Nizamuddin Shamzai
Nizamuddin Shamzai was a Pakistani Islamic scholar belonging to the Deobandi movement within Sunni Islam, who served as the Sheikh al-Hadīṯh at the Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia.
He was considered "one of the most important Deobandi figures in Pakistan" and "one" of the "most revered Sunni clerics" in Pakistan.
He was the mentor of Mullah Mohammed Omar, and his madrassa, "taught many students who later became important members of the Taliban regime in Kabul".
He issued religious edicts and travelled to elicit support for the Taliban, including a called for a “jihad” against the US after the September 11 attacks and US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Shamzai was assassinated on 31 March 2004 in Karachi.
Biography
Shamzai received his early education from his native town in Swat District. In the 1960s he migrated to Karachi to study at Jamia Darul Khair then he enrolled in Jamia Farooqia, Karachi. In the early 1990s, he got his Ph.D. degree from University of Sindh on Imam Bukhari's teachers.Shamzai spent about 20 years teaching in Jamia Farooqia and joined Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia where he succeeded to become Shaykh al-Hadith in 1997. He had close relations with Bin Laden and Mullah Umar and was member of the clerical delegation which went to Afghanistan for a discussion about handing over of Bin Laden in September 2001. He was however, a spiritual advisor of Mullah Umar and had travelled globally to elicit Islamic support for Taliban. He was Chief Mufti of Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia and wrote books on jihad and issued fatwa's in favor of the Taliban.
Assassination
Shamzai was shot dead by assassins on 31 March 2004 in Karachi. His killing instigated the ransacked of the Jamshed Quarters police station, burning of about "20 vehicles, two bank branches and a petrol station", and shooting and injuring of six people.Some "15,000 paramilitary soldiers and police were deployed" in Karachi to prevent further violence, and specifically to protect Shia Muslims.
His funeral prayer was led by Abdur Razzaq Iskander, and was attended by Akram Khan Durrani, former Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Fazal-ur-Rehman, President of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F).
A September 2015 report from The Express Tribune says that alleged killer of Shamzai was arrested by Karachi police.
Views and legacy
According to Farhan Zahid, Shamzai's ideological influence over jihadi organisations in Pakistan and Afghanistan is "unremitting". His ideology and thoughts" It "produced a number of terrorist and extremist organisations. Until his death he "issued fatwas, held messianic and anti-Semitic views, glorified Al-Qaeda and the Taliban".9/11, US, and jihad
Immediately after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, Shamzai was quoted in an interview by the New York Times stating, "It is wrong to kill innocent people and it is also wrong to praise those who kill innocent people."However, by October, Pakistan under President Musharraf, had allied itself with the American "War on terror". His government banned Pakistan paramilitary groups Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Muhammad, widely believed to be involved in sectarian killings. Shortly after, Shamzai issued a fatwa calling for Jihad against the US and Pakistani States.
According to scholar Farhan Zahid, the fatwa meant "that violent jihad" was "obligatory for all Muslims", and "young able-bodied Muslim men" were required "to wage violent jihad against the US on behalf of Afghanistan and this required the killing of Americans, Jews, as well as attacking businesses and military installations." Shamzai and his fatwa were, according to Zahid, "instrumental in galvanising anti-American protest movements in Pakistan after the 9/11" against the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan in 2001 and in the thousands of Pakistanis who later "joined the Afghan Taliban". In one lecture he preached that "violent jihad was the only solution for numerous problems confronting the Muslim world."
Islam and ''Kul-eBandigi''
In preaching theKul-eBandigi concept, Shamzai emphasises Kasur, i.e. the mistakecommitted by too many in the Muslim community of not participating in violent jihad in Afghanistan, Kashmir, Chechnya, Burma and elsewhere. Practicing the five pillars of Islam by praying salat, fasting during Ramadan, paying zakat and going on hajj pilgrimage was insufficient. Having "failed to fulfil its responsibilities", the Ummah was as a consequence "weak, defeated, humiliated, and enslaved".
Taliban and other Jihadi groups
Shamzai is thought to have convinced Mullah Umar to wage war against the United States of America. He "promoted the Afghan Taliban regime, their religious practices, enforcement of Sharia laws, treatment of women and minorities andlegtimised their actions through his fatwas".
Shamzai was "the chief patron" of Jaish-e-Mohammed and the JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar was Shamzai's "favorite student at Binori Town madrassa". Shamzai also "issued Fatwas in support of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen ", and leaders of Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami "were his students". Shamzai "used his relations with the Grand Mufti Abd al-Aziz Ibn Baz of Saudi Arabia to get funding from the Saudi religious affairs ministry".