The Mullahs and their religious sermons.

 

The Mullahs and their religious sermons.

In my childhood, I have no idea what year it was; Mullahism in Pakistan was at its peak. They were enjoying the highest status in the society, claiming all the so-called success of the Afghan jihad.  Most of the mullahs tend to be good orators because they practice the craft quite regularly in the madras’s.  So, they were much more lethal in conveying their message to the general public.

          I remember once in my early childhood, that our village leader organized the sermon of a prominent Mullah of our region. Thousands of people gathered from around the locality came to listen to him. During his speech, he criticized many of the sects of Islam and called many of them Kafir, because they follow their own guidelines, which according to him was shirk (a big sin in Islam).

          After the speech was finished, I heard many people from the gathering arguing with each other on petty things. Things like, why do you guy go to the saints; you are not supposed to be called Muslims. You guys are committing a big sin; you guys have created your own gods, why don’t you guys just ask Allah for forgiveness.  Instead of creating harmony amongst his listeners, that mullah created a sense of hate among them. So, my first impression of the mullahs was quite negative. Though I enjoyed the feast after the sermon.

          As I was growing up in a conservative religious society, I enjoyed many of the sermons delivered by the religious contractor. Mostly the exploited the ignorance of the illiterate people.  I have been to so many of the gatherings that I had the idea of, at what point the Mullah will raise which point.  Is the Mullah a Wahabi or Brailvi? So, what will be the target of his speech? How he is going to keep engaged his audience? I kind of came to know all of their tactics. Their tactics were similar, irrespective of their religious sects.

          In my early childhood, a Mullah called Ahmad saeed was very famous in our region. Our village used to invite him often for speeches. The Mullah had a strong rural personality, with only religious knowledge. His speech tactics were quite successful, I tried to wonder, why is he so effective in his audience? Whilst I was not impressed with him, especially because of his derogatory remarks about other sects.

          After researching for some time, I realized that his Method is successful because he targets the other groups regularly in his sermons. As humans we like controversy. We need something to gossip about. In actual words, he was taking advantage of the ignorance of the people. He knew how to keep them engaged. Whenever he felt that his audience is showing a lack of interest, he would raise the tone of his voice gradually to a level that I as a child would shiver. He knew how to use effectively his tone.

          Aside from his tone he had many other techniques to keep his audience engaged. For instance, he would ask his audience to recite Allah, o, Akbar loudly. Whenever he would feel that his audience is getting lousy, he would ask for Naraa-e-takbeer. He would become a funny man from time to time, entertaining his audience with his jokes. Even most of his jokes were based on hatred targeting the other sects. So all in all he knew the art of oratory.

          He brainwashed many of my fellow villagers. Most of them were poor and innocent, he turned them to monster hateful creatures. One of my Uncles named Mukhtar was brainwashed so much that he had remembered all his speeches by heart. He used to copy him very often. When he used to be alone, grazing his buffalos, he used to copy his style of speech.

          After the death of Mullah Saied, his son took the charge. People started inviting him as a speaker. He started enjoying a similar protocol as his father.

          If one studies the speech pattern of these Mullahs, one can find significant similarities in their style of delivering a speech. After all, the audience has a similar mindset as well. It is easy for them to convince a layman rather than a rational educated person. So, most of the audience who come to listen to such speeches belong to low socio-economic background with a low literacy rate.

          These mullahs treat their audience as customers, after all they get paid for their time and energy. They say that they did everything for the sake of Allah, but they charge a heavy amount for the speeches, plus they enjoy good meals and protocol.  They keep their audiences in dark. If they came to know about the truth, then who will come to listen to their hateful speeches. After all, they don’t want to lose them.

          With the rise of the internet, they started using social media. The young generation who heavily use the internet often listens to their sermons on these platforms. They know the full use of modern technology; they know how to use modern technology in their favour.  They have created their media cells, which post regularly their speeches on social media platforms.

          Now the question is what can be done to diminish the role of such mullahs in the society which are causing division in the society. According to my observation, most of their audience belong to the low socio-economic background and people with low education level. So, we need to tackle poverty first to minimize its impact on society. Secondly, we will have to spread awareness by using modern technology, and most importantly we will have to focus on educating the children of people of low socio-economic background.  Once we have an educated generation then it will be hard for an irrational person to make his gain or cause division in the society. We will have a society where there will be religious harmony and every individual will mind their own business.