Changing Religious Leadership in Contemporary Pakistan: The Case of the Red Mosque

Abstract

Religious leaderships, and the type of collective mobilizations they foster in the name of Islam, have passed through major changes in Pakistan since the 1980s; especially in the growing urban areas where almost 35% of the population now live, compared to 25% in 1972.1 In addition to the well-known heads of ``constitutionalist '' Islamist parties, such as the Jamaat-i-Islami, the Jamiyyat Ulama-i-Islam, and the Jamiyyat Ulama-i-Pakistan, that the government has always quite successfully co-opted or exploited, new leaders have emerged and contributed to modify the landscape of Islamic activism in contemporary Pakistan, as proven by the ``Red Mosque (Lal Masjid) Movement.''2