Cricketer Shoaib Akhtar is looked upon by many in Bharat as a somewhat rational voice, with frank views on the sport and someone who at least spoke out against the inhuman treatment meted out to Danish Kaneria, a Pakistani Hindu cricketer, by the rest of the Pakistani cricket team some years back.
He was also the toast of liberals when he recently made an appeal to Bharat for supplying ventilators to Pakistan to combat Covid-19, invoking humanity over religion or country.
However, a video has now emerged which will make you change your views about Akhtar. The video demonstrates exactly how deep the Islamic supremacist virus has sunk into Pakistani society.
In the undated video shared by twitter handle @pakistan_untold, Akhtar is being interviewed by a woman host when he says –
“But it is also written about Ghazwa-e-Hind that the river in Attock will be colored red twice with blood. Forces from Afghanistan will reach till Attock. Then after that forces will rise from Shamal Mashriq, different contingents will arrive from Uzbekistan etc…this refers to Khorasan, a historical region which extended till Lahore. Later those forces will conquer Kashmir, and then, inshallah, they will march onwards (to the rest of Bharat)”
"Ghazwa e Hind is mentioned in our sacred books. We will first capture Kashmir and then invade India from all sides for Ghazwa e Hind"
– Shoaib Akhtar (descendant of a Hindu Gujjar)
After all cricket & art have no boundaries. After Ghazwa e Hind, India will have no boundaries! pic.twitter.com/sRlYml6xow
— Pakistan Untold (@pakistan_untold) December 18, 2020
Shamal Mashriq appears to be Urdu term for the geographical region which is just north of the Arabian peninsula.
Ghazwa-e-Hind
Ghazwa-e-Hind is an Islamic doctrine that is based on a Hadees (saying) of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, which prophesizes a great battle in Bharat between Muslims and Hindus before the end-times (qayamat), resulting in a conquest by the Muslims of the entire Bharatiya sub-continent.
According to the prediction the final battle will supposedly start in Syria with the troops marching to Bharat. Armies carrying black flags will supposedly come from Khorasan, and conquer Bharat to make it a fully Islamic state.
Many Pakistanis believe that their country was created for the sole purpose of being the springboard of the end-of-times, i.e. ‘Ghazwa-e-Hind’, when Pakistan’s military and people will swarm Bharat and wipe out once and for all the practice of Hindu Dharma from the face of the earth.
There are five reported sayings (Hadees) attributed to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad with regard to Bharat and the ‘Ghazwa-e-Hind’ war that shall take place before the end of times. Click here to read them in English.
So how seriously do Pakistanis take this prediction?
Let’s see what ex-Pakistani ambassador Hussain Haqqani has to say on the topic –
“Ghazwa-e-Hind divinations became a staple of the Islamist discourse after the launch of jihad in Indian-controlled parts of Kashmir in 1989. Throughout the 1990s, Pakistani official media also encouraged discussion of the Ghazwa-e-Hind Hadith to motivate jihadists. In fact, every major Pakistan-based jihadi group that launched terrorist attacks across the border claimed that their operations were part of the Battle for India promised by the Prophet. For these Pakistani groups, supported by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, the target of jihad should be the modern state of India and its “occupation” of Kashmir.
For example, Lashkar-e-Taiba has often spoken of Ghazwa-e-Hind as a means of liberating Kashmir from Indian control. The group’s founder, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, has declared repeatedly that “[i]f freedom is not given to the Kashmiris, then we will occupy the whole of India including Kashmir. We will launch Ghazwa-e-Hind. Our homework is complete to get Kashmir.”
Pakistani propagandist Zaid Hamid has also repeatedly invoked Ghazwa-e-Hind as a battle against Hindu India led from Muslim Pakistan. According to Hamid, “Allah has destined the people of Pakistan” with victory and “Allah is the aid and helper of Pakistan.”
Conclusion
Clearly, the Islamist rhetoric has sunk deep into Pakistani society, and even mainstream celebrity cricketers like Shoaib Akhtar have started harbouring dreams of conquering Bharat, while at the same time pining for IPL contracts and lucrative TV gigs. Other cricketers like Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir too have let the mask slip at times to reveal the anti-Hindu hatred hidden behind anodyne ‘sports is above religion’ PR statements.
The belief in Islam’s inherent superiority is drilled so deep into a Pakistani Muslim from birth through their society and education system, that they might not even be fully aware of it. For eg., when the Covid-19 pandemic was just breaking in March, Akhtar said it is ‘time to be human, not Hindu & Muslim’. And there is a good likelihood that he genuinely meant what he said. But when it comes to something written in their scriptures, even a cosmopolitan Muslim like Akhtar will find it almost impossible to dismiss.
Sadly, this practical knowledge and understanding of Islam is unknown to most Hindus, brought up as we are on a steady diet of ‘secularism’ and self-alienation. Many confused Hindus still dream of what a joint Indo-Pakistan cricket team would look like, or are waiting for the Indo-Pak cricket circus to restart once the current government goes.
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