Sufi Muhammad
{{Short description|Pakistani cleric and leader of the Islamist TNSM (1933–2019)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox religious biography
| name = Sufi Muhammad
{{Nobold|{{lang|ur|{{Nq|صوفی محمد}}}}}}
| image = Sufi Muhammad.jpg
| caption =
| birth_date = 1933
| birth_place = Maidan, Dir, British India
| death_date = {{death date and given age|2019|7|11|86|df=yes}}{{cite news|title=Controversial cleric Sufi Muhammad passes away |url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/2010820/1-controversial-cleric-sufi-muhammad-passes-away/ |newspaper=Express Tribune |date=11 July 2019}}
| death_place = {{nobr|Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,}} Pakistan
| children = At least one daughter
| religion = Islam
| denomination = Sunni
| jurisprudence = Ḥanbalī
| creed = Atharī{{Cite book|first=Jeffry R.|last=Halverson| year=2010| title=Theology and Creed in Sunni Islam: The Muslim Brotherhood, Ash'arism, and Political Sunnism |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=9781137473578 |url=https://archive.org/details/theologycreedsun00halv |url-access=limited |page=48}}
| movement = Salafīyyah{{Cite book|title=Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World |first=Jonathan A.C. |last=Brown |year=2009 |publisher=Oneworld Publications (Kindle edition) |page=245}}
Wahhābiyyah{{cite magazine |last=Armstrong |first=Karen |author-link=Karen Armstrong |date=27 November 2014 |title=Wahhabism to ISIS: how Saudi Arabia exported the main source of global terrorism |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2014/11/wahhabism-isis-how-saudi-arabia-exported-main-source-global-terrorism |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141127132619/http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2014/11/wahhabism-isis-how-saudi-arabia-exported-main-source-global-terrorism |location=London |magazine=New Statesman |archive-date=27 November 2014 |access-date=8 September 2020}}
| office1 = Founder and 1st Emir of {{nobr|Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi}}
| term_start1 = 1992
| term_end1 = 2002
| predecessor1 = Position created
| successor1 = Maulana Fazlullah
| module = {{Infobox military person|embed=yes
| allegiance = 25px Jamaat {{small|(1980s–1992)}}
25px TNSM {{small|(1992–2002)}}
| serviceyears = 1980s–2002
| rank = Emir (TNSM)
| battles =
{{tree list}}
{{tree list/end}}
}}
}}
Sufi Muhammad bin Alhazrat Hassan (Urdu: {{Script/Nastaliq|صوفی محمد بن الحضرت حسن}}; born 1933 – 11 July 2019) was a Pakistani Sunni Salafi cleric and militant, and the founder of Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), a militant group (declared a terrorist outfit and banned in 2002) vying for implementation of Sharia in Pakistan.{{cite news |last=Lakshman |first=Kanchan |date=2003-07-09 |title=Deep roots to Pakistan's sectarian terror |publisher=Asia Times |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EG09Df09.html |url-status=dead |access-date=2009-02-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040416073056/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EG09Df09.html |archive-date=2004-04-16}}{{Cite journal|title=The educated militants of Pakistan: implications for Pakistan's domestic security |last=Fair |first=C. Christine |journal=Contemporary South Asia |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=99–100 |date=2007-03-01 |url=http://home.comcast.net/~christine_fair/pubs/Fair_CSA_2008.pdf |access-date=2009-02-18 |doi=10.1080/09584930701800446 |s2cid=143810428}}{{cite web |title=Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Laws) |publisher=South Asia Terrorism Portal |url=http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/terroristoutfits/TNSM.htm |access-date=2009-02-18}}{{cite news |last=Jan |first=Delawar |date=2009-02-17 |title=Nizam-e-Adl Regulation for Malakand, Kohistan announced |publisher=The News International |url=http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=20372 |url-status=dead |access-date=2009-04-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090616085917/http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=20372 |archive-date=16 June 2009}}
It operated mainly in the Dir, Swat, and Malakand districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Sufi Muhammad was jailed for sending thousands of volunteers to Afghanistan to fight the U.S. intervention in 2001.{{cite news |last=Khan |first=Riaz |date=2007-10-27 |title=Inside rebel Pakistan cleric's domain |publisher=USA Today |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-10-27-1647230362_x.htm |access-date=2009-02-15}} However, he was freed in 2008 after he renounced violence.{{cite news |date=2008-04-21 |title=Top Pakistani militant released |publisher=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7359523.stm |access-date=2023-10-14}}{{cite news|last=Toosi |first=Nahal |title=Taliban to cease fire in Pakistan's Swat Valley |publisher=Yahoo News |date=2009-02-15 |url=https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090215/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan |access-date=2009-02-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090216212653/http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090215/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan |archive-date=16 February 2009}}
He was the father-in-law of Mullah Fazlullah, who assumed the leadership of TNSM during Sufi's imprisonment.{{Cite news |date=2009-02-16 |title=Pakistan agrees Sharia law deal |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7891955.stm |access-date=2023-10-14}}
He was described by BBC as a "follower" of Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi Salafist Islamic school of thought,{{cite web |date=13 January 2002 |title=Pakistan's militant Islamic groups |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1758534.stm |access-date=16 November 2014 |website=BBC News}} and by the Jamestown Foundation as one of the "active leaders" of Jamaat-e-Islami in the 1980s.
