Pakistan's 'silent majority' welcomes mosque raid

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - The army raid on a pro-Taliban mosque has raised fears of an extremist backlash in Pakistan, but many in the country's so-called "silent majority" say the government was right to act anyway.

While hardliners have been able to stir up anger each time President Pervez Musharraf moves against them, most people in Pakistan have traditionally been tolerant Muslims -- and many oppose the militant drive to instal Islamic law.

For many of the one million people in the capital Islamabad, the raid -- the deadly climax of a three-month standoff with radicals -- has restored an uneasy calm despite a lingering fear of revenge attacks.

"Never before has Islamabad seen anything like this, nor should it be allowed in future," said garment shop owner Mohammad Siddiq. "We are all Muslims, but that doesn't give a few clerics the right to teach us Islam."

The standoff at the Red Mosque, less than two kilometres (one mile) from the presidential palace, began in April when chief cleric Maulana Muhammad Abdul Aziz set up a religious court to bring the capital under Islamic law.

In the final battle with radicals holed up in the mosque, firebrand cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi died in a hail of bullets while militant snipers fired at soldiers from the minarets and booby-trapped the compound.

In recent weeks, his radical students, including bearded talibs and women in burqas, had abducted Chinese women they accused of prostitution and harrassed shops selling Western DVDs in the city, which is among Pakistan's most liberal.

"These people were making life difficult for everyone and that, too, in the name of Islam," said Mehreen Shah, a housewife. "They should not have been given such liberty in the first place.

"Enlightened people were under threat from bearded militants -- whether they are video shop owners, beauty parlours or even school and college girls."

A female student who asked not to be named said: "How can you allow someone to start running around and enforcing sharia the way Ghazi was, through kidnappings, threats and attacks?"

Reacting with fury to the massive raid, Al-Qaeda's global deputy commander Ayman al-Zawahiri has called for holy war, saying in a new Internet posting: "Muslims of Pakistan, your salvation is only through jihad."

But many members of Pakistan's silent majority of moderate Muslims would prefer to just get on with life after a traumatic week that saw plumes of smoke billowing above the Pakistani capital.

"It's a sad end but life may return to normal in one or two days, which is good news for a poor person like me," said taxi driver Rahim Shah, who has manoeuvred around road blocks and police checkpoints for more than a week.

"If half the city is under curfew and the other half under construction, it affects your business, even if you're a taxi driver."

The guns have fallen silent for now, but many residents said the battle and Ghazi's death had escalated tensions and predicted it would embolden those who are fighting to turn their country into a hardline Islamic state.

"I don't agree with his style of politics," said college student Umer Farooq of the dead cleric. "But he has certainly become a symbol of defiance and did not surrender despite the odds against him."