New Delhi: Legislation giving protection to transgender people in Pakistan is a “sign of doomsday”, terrorist group al-Qaeda’s Urdu magazine Ghazwa-e-Hind has observed in an article in its August-September issue, released online on jihadist social media this week.
Four women legislators responsible for drafting the law, the magazine said, “are working directly on the satanic agenda”.
According to the al-Qaeda, the transgender rights law is part of a “wider betrayal of Islam by Pakistan’s leadership”.
“The true book of Allah says sexual relations between men and men — that it was first done by the doomed people of Sodom,” the magazine said. “Adultery will spread…It is one of the signs of the Day of Judgement.”
Pakistan’s National Assembly had in 2018 enacted The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act to provide legal recognition to transgender persons and give them fundamental rights. Critics of the law say it will promote homosexuality and gay marriages, and contradicts Islamic teachings.
Islamist political parties, including the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl), partner in the ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement alliance, have recently assailed the legislation. Last month, the JUI-F moved a Federal Shariat Court, asking for the law to be struck down.
However, Pakistan’s law minister Azam Nazeer Tarar subsequently held a press conference in which he took up criticism of the law, and said that “some friends” had created a misconception that the legislation permitted homosexuality and was contrary to Islamic injunctions.
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‘Sold for a few dollars’
Ghazwa-e Hind also refers to the events of 9/11, saying it should be remembered as a “day of difference”, or “Yaum-e-Tafriq”.
“Then, without talking too far, let’s go two decades ago, when the world was divided into two parts after the 9/11 jihadist attacks on the Pentagon, the military centre of America, and the Twin Towers, the financial centre of America. (Then US President) George W Bush… declares a crusade and says either you join us or be with terrorists,” the article said.
“Pakistan, which was made a bastion of Islam, has become a toy in the hands of the establishment,” it added.
It further said that “the majority of the world stands with the ruler of the time and the medal of the frontline ally is decorated on the chest of (former Pakistan president) Pervez Musharraf and the Pakistan Army under his leadership”.
In the article, al-Qaeda claimed that “generals, colonels and other officers of the Pakistan Army sold their faith and country for a few dollars”, and added that “during the war on Islam in Afghanistan, they earned billions of dollars”.
The magazine further referred to events post India’s Partition, saying “it has been further confirmed” that the “mujahideen tribe had supported Pakistan to capture Kashmir (Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir)”.
According to the al-Qaeda, “the tribals had acceded to Pakistan under an agreement at the time of the creation of Pakistan and the independent status of the tribes had been recognised by the founder of Pakistan (Muhammad Ali Jinnah)”.
“The tribal people have been demanding the implementation of Sharia law since the annexation of Pakistan until now and when this rightful demand of the tribal people was not accepted, instead, the tribal people were bombed and military operations were imposed,” the article said.
“It should not be forgotten that in 1948, the same tribal mujahideen fought the war against India on the front of Kashmir, and today the area that is called Azad Jammu and Kashmir was liberated by these inter-tribal mujahideen,” it said, adding “the (Pakistani) military and civilian establishment of the time wanted to keep the Kashmir issue as an ‘issue’”.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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