Early life
Sufi Muhammad, born in 1933 in Maidan, Lower Dir District, and received religious education at Panjpir, Swabi.{{cite book|title=An Enemy We Created: The Myth of the Taliban-Al Qaeda Merger in Afghanistan|date=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=492|isbn=9780199927319|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1xyh_DBV1bMC&q=sufi+muhammad+born+1933&pg=PA492}}
His son, Matiul Haq, would become an influential ideologue of the Tehreek-e-Taliban, which would at one time be led by his son-in-law Mullah Fazlullah.{{Cite book |last=Sheikh |first=Mona Kanwal |title=Guardians of God: Inside the Religious Mind of the Pakistani Taliban |publisher=OUP India |year=2016 |pages=75}}
Career
= Early activities =
{{Main|Malakand insurrection (1994-1995)}}
During the 1980s, Sufi Muhammad actively participated in Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist political party of Pakistan. In 1992 he split from the group to form TNSM.{{cite journal|title=Religious Organization TNSM Re-Emerges in Pakistan |last=Nasir |first=Sohail Abdul |journal=Terrorism Focus |volume=3 |issue=19 |publisher=The Jamestown Foundation |date=2006-05-17 |url=http://www.jamestown.org/programs/gta/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=740&tx_ttnews[backPid]=239&no_cache=1 |access-date=2009-02-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903120850/http://www.jamestown.org/programs/gta/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=497&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=180&no_cache=1 |archive-date=3 September 2014 |df=dmy-all}} From its stronghold of Malakand Division districts in northwestern Pakistan, Sufi Muhammad and his group engaged in violent agitation for the enforcement of Sharia law.
= After 9/11 =
In October 2001, following the September 11 attacks, Sufi Muhammad crossed into Afghanistan with thousands of his followers to help the Taliban fight the US-led forces. In 2001 he issued an edict, or fatwa, for holy war against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan. After the Taliban was ousted from power in 2001, he returned to Pakistan, and was arrested.
Sufi Muhammad remained in prison until 2008, when he agreed in talks with the Government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to use his influence to work towards peace in the region.
= Ceasefire =
Maulana Sufi Muhammad took part in negotiations with the government that led to the announcement of a temporary ceasefire in the Malakand region on 16 February 2009. The Pakistani government agreed to allow the implementation of Sharia in the region once violence had stopped.{{cite news |last=Ali |first=Zulfiqar |author2=Laura King |date=2009-02-17 |title=Pakistan officials allow Sharia in volatile region |work=Los Angeles Times |url=http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakistan-pact17-2009feb17,0,6631935.story |access-date=2009-02-17}} He agreed to travel to Swat to discuss peace with Fazlullah and his followers. He told reporters, "We will soon open dialogue with the Taliban. We will ask them to lay down their weapons. We are hopeful that they will not let us down. We will stay here in the [Swat] valley until peace is restored."{{cite news |date=2009-02-17 |title=Pakistan Blasted for Creating Taliban Safe Haven With Islamic Law Deal |work=Fox News |publisher= |url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/pakistan-blasted-for-creating-taliban-safe-haven-with-islamic-law-deal |access-date=2009-02-18}}
In early April 2009, Sufi Muhammad ended support for peace negotiations stating that the government was stalling the implementation of sharia courts in the Swat valley. President Asif Ali Zardari refused to sign any agreement until peace had been restored in the valley but failed to elaborate on how those conditions would be achieved.{{cite news|title=Sufi Mohammed calls off Swat peace deal |publisher=Dawn |date=2009-04-09 |url=http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/sufi+mohammed+calls+off+swat+peace+deal |access-date=2009-04-09}}
However, the president signed the Nizam-e-Adl-Regulation law for Swat, after it was hurriedly pushed through the national Parliament a few hours earlier on 13 April 2009.{{Cite web |last=Asghar |first=Raja |date=2009-04-14 |title=Sharia for Malakand as Zardari signs law |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/457187/sharia-for-malakand-as-zardari-signs-law-2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220603235033/https://www.dawn.com/news/457187/sharia-for-malakand-as-zardari-signs-law-2 |archive-date=2022-06-03 |website=Dawn}}
