How a lurking religious potential be manipulated in favor

It is a rare account that my friends and I were a group of five that spent many a year together, working, organizing parties and arranging tours across the country and then, by bad of luck, we met that maulana, who opened us the secret that one of our friends was not a Muslim actually... We were taken aback as the news broke upon was so much strange that we could not believe it. We had seen him offering prayers with us, attending EID prayers and even EID Milad ul Nabi and showing normal behavior during the holy month of Muharram ul Haram etcetera. How could he be a non-Muslim? That maulana explained that he was a Shia and his beliefs were far more different than that of ours. He poisoned many of our friends' minds with only five or six lectures. Then, suddenly, my friends' mother passed away and none of my friends joined her funeral prayer and even her obituary. The gulf widened, and we got our relationship broken with him. He was left alone and broken. After that, we could neither travel, eat or sit nor talk together. But, hopeful thing is that such people are not actually representatives of the whole clergy.

During the recent religious agitation, one thing came out to be the most alarming and potentially threatening and that is the religion and clergy's influence over the minds of the public, in general. Imam Masjids and ulemas experience an unmatchable power upon the minds of the people, and they can raise a large gathering against or in support of any government, policy, law, statement or even an incident anytime. What they say, is taken as religious obligation and is taken as top-priority. People start taking their words as religious jurisdiction. We are facing a strange attitude that national policies are devised in the meetings of the top leadership but challenged in the public at the lowest levels.

Fortunately, our Ulemas have influenced a good control over the minds of majority but unfortunately, since Afghan war, our security agencies and governments have been exploiting the religious groups for the national security purposes. I remember an ex Army Spokesperson responding to the authority when he was suggested to tackle a religious protest iron handed, "How can we shoot at our own people?"

These "own people" have been exploited by every government against evey opposition and now they have got their hands within every government. On one side they are taken as fundamentals and are dealt according to the international laws while on the other side they are signed agreements with, and are used against opposition. We seem to have no national policy about it. These groups have two potential powers in their hands; they seem to have relations with security agencies and second they have an undeniable support of public on religious grounds because our governments look fail in dealing with the most sensitive issue of "Khatm e Nabuvat.." We do agree that some foreign countries use it as a weapon to spread anarchy but, this is not alarming, the alarming situation is that we have neither any strong policy and its imposition nor any control over these religious groups and street mosques' Ulemas who actually raise people against or in favor of a policy or a government and have a direct approach to the public in general. We have observed during the recent uprise that members of every political party have one thing in common that on one call against blasphemy, they respond sharply at the call of the Ulemas and Mashayakhs and I believe that they can prove to be a national threat in case any foreign interference. This is the real threat of the 5th generation warfare. Recently, the news are spreading about foreign and internal enemies and anti-nationalist groups' using the recent uprise to destabilize national unity and peace. These groups and agencies exploit the situation, and it culminates in deepening the gulf between nationalists and religious groups or government and the anti-government groups.

The need of the hour is that the religious sphere including all Ulemas, Madaras, Imams, mosque committees be brought under a main stream. Street mosques be given proper guidelines to use Juma, Eid and other religious congregational sermons to strengthen the national unity, peace and discipline. The most influencing estate has been set at large and has no guideline and no share in national unity, peace and discipline. Religion is the most powerful factor among Asian countries, especially in Pakistan, India, Iran, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Everyone knows this factor, and nearly all these countries are exploited by enemies who can use this factor well.

The need of the hour is that each and every estate should come under a main stream to empower and strengthen national unity and stance so that one message go to the enemies. We must keep in mind that our Ulemas have a good control over the minds of the people, and with a little work this power can be utilized. Imams of local mosques should be fixed from government and should also be registered and given proper training and guided sermons to the public and be under the ministry of interior. The government and the peace keeping agencies must come to an agreement with the Ulemas and the clergy so that they may join hand in hand with the government and this is possible only when we give respect and responsibility to them instead of undermining them and calling them rioters and presenting them terrorists internationally. They have a respectable position among the public and must not be ignored. I am sure that this will give a hard blow to our external and internal enemies.