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Muslim Ulama & Implementing Restrictive Family and Population Policies
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One
of the “misconceptions” Muslims have is that “abortion
is life-killing” IPPF told the conference.
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Easily the most momentous
conference of Islamic states directly mandating the enforcement of
restrictive population and family policies took place in Islamabad
May 4–6, 2005
.
The first
of its kind on the population issue in the country’s history, and
indeed in the Muslim world, the International
Ulama Conference on Population and Development was
organized by the Ministry of Population Welfare with some nominal technical support
from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)
and aided by other government departments, especially
that of Information.
Conference
Objectives
The Ulama Conference focused on
the role of population and family planning as permitted in Islam.
The imposing stature of the conference can be judged by seeing that
it was participated in by the Imams of the Grand Mosques of the
Ka`bah in Makkah and of the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah, two of
Islam’s holiest places of worship, and that it was inaugurated by
the Prime Minister of Pakistan and closed by President General
Musharraf himself.
While inaugurating the Opening Session on Wednesday, May 4,
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz urged religious scholars (ulama) to draw
guidelines in the light of Islamic teachings for bringing about a
positive change in people’s opinion on family planning in Pakistan
as well as
throughout the Muslim world. He eulogized the Ulama, who, he
thought, could play a pivotal role in guiding the Muslim Ummah on
population and family planning needs throughout the world. He urged
religious scholars to work for enlightened moderation and peace.
Their role could create unity in the ranks of the 1.3-billion-strong
Muslim Ummah and prepare them to meet the challenges endangering
their existence, he added.
The Premier said that such a huge population of
the Muslim Ummah was a source of strength as well as its greatest
weakness; smaller families were necessary for economic prosperity.
He said that while maintaining the value of the family system as a
basic unit of Islamic society, the country was pursuing an agenda of
population stabilization in collaboration with private sector
agencies and civil society, including NGOs, and with the support of
other countries. The government was sensitizing all stakeholders to
recognize population growth and crosscutting issues as a top
priority for the Islamic Ummah.
“The
role of women was crucial to the process of development and
improvement of their status and the extent to which they
were informed and involved in making vital family decisions
regarding its size.” |
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The
women and the family planners should have the final say on how large
the family should be since Islamic teachings encouraged such a
planning. The prime minister emphasized the importance of ijtihad
in Islam.
He said the leaders of Muslim juristic
schools should guide the Ummah on any contentious issue pertaining
to family planning in Islam.
Federal
Minister for Population Welfare Chaudhry Shahbaz Hussain outlined
the following intellectual themes and objectives of this conference:
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That
Islam’s classical doctrines do not prohibit family or
population control.
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That
even if they do, hypothetically speaking, by the deployment of ijtihad,
Islamic jurists should find newer theories of jurisprudence to
justify birth control and family regulation in the civil
society.
-
If
I may comment here, without
using the word “abortion,” the thrust of the semantics has
been that abortion is perfectly lawful and permitted if the
woman so wishes.
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That
a large family is bad per
se as it creates poverty and limits the resources of the
family, the society, and the Islamic Ummah.
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That
it is because of larger and larger populations that Muslim
nations continue to be poor
and without resources.
The
minister explained that the ethos of these objectives was the
high fertility rate in the poverty-stricken countries,
particularly in the Muslim world. He said Pakistan aimed at cutting
down the annual growth rate of its population to well under 2
percent, and the conference was one step towards that end. There
were scholars from 29 major Islamic countries represented in this
meeting. Eighteen important Muslim states were diplomatically
represented, among them Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Tunisia, Libya, and many
Central Asian Republics. Among prominent academic dignitaries were
the chancellor of the International Islamic University of Malaysia,
the chancellor of the Islamabad International Islamic University,
and a former Shari`ah Court chief justice.
Religious
Validation Sought
On
the next two days many scholars expressed their views, the thrust of
which was that doctrinally Islam allowed and fully permitted the
state and the family to fully control the number of its members. The
overall message of the various speakers identified the following
central ideas of the conference:
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That
the grass-root-level education and dissemination of limiting
family sizes had already begun
by the governments participating in this conference.
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What
was needed now was that religious scholars find ways and
modalities to convince the ordinary people, particularly in
rural areas, that birth control through scientific means was
lawful and permitted by Islam.
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That
in Pakistan a free mobile door-to-door medical service had been
initiated for this objective.
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That
all the Muslim states have agreed in principle that it is a
sound policy and I t is for ulama to join hands with the
administrations in convincing the public of its usefulness and
propriety from religious perspectives.
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That
in Pakistan they had already begun a program of selecting
“ulama” to be sent to the villages and rural areas to spread
the new message about the benefits of utilizing the latest
medical and scientific know-how to limit the population and
control the family size in accordance with the wishes of the
family and women. In the first batch, 13,000 such “good
religious scholars” were being dispatched throughout the
country.
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That
policies made by the Musharraf administration had to be
implemented, as religious doctrines could not be misused by
“ignorant” mullahs to derail progress of the civil society.
Words
like “abortion” were not directly mentioned; a right of
“reproductive health” was, however, frequently said to exist for
limiting family if necessary. Other words like “IUD,” etc. were
not used either, but since contraception was the aim, such
techniques are included. I may add that in a “prude” and
“polite” conservative Islamic society such as Pakistan, such
terms or phrases are seldom used in open discussions. But
let there be no doubt that all such modalities of controlling
fertility or reproduction are
envisaged by the present policies of the Government and now included
in the Islamabad Declaration.
No
one mentioned the “Doha process” and what is purportedly
achieved in an “Islamic atmosphere” but all
seemed to be aware of what had been done in
Sanya
,
China
,
at the World
Family Summit
[which
was hosted by extreme liberal groups].
The
country’s newspapers, without any demurer, aided this initiative
of the Musharraf regime. All the major dailies openly supported this
policy regardless of their own political affiliations. For example, Dawn,
The News and The
Nation,
the more prestigious independent daily publications of South Asia,
were of the view that it was commendable that the Pakistan
government has recognized the importance—even though
belatedly—of “involving the Ulama in the population planning
program to make it more effective. … It is the first step in that
direction.” The papers also pointed out that some Western-based
NGOs are clamoring for Muslims to stick to the supposed Islamic
prohibition against contraception or abortion. These views stem from
the extreme right wing of theological and perhaps even political
beliefs of some Western peoples.
A
devastating blow to the traditional pro-family protagonists came
when, in
Peshawar
on the morning of May 5, the MMA Provincial Coalition Government
(consisting of six major religious parties: two pro-Taliban, one
pro-Iran, and three main-stream) announced that it supported the
Islamabad
parleys in toto. Hence the degree of consensus achieved by the conference is self-evident.
Musharraf’s
Address
On
the last day of this meeting, two important matters occurred. First
there was an audience of all the foreign scholars with Musharraf in
the President’s House, where he formally addressed them for over
an hour, which was widely shown on the TV. Secondly there the
issuance of the conference declaration.
Musharraf
urged the Muslim scholars to raise public consciousness about
population planning since burgeoning population has hampered
economic growth in the Islamic countries and deprived them of
progress befitting their true potential. Addressing the gathering
the President said, “We must wake up, our abysmal socio-economic
indicators should be a wake up call for us; if we do not devise and
follow concrete policies in this respect, we will not be able to
curb poverty and progress despite possessing seventy percent of
world’s natural resources.”
The
President pointed out that the collective GDP of the entire Muslim
world is less than that of a developed and industrialized country,
and said that the situation calls for unambiguous and clear
population-cum-family control development policies. “We have
brought down the population growth rate from 2.5 to 1.9 percent. Had
we maintained an appropriate level earlier, we would have achieved
much greater economic development,” he said. The President said
that the ulama should come forward and supplement the government
with their proactive support so that “our future generations
become prosperous.” He added, “The religious scholars should
emphasize an enlightened understanding of Islam and discard
ritualistic and obscurantist interpretations.” Emphasizing
women’s role in this context, the size of the family should be
exclusively in their domain. On the importance of “restructuring
of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC)” on this issue, he
said he was asking the OIC to form a body to look after women’s
affairs in order to become an effective organization and relevant to
modern challenges.
Significance
of “Reproductive Rights”
The
federal minister had earlier announced that the conference was bringing
together Muslim teachers and scholars to explore whether Islam
fundamentally approved and endorsed family planning and reproductive
health programs. The minister explained that Pakistan ’s
government had been working to gain the approval of religious
scholars for Pakistan ’s
recent embrace of population control programs based on family
planning and reproductive health. Such reproductive health services
centers had been most successful in promoting family planning in the
country.
It
is necessary to point out at this stage that “reproductive
health” in the lexicography of the UN treaties and documents
dealing with such women’s matters do include the right to
abortion. This is certainly the view of the UN Compliance Committees
under the women’s rights international texts. Indeed, this matter
of what this term means came up before the UN Commission on the
Status of Women (CSW) as recently as March of this year. The United
States had to withdraw an amendment seeking to clarify that “reproductive
rights” did not
include
the right to abortion, as its failure was certain. Very
significantly, most of the Muslim states stood solidly against the US
measure or were just silent, as did many other Third
World
countries. In fact, the US position was made hopeless when in vote it lost heavily, despite the
fact it had been willing at that stage to withdraw the amendment
altogether. Thus the pro-life interpretation of the term is not
sustainable any longer in view of this latest legal debate and the
UN position on it.
Besides
local and foreign ulama, certain prominent international NGOs in the
field of family were also present. These included both foreign and
domestic institutes and organizations. The most prominent domestic
NGO was the Family Planning Association of Pakistan (FPA), which
though autonomous, is operating like a government department and is
traditionally essentially funded by the United States and some Scandinavian countries. Others
included prominent NGOs from China and other countries such as
Malaysia and the Central Asian Republics.
For
instance Ms.
Hong Ping of the Chinese chapter of the International Planned
Parenthood
Federation (IPPF) presented a paper entitled “Promotion of
Reproductive Health through Religious Leaders among the Muslim
Population.” She elaborated that a great deal of
“misunderstanding and misperception of reproductive health and
family planning prevail among the Muslims” in China. This misconception, she
added, generates unproved clichés “such
as abortion is life-killing.” She went to conclude
emphatically that “it
is crucial to develop a sound partnership with the religious leaders
should reproductive health be improved and family planning program
be accepted among the Muslim concentrated populations.” Ping
also told the audience about a pilot program of this kind in China,
where the IPPF had “initiated a project on promoting reproductive
health among Muslim population through the co-operation of religious
leaders in April 1999.” She offered that her NGO would work with
other institutions such as FPA to achieve progress.
Islamabad
Declaration
Minister
for Population Welfare Chaudhry Shahbaz Hussain said at a news
conference after a glittering concluding ceremony that renowned
scholars from 29 countries and 18 governments had unanimously
adopted a three-page declaration
that called for population planning. It stressed that family
planning was essential and desirable in this millennium; and any
view to the contrary being attributed to Islam were by those who
wanted the Muslims to remain poor, backward, destitute, and ignorant
about real progress and prosperity.
According
to the declaration, the ulama met to “discuss issues concerning
population and development as well as women within the context of
Islamic percepts, recognize that concerted and coordinated efforts
should be initiated by Muslim Ummah, in general and the
participating countries in particular, in the field of population
and development.” The conference held that “the role of women
was crucial to the process of development and improvement of their
status and the extent to which they were informed and involved in
making vital family decisions regarding its size.” About the role
of religious leaders, the declaration held that “for successful
realization of socio-economic development, leaders of the Islamic
community must play a leading role in mobilizing civil society,
women organizations and religious groups.”
Conclusion
Such
a huge population of the Muslim Ummah was a source of
strength as well as its greatest weakness. |
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The
decisions of the above proposals are self-evident. Family planning
with all its manifestations has been formally approved by a clear
majority of Islamic states, if not by all of them. I therefore
reiterate my earlier views expressed in my several writings
on this subject, some of which were exclusively written for IOL
after the
Doha
and the Sanya meetings. NGOs working in support of the family have
utterly failed to see the winds of change. The philosophy enunciated
in
Islamabad
is filled with the echoes of the China
conference in Sanya which came days after
Doha. Both in
China and in
Islamabad
I found a remarkable absence of any pro-family NGOs. Why, I cannot
say.
I
regret my warnings emanating from the
China conference were ignored by those for whose benefit they were
primarily produced; indeed the two pro-family NGOs I had been
associated with chose not to follow what I had pointed out in some
detail. Indeed, one of my best friends in one of these NGOs even
suggested that I should change my views about
Doha. Manifestly, much of what
Doha
said about family in one important respect has been substantially
negated in
Islamabad, a much larger intergovernmental conference.
Had
my persistence on having at least one topic from the Islamic
teachings discussed at
Doha
been heeded to, much of what has happened here and in
China might have been made more difficult if not impossible to realize. As
the
Manchester Guardian succinctly observed, there was something
unreal at
Doha. The topics and themes were those that conceivably may have been
presented to a non-Muslim audience in an American city. Topics and
addresses that could be meaningful to the wider Islamic base of the
family movement were just ignored. On the other hand, the
Islamabad
conference had two major objectives: to stress that Islamic religious
doctrines do not militate against family and population planning;
and that any references to the contrary must now yield to
ijtihad. By use of newer juristic theories Muslim societies
must keep abreast of progress and changing times.
In
other words, even if there is something to the contrary in classical
Islamic norms about family planning, they should now stand modified
by Muslim jurists.
DPhil.;
BA Juris, MA, MLitt, (Oxon), DCL (Columbia), DIA (Harvard), Of
Lincoln’s Inn, Barrister at Law, UK; Attorney at Law, US; Senior
Advocate Supreme Court (QC) of Pakistan; David M. Kennedy Visiting
Scholar and Professor of International Studies, Kennedy Center;
Professor and Visiting Fellow, Law School Human Rights Program and
Center for International Affairs, Harvard University. He is
currently the UN Special Ambassador for Family, the President of the
American Institute of South Asian Strategic Studies, Boston. He
delivered the highly prestigious King Faisal Memorial Lecture for
2002 in Saudi Arabia. In 2003 he was awarded the International
Professor of Human Rights Awards by Saudi Arabia from a galaxy of
international experts. In 2004 he became the first Pakistani scholar
to be appointed a distinguished Visiting Professor by JNU in Delhi,
and gave Memorial Lectures at the BenarasHinduUniversity and at
famed Ambadkar Center in Auranagbad on Constitutional evolution in
South Asia.
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