi saw his group as a vanguard of Islamic revolution following the footsteps of early Muslims who gathered in Medina to found an Islamic state. JIP was and is strictly and hierarchically organised in a pyramid-like structure, working toward the common goal of establishing an ideological Islamic society, particularly though educational and social work, under the leadership of its emirs. As a vanguard party, its fully-fledged members are intended to be leaders and devoted to the party, but there is also a category of much more numerous sympathisers and workers.
The emir is obliged by the party constitution to consult an assembly called the shura. The JIP also developed sub-organisations, such as those for women and students. JIP began by volunteering in refugee camps; performing social work; opening hospitals and medical clinics and by gathering the skins of animals sacrificed for Eid-ul-Azha.
JIP had a number of unique features. All members, including its founder Mawdudi, uttered the shahadah – the traditional act of converts to Islam – when they joined. This was a symbolic gesture of conversion to a new Islamic perspective, but to some implied that "the Jamaat stood before Muslim society as Islam before jahiliyah",. After Pakistan was formed, it forbade Pakistanis to take an oath of allegiance to the state until it became Islamic, arguing that a Muslim could in clear conscience render allegiance only to God.
Pakistan
;Creation and early yearsFollowing the Partition of India, Maududi and JIP migrated from East Punjab to Lahore in Pakistan. There they volunteered to help the thousands of refugees pouring into the country from India – performing social work; opening hospitals and medical clinics; and by gathering the skins of animals sacrificed for Eid-ul-Azha.
During the prime-ministership of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, JIP argued for a separate voting system for different religious communities. Suhrawardy convened a session of the National Assembly at Dhaka and through an alliance with Republicans, his party passed a bill for a mixed voting system.
In 1951, it ran candidates for office, but did not do well. JIP found it was more successful in promoting its cause in the streets. The election also occasioned a split in the party with the JIP shura passing a resolution in support of the party withdrawing from politics but Maududi arguing for continued involvement. Maududi prevailed and several senior JIP leaders resigned in protest. All this strengthened Maududi's position still further and "a cult of personality began to grow up around him."
In 1953, JIP led "direct action" against the Ahmadiyya, who the JIP believed should be declared non-Muslims. In March 1953, riots in Lahore started leading to looting, arson and the killing of at least 200 Ahmadis and the declaration of selective martial law. The military leader, Azam Khan had Maududi arrested and Rahimuddin Khan sentenced him to death for sedition. Many JIP supporters were imprisoned during this time.
The 1956 Constitution was adopted after accommodating many of the demands of the JIP. Maududi endorsed the constitution and claimed it a victory for Islam. In 1958, JIP formed an alliance with Abdul Qayyum Khan and Chaudhry Muhammad Ali. The alliance destabilised the presidency of Iskander Mirza, and Pakistan returned to martial law. The military ruler, the president Muhammad Ayub Khan, had a modernising agenda and opposed the encroachment of religion into politics. He banned political parties and warned Maududi against continued religio-political activism. JIP offices were closed down, funds were confiscated and Maududi was imprisoned in 1964 and 1967.
JIP supported the opposition party, the Pakistan Democratic Movement. In the 1964–1965 presidential elections, JIP supported the opposition leader, Fatima Jinnah, despite its opposition to women in politics.
In 1965, during the Indo-Pakistani war, JIP supported the government's call for jihad, presenting patriotic speeches on Radio Pakistan and seeking support from Arab and Central Asian countries. The group resisted Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Maulana Bhashani's socialist program of the time.
By the end of 1969, the Jamaat-e-Islami was spearheading a major "campaign for the protection of ideology of Pakistan," which it believed was under threat from atheistic socialists and secularists.
JIP participated in the 1970 general election. Its political platform advocated political freedom of the provinces and Islamic law based on the Quran and Sunnah. There would be separation of the powers ; basic rights for minorities ; and a policy of strong relationships with the Muslim world. Just prior to the election, Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan left the alliance leaving JIP to run against the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Awami League. The party had a disappointing showing when it won only four seats in the National Assembly and four in the provincial assemblies after fielding 151 candidates.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto won the 1970 election campaign and was strongly opposed by JIP who believed he and his socialist ideology were a threat to Islam.
;Division
JIP opposed the Awami League East Pakistani separatist movement. Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba organised the Al-Badar to fight the Mukti Bahini. In 1971, during the Bangladesh liberation war, JIP members may have collaborated with the Pakistani army.
In 1968, Maulana Maududi took leave from Emarat of the Jamaat and Maulana Naeem Siddiqui became the Ameer of Jamat e Islami for one year. In 1969, Maulana took Charge of the Jamaat again. In 1972, Maududi resigned citing poor health, and Maulana Naeem Siddiqui refused to become the Ameer of the Jamaat due to his research activities. Thus, in October 1972, the Majlis-e-Shoura elected Mian Tufail Mohammad as the new leader of JIP. Naeeem Siddiqui was chosen as the general secretary.