The brother-in-law of Jammiat Ullema-e-Islam (Sami) Chief Maulana Sami ul Haq, Maulana Anwar ul Haq, made rounds recently on social media after a video featuring him burning a pile of cell phones went viral.
Back in June 2016, Imran Khan and the PTI government had come under fire for allocating Rs 300million of the KP budget 2016-17 for the modernisation and subsequent integration of the religious education institute into the mainstream
The Darul Uloom Haqqania seems to have massively misunderstood the PTI’s reasons behind the grant. However the PTI’s plan to integrate the so-called “University of Jihad” might just work if they are somehow able to get the rest of the province to burn their phones too.
The son-in-law of the Darul Uloom Haqqania founder Maulana Abdul Haq was seen lecturing a number of his followers in the video, expounding on the evils of using mobile phones while a small wooden pyre stood in the middle of the group of men.
“In no other madrassa is this problem as it is here. Even on the dauras, everyone has one in his hands….” “Even on dauras, the taaliban (students of the organisation) have these in their hands!”
Anwar ul Haq continued to speak while the shifty footage, which peculiarly enough seems to be made using yet another mobile phone, cuts to one of his deputies who is holding up a number of phones in his arms.
“And look at that…..” he continues, “I don’t even know its name…what is that thing that people look at women in?” before someone shouts “Facebook” beside him.
“Yes, Facebook!” “This will destroy you. In this day and age, the most destructive thing for a talib is this mobile phone,” the livid cleric said about the very social networking website his fiery speech is being shared on.
The cleric finally gives the order to torch the phones as a few of his men douse the wood in fuel before setting it to the flames. Another man begins committing phones to the fire one by one like one would logs.
It seemed almost as if the gentlemen from Darul Uloom Haqqania were having a bonfire as they good-naturedly argued regarding how much fuel to add and with what intervals the devices should be added.