On 19 April 2009, Sufi Muhammad declared that "democracy was un-Islamic" and that decisions made in the qazi courts could not be appealed in Pakistan's central judicial system. According to the cleric, Western-style democracy had led to divides among Pakistanis and the judicial system had contributed to the factionalism. He ordered the central government to withdraw all judges from Malakand within four days and to set up a Darul Qaza, an Islamic supreme court, to hear appeals from local Sharia courts.{{Cite web |date=2009-04-23 |title=Deadline to set up Darul Qaza in Malakand by Sufi Muhammad ends today |url=https://nation.com.pk/23-Apr-2009/Deadline-to-set-up-Darul-Qaza-in-Malakand-by-Sufi-Muhammad-ends-today |access-date=2023-10-14 |website=The Nation |language=en-US}}{{cite news |last=Shah |first=Saeed |date=2009-04-20 |title=Militants demand Islamic courts in troubled Pakistani region |publisher=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/5189140/Militants-demand-Islamic-courts-in-troubled-Pakistani-region.html |access-date=2009-04-20}}
= Arrest =
On 3 June 2009, while engaging in Operation Black Thunderstorm against the Taliban, the Pakistani Army arrested senior aides to Sufi Muhammad in the Amandara region in Lower Dir. Among those aides arrested were Muhammad's deputy, Mohammad Alam, and his spokesperson, Ameer Izzat Khan.{{cite news |date=2009-06-05 |title=Pakistan Swat leader aides arrested |publisher=Al Jazeera |url=http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/06/2009650038989984.html |access-date=2009-06-05}}{{cite news |date=2009-06-05 |title=Pakistan arrests senior Islamists |publisher=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8084430.stm |access-date=2009-06-05}}{{cite news |date=2009-06-05 |title=Men with links to Taliban arrested |publisher=CNN |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/06/05/pakistan.swat/ |access-date=2009-06-05}} Initial reports indicated that Sufi Muhammad himself and possibly two of his sons had also been detained, though government sources would not confirm and would only say they knew of his whereabouts.{{cite news|title=Three senior TNSM leaders arrested in Amandara |publisher=Dawn Media Group |date=2009-06-05 |url=http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/11-top-tnsm-leadership-including-sufi-mohammed-arrested--sources--il--04 |access-date=2009-06-05}} TNSM sources confirmed that Sufi Muhammad and his sons were missing, but suggested that he had gone into hiding.
On 26 July 2009, the government announced the arrest of the cleric for encouraging violence and terrorism.{{cite news |date=2009-07-26 |title=Pakistan holds pro-Taliban cleric |publisher=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8169385.stm |access-date=2009-07-26}}{{Cite web |date=2009-07-27 |title=Sufi Muhammad, two sons held in Peshawar |url=http://beta.dawn.com/news/848509/sufi-muhammad-two-sons-held-in-peshawar |access-date=2023-10-14 |website=Dawn |language=en}} On 2 August 2009, police announced that he had been charged with sedition, aiding terrorism and conspiracy.{{cite news |date=2009-08-02 |title=Pakistan pro-Taliban cleric charged |publisher=Al Jazeera |url=http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/08/200982142425605701.html |access-date=2009-08-02}}{{cite news |title=Swat deal broker cleric 'charged' |publisher=BBC News |date=2009-08-02 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8180607.stm |access-date=2009-08-02}}
In January 2011, Sufi Muhammad denied to an anti-terrorism court that he had any links to the anti-state Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and that he only sought enforcement of sharia in Malakand.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2011-01-04 |title=No link with TTP, Sufi tells court |url=https://www.dawn.com/2011/01/04/no-link-with-ttp-sufi-tells-court/ |access-date=2023-10-14 |website=Dawn |language=en}} He was indicted on sedition charges by an anti-terrorism court on 7 February 2015.{{Cite web |last=Sherazi |first=Zahir Shah |date=2015-02-07 |title=ATC indicts Sufi Mohammad in sedition case |url=http://www.dawn.com/news/1162121 |access-date=2023-10-14 |website=Dawn |language=en}} He was released on bail on medical grounds in January 2018 by the Peshawar High Court.
Death
Muhammad bin Hassan died from kidney failure and diabetes on 11 July 2019 at the age of 86.{{Cite web |date=2019-07-11 |title=Controversial cleric Sufi Muhammad passes away |url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/2010820/1-controversial-cleric-sufi-muhammad-passes-away |access-date=2023-10-14 |website=The Express Tribune |language=en}}
Writings
= Urdu =
Haakimiyat Allah Taala Shariat-e Muhammadi kay Aayaynah mayn, 1998.
= Pashto =
Wajuhat-e-Arbaa Ashrah li Marifat-e Haqiqat-e al-Shariat-e al-Muhammadiah; Yani Swaarlas Wajuhaat da Pijandalu da Shariat-e-Muhammadi, 2008.
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Jamaat-e-Islami (Pakistan)}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muhammad, Sufi}}
Category:People from Lower Dir District
Category:Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan members
Category:Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan