"Throw the bat and seize the sword and instead of hitting six or four, cut the throats of the Hindus and the Jews"--Jihadis motivate Pakistanis

Days before the terror attack in Lahore, the powerful pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Mohammad lashed out at cricket, describing it as a distraction that needed to be curbed.

Tuesday’s attack likely had little to do with cricket or Sri Lanka. Its purpose was to demonstrate to the Pakistani state and civil society the costs of confronting the increasingly-powerful jihadist groups.

But the attack focusses attention on one of the more peculiar preoccupations of the jihadist movement in Pakistan: a loathing of cricket, which elements of the religious right claim is part of a plot to destroy Islam.

In the wake of the 2004 India-Pakistan cricket series, which generated enormous popular goodwill in both countries, the Lashkar-e-Taiba magazine Zarb-e-Taiba set about explaining that the sport was objectionable. The British, Zarb-e-Taiba argued in its April 2004 edition, gave Muslims the bat, snatched the sword and said to them: “You take this bat and play cricket. Give us your sword. With its help we will kill you and rape your women.”

It is sad, the magazine caustically noted, that Pakistanis are committing suicide after losing cricket matches to India. But they are not sacrificing their lives to protect the honour of the raped Kashmiri women. “To watch a cricket match, we would take a day-off from work. But for jihad, we have no time!”

By contrast, Zarb-e-Taiba pointed to the case of the Islamists’ arch-foe Israel. Israel, it observed, is a very tiny country. “[But] It does not play cricket. Therefore, it is progressing. We should throw the bat and seize the sword and instead of hitting six or four, cut the throats of the Hindus and the Jews.”

Zarb-e-Taiba sternly added that the sports of a mujahid are archery, horse-riding and swimming. Apart from these sports, every hobby is un-Islamic. The above are not just sports but exercises for jihad. Cricket is an evil and sinful sport. “Under the intoxication of cricket, Pakistanis have forgotten that these Hindu players come from the same nation that had raped our mothers, sisters, daughters, wives and daughters-in-law.”

Islamists have often found occasion to rail against cricket in the years since that article appeared. Last year, the weekly al-Qalam attacked Pakistan’s plans to reform the madrasa programme which, among other things, envisaged the initiation of an inter-seminary cricket tournament. It described the proposed tournament as evil. “We, the ulema of the Deoband school will have nothing to do with this tournament,” al-Qalam’s editors asserted in the April 17, 2008, issue.

The West, al-Qalam went on, is promoting obscenity in Pakistan by promoting sports among girls’ educational institutions. “It is a matter of shame for us that our daughters are playing cricket, hockey, football, and so on. The conspiracy is to change madrasas into regular schools and colleges. These conspiracies have been hatched by the enemies of Islam.”

Many seminaries claiming to adhere to the Deoband school of theology prohibit their students from playing cricket, as well as a welter of other sports. Others only forbid girl students from engaging in sporting pursuits.

Pro-cricket Islamists

Most Islamists, though, have embraced cricket and the nationalist fervour which goes with it. Jamaat-e-Islami politician Qazi Husain Ahmed, for example, is an ardent supporter of the game or so his party’s press releases suggest.

In the wake of a Pakistani victory in a one-day match in New Delhi, for example, the Jamaat-e-Islami leader said the nation is standing in pride on this grand victory [sic].

However, Ahmed warned that General Pervez Musharraf (then President) could use the popular euphoria generated by the victory to slip from the principled national stance on Kashmir. He expressed fear that the General might give in on the Kashmir issue to save New Delhi from the humiliation of defeat in cricket.

During its years in power, Afghanistan’s Taliban regime also embraced cricket although subject to rules which forbade the crowd from cheering and competitors from sporting short-sleeved shirts (women were barred from either playing or watching the game). In May 2001, an Afghan team toured Pakistan; the Taliban later unsuccessfully applied for membership of the International Cricket Council.

Indeed, Pakistan’s jihadists are known to have several ardent cricket fans in their ranks. Hafiz Mohammad Younus, a Dera Ghazi Khan resident who was killed while he was staging an attack on the Islamabad airport in 2007, was reported to have been an enthusiast.