In the footsteps of Maulana Maududi

The world didn’t believe when news of enslaving of thousands of Yazidi women and girls in Daesh-controlled Iraqi areas started pouring in, but soon these horrible acts were confirmed. A number of Yazidi women who managed to escape from Daesh’s clutches told the world what’s going on there: female slaves are being bought and sold and are being subjected to sexual cruelty. There was uproar when a fatwa (or better say a ‘rape handbook’) came on surface wherein Daesh has set rules for female slaves. The fatwa discusses quite in graphic detail the rules under which the owners of the slaves can have sex with them; apparently, it’s an attempt to regulate the treatment of enslaved female prisoners. The fatwa outlines 15 rules to modulate this centuries-old hateful practice in the 21st century.

I see many people condemning the fatwa and declaring Daesh a disgrace to Islam. Any sane mind will go by this condemnation but then I find what Daesh is doing with female prisoners is exactly the same Syed Maududi of Jamat-e-Islami has elaborated in his Tafheem-ul-Quran while explaining (tafseer) Sura-e-Nisa. I presume Syed Maududi’s views on slavery and treatment with female prisoners won’t be different from scholars of same school of thought and stature such as Sayyid Qutub and Hasan al-Banna of Muslim Brotherhood.

There is no point in condemning the Daesh alone; we need to dig further from where these terrorist organisations are getting the guidance. Unless you reach to the roots, action against Daesh would be a futile exercise as they will re-emerge elsewhere with a different name but with same agenda and more hardened resolve.

For Pakistanis who still have a soft corner for Daesh, such acts shall be an eyes-opener. This is the type of theocratic state Jamat-e-Islami and other religious parties and their militant outfits want to have in this country. God bless Pakistan!

MASOOD KHAN

Jubail, Saudi Arabia