Dubious Ghazi (Zaid Hamid's Profile)

Biography

According to Wikipedia (which is almost as reliable a source as Zaid Hamid himself), Zaid Hamid was born in Karachi on March 14, 1964. His father, Col. Zaman Hamid (Retd), served in the Pakistan Army at that time. Zaid spent his early life in Karachi. He did his Matriculation from Habib Public School in 1980. He got admission in NED University in 1983.  He received a Bachelor of Engineering (BE) degree in Computer Systems Engineering. During his student days, he was affiliated with Islami Jamiat Talba(IJT) and was a popular member. Due to these affiliations, he got close to the Afghan Leaders that were operating in Pakistan. He allegedly spent 6 years in “Afghan Jihad”. After that, he shifted to Rawalpindi and got a job at Bronx Security Company. After some time, he left the job at Bronx and opened his own company named BrassTacks.


According to the brochure published by BrassTacks, available on the website www.zaidhamid.pk. Zaid Hamid became famous when he started a program named Brass Tacks on a TV channel(TV-One), discussing “Economic Terrorism, CIA Threats to Pakistan, Zionist Wars against Islam and Role of Spiritual Forces in War”.
The brochure also proudly states that, “The International think tanks and media, especially the Americans and Iranians have distinctively noticed him as well. A New York Times article and documentary specially featured the impact his so falsely termed "conspiracy theories" have on the Pakistani youth”. He first appeared on PTV as a security expert in the program hosted by Ahmad Qureshi. After the show on TV One, he also did a show named “Iqbal ka Pakistan” on Aag TV (that program has been reviewed thoroughly by myself which can be seen here). He also toured many universities of Pakistan to spread his message until he faced stiff resistance in Peshawar. Later, 2 medical students started the website http://zaidhamidexposition.org  which was instrumental in bringing his drama to a premature end in 2008-09. A problem was that this website based all its hatred and opposition of Zaid Hamid on some previous blasphemy charges of his. Like a chameleon, he revamped his profile and started posing as a very patriotic Pakistan and Devout Muslim. Since then, he has been invited sparingly on TV shows.

Anas Abbas, a blogger, wrote “Syed Zaid Zaman Hamid, a darling of Pakistani elite, a motivator for Pakistan army officers, an absurdity for Pakistani liberals and an idol for Pakistani conspiracy theorists, has been in the headlines of Pakistani media for almost three years now. During this time, he has been popular because of his motivational and turbulent rants against the Jews and Hindus and his extraordinary defence of Pakistan army and its oppressive policies. Even prominent journalist Seymour Hersh recently reported that Pakistani army officers were increasingly influenced by his philosophy”.

Zaid Hamid has been exposed and ridiculed in the media by columnists Fasi Zaka(whom ZH had accused of being a Jewish agent because he was a Fulbright Scholar), Nadeem Farooq Paracha and Mohammad Haneef. Last year, he appeared in a program with Marvi Sirmed in which he tried to defend his delusions and myths propagated in history by the establishment.

Recently, in a program on Express News, Zaid Hamid was dealt expertly by Hasan Nisar and Ali Chishti. They ruthlessly exposed his baseless claims and so-called ideology by using facts.

Why is Zaid Hamid Dangerous?

Zaid Hamid advocates the establishment of Khilafah and an Iranian style revolution. He is staunchly anti-democracy. He wants the Gold Standard back. He wants to “conquer” India. He has a different definition for “Zionists” and labels everyone whom he dislikes as a Zionist. He was one of the proponents of the “Good Taliban/Bad Taliban” theory.
 He thinks Allama Iqbal was not a human being but a “spiritual” super-human. He is openly pro-establishment and wants Army to take over the political system until the Khalifa arrives. He thinks Muslims can form a political bloc to fight against the “immoral, corrupt and conspiring West”. He believes that the cause of floods in Pakistan was some secret Indian/American mission. He thinks Baloch Insurgents and TTP are foreign-funded.
Following are some excerpts from Zaid Hamid’s memoirs, named “From Indus to Oxus”.

Page 12:- It was also deliberately orchestrated on massive media campaigns to inspire and attract these people. With the direct approval of the US and western countries, using ideological political Islam to counter Communist ideology, it was fairly easy in those days to reach Peshawar and young men reached in thousands from every corner of the globe.
(Comment:- Zaid Hamid has himself identified the role of US and western interests in