Drawing the parallels between Syed Ahmad Bareilvi and Talibans

[Ali_Syed]

Re: Drawing the parallels between Syed Ahmad Bareilvi and Talibans

@marwati

1- I think syed ahmed was the first person to try enforcing sharia on pashtuns. At that time there was no deobandism and pakhtuns were not deobandi but were following light version of islam with sufi traditions. I have checked few books of british officers of 19th century era and from their accounts one can find out that there was not even such thing as burqa, pakhtun women didnt wear burqa at all !. Pashtuns were not resceptive to strict wahabi laws. Moreover by nature they are allergic to foriegn rule and authority, when syed ahmed gave them different vibe, they acted against him.2- Interestingly there were also rohilla pashtuns of U.P among syed ahmed followers, Syed ahmad himself claimed to be yousafzai of syed background, yet they were deemed hindostanis. At that times great emphasize was put on shajra-e-nasb, hasb-o-nasab among pashtuns much like arabs..even today traditional pashtuns prefer to marry among themeselves.3- We dont know who titled him shaheed, we study it in mutala-e-pakistan. Todays pakhtuns thinking is much different from his ancestors of 19th century.Its deobandi school of thought which has greatly islamized pashtuns. Specially after 1947 deobandi madrassas, tablighi jamaat, jumat e islami etc has greatly penetrated into pashtun society. When talibans movement started , they were already radicalized enough to accept it.

Its evident that (in the past) the pashtuns followed sufi traditions like the rest of the muslims (of the subcontinent). The tombs of sufi saints like Khushal Khan Khattak give us a glimpse of the history. When did the majority became deobandi? I get your point that the people were already receptive, therefore when the taleban took over and enforced stringent laws, the majority of pashtuns took it lying down.