The Sunni Ittehad Council, formed in 2009, is an
alliance
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
of Islamic political and religious parties in
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
which represents followers of the
Barelvi
The Barelvi movement ( ur, بَریلوِی, , ), also known as Ahl al-Sunnah wa'l-Jamaah (People of the Prophet's Way and the Community) is a Sunni revivalist movement following the Hanafi and Shafi'i school of jurisprudence, with strong Suf ...
(Sufi) school of Sunni Islam.
[
The current chairman of the main 'M' faction is Sayyid Mahfooz Shah Sahib Mashadi and member parties of the Sunni Ittehad Council include the Aalmi Tanzeem Ahle Sunnat of Pir Afzal Qadri (of Gujrat) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan. The ]Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan
Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP) ( ur, ) is a Islamist political party in Pakistan. It was founded in 1948 by leaders of All India Sunni Conference. JUP exercised considerable political influence in Pakistani politics during 1970s to 2003. Its stude ...
(JUP) was founded by Mohammad Abdul Ghafoor Hazarvi
Akhundzada Mohammad Abdul Ghafoor Hazarvi ( ur, اخوندزادہ محمد عبدالغفور ہزاروی چشتی) (1 January 1909 – 9 October 1970) was a Muslim theologian, jurist, and scholar of ahadith in Pakistan (''South Asia' ...
.
The breakaway 'F' faction that was established by Sahibzada Fazl Kareem and Haji Hanif Tayyab is now under the leadership of Hamid Raza.[
]
Actions
In December 2011, the Sunni Ittehad Council launched a countrywide " Difa-e-Pakistan campaign" to create public awareness against NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
attacks on Pakistan’s border military posts in Mohmand Agency, and decided to hold a "Condemn America Day" on the 23rd of that month. Those NATO attacks killed over two dozens Pakistani soldiers.school of thought
A school of thought, or intellectual tradition, is the perspective of a group of people who share common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a philosophy, discipline, belief, social movement, economics, cultural movement, or art movement.
...
.[
The US government website Usaspending.gov shows that the Sunni Ittehad Council received $36,607 from Washington in 2009. Sunni Ittehad Council had organized anti-Taliban rallies in Pakistan in the past. But the council later demonstrated in support of ]Mumtaz Qadri
Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri (1985 – 29 February 2016), better known as Mumtaz Qadri (, ur, ), was the assassin of Salmaan Taseer, Governor of Punjab. Qadri was a commando of the Elite Police and, at the time of the assassination, a member ...
who killed the liberal politician Salman Taseer
Salman Taseer ( Punjabi and ur, ); ( 4 January 2011) was a Pakistani businessman and politician, who served as the 26th Governor of Punjab from 2008 until his assassination in 2011.
A member of the Pakistan Peoples Party since the 1980s, ...
for his criticism of anti-blasphemy laws in Pakistan.[US aided Pakistan group which supported extremists]
Dawn (newspaper), Published 11 January 2012, Retrieved 11 December 2018 According to a Hudson Institute report, "A few days after the assassination, leading religious groups led a demonstration of over fifty thousand people in Karachi in support of the blasphemy law. During the rally, Qadri was lionized as a Muslim hero, while rally leaders sternly warned the crowds against mourning Taseer, whom they claimed had deviated from Islam."[
In September 2011, the Council reacted to rumors that the United States might invade Pakistan in an attempt to put down terrorist networks in the country. The Council issued a fatwa stating that jihad against the US would become obligatory, were the country to encroach upon Pakistani soil, and urged the Pakistani government to prepare the nation for a holy war "in the way of God."]fatwā
A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist ...
against the Taliban gunmen who tried to kill Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai ( ur, , , pronunciation: ; born 12 July 1997), is a Pakistani female education activist and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Awarded when she was 17, she is the world's youngest Nobel Prize laureate, and the second P ...
. Islamic scholars from the Sunni Ittehad Council publicly denounced attempts by the Pakistani Taliban to mount religious justifications for the shooting of Yousafzai and two of her classmates.
Division
Due to some political divisions, the Sunni Ittehad Council broke into two. One faction, led by Sayyid Muhammad Mahfooz Shah Sahib of Bhikki Shareef, declared that Sahibzada Fazal e Kareem and Haji Hanif Tayyab had been removed from their positions due to attempting to create an alliance with the Pakistan Muslim League Q without the prior permission of the member parties of the Sunni Ittehad Council, along with a host of other allegations.[Sunni Ittehad Council accepts Taliban challenge of debate]
Dunya TV News website, Updated 13 November 2013, Retrieved 12 December 2018
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sunni Ittehad Council
2009 establishments in Pakistan
Islamic political parties in Pakistan
Sunni organizations
Islamic organisations based in Pakistan
Barelvi political parties
Political party alliances in Pakistan