Musharraf's government takes on Jamaat-i-Islami

Under pressure from the United States the government of Pakistan has taken on what is probably the most powerful political party in the country, Jamaat-i-Islami. Syed Saleem Shahzad in the Asia Times give us a history of the movement/party and the risk Musharraf runs by cracking down on the party.

Under immense pressure from the United States, a slow and gradual operation has begun in Pakistan against the strongest political voice of Islamists and the real mother of international Islamic movements, of which Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front is the spoiled child.

In a surprise move this week, Pakistan's federal minister of the interior, Faisal Saleh Hayat, listed a number of incidences in which members of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), the premier fundamentalist party in the country, had been tied to al-Qaeda, and called on it to "explain these links".

"It is a matter of concern that Jamaat-e-Islami, which is a main faction of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal [MMA], has neither dissociated itself from its activists having links with the al-Qaeda network nor condemned their activities," Faisal said, adding that "one could derive a meaning out of its silence".

Shahzad goes into a rather lengthy history of the movement and discusses it's influence within and outside Pakistan. The bottom line is the government of the friend of the United States, Musharraf, is threatened by this crackdown.

So both within Pakistan - including in the army - and abroad, the JI has deep links. By taking on the JI in Pakistan, Musharraf could face a situation of virtual civil war.