This is not an Islamic Movement
KASHMIRI MILITANTS CLAIM that their present war is an Islamic jihad. This is based on a total fallacy. The silence of the Ulama in this matter has further added to their conviction. The present war in Kashmir is certainly not a jihad. Those who are engaged in this can never be rewarded with jihad.
Just as there are certain rules to be abided by in offering ritual prayer, so, too, must jihad in the path of God (jihad fi sabil Allah) follow certain rules that Islam has laid down. It is obvious that the self-styled mujahidin in Kashmir do not abide by these rules. For instance, a jihad needs to have a single amir or leader. It also requires a Muslim territory that can serve as its headquarters. A jihad cannot be fought for land, power, or wealth, but simply to establish God’s word. One of the fiqh principle says, “To declare war is the prerogative of an established state (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Kitabul fitan, Hadith No. 2957). Another condition for Jihad is that it has to be purely for defensive purpose, as given in the following verse of the Quran, “But you are free to do battle with these who are fighting against you.” (60:8-9). The ongoing movement in Kashmir meets none of these necessary conditions to qualify as a jihad. It can be called a guerilla war or a proxy war, but certainly not an Islamic jihad. And both guerilla war and proxy war have no legitimacy in Islam. A guerilla war is un-Islamic because, in Islam, announcing and leading a jihad is the task of an established ruler, not of the common man. Proxy war is prohibited in Islam because the government that engages in such a war does not openly declare its intentions, while an open declaration of war is a necessary condition for an Islamic war.
All these facts, as well as the completely useless war that continues to be waged in Kashmir, cry out to the Kashmiri Muslims to put an end to fighting without a moment’s delay. This fighting will not benefit them one bit, either in this world or in the hereafter, in the life after death. Rather, it will be a cause for their destruction in both worlds. It will lead to their destruction in the hereafter because they are engaged in a war that they wrongly claim to be an Islamic jihad but which, according to the Islamic rules, is not a jihad at all.
A struggle for political independence is not an Islamic movement, contrary to what its proponents might insist. Rather, it is wholly a communitarian or nationalist movement. There is no harm if such a movement is launched in the name of a nationality, but to claim it to be an ‘Islamic movement’ or an ‘Islamic jihad’ is certainly wrong.
In this regard, it is instructive to note that no prophets of God launched any movement for the political freedom of their country or people, although most of the prophets lived in similar situations in which political leaders launch movements for national liberation. For instance, at the time of the Prophet Joseph, a pagan foreign family ruled over Egypt. Yet, the Prophet Joseph did not launch a political movement or struggle against them. After the Prophet Joseph, certain political leaders, who were not among his companions, did launch such a movement.
If the Kashmiri Muslims want to make their movement an Islamic one, the first thing they must do is completely renounce violence. They must also admit that the movement that they have launched had actually been a communitarian or nationalist one, on which they wrongly stuck an ‘Islamic’ label. Naturally, such a movement cannot win divine succour.
One often hears Kashmiris lament that they are being crushed on two sides—by the Indian Army, on the one hand, and by militants, on the other. They also claim that when their jihad was launched, a good number of pious and well-meaning people were involved in it but that now all sorts of criminals and other bad elements have joined it, thereby giving it a bad name. This, I believe, is wholly incorrect. Sooner or later, guerilla war inevitably culminates in this sort of situation. At first, guerilla war might be led by people who appear good and sincere, but later, inevitably, all sorts of bad elements join it. This is what has happened in the case of Kashmir, too, where bad elements wrongly seek to give religious legitimacy to killing and looting by calling their actions an Islamic jihad.
This is why I believe that this excuse has absolutely no positive purpose at all for the Kashmiri Muslims themselves. They must admit that the launching of their guerilla war was wrong from the very first day itself. To admit their mistake is the first step that they must take, and they must desist from heaping the blame on others for whatever has happened in Kashmir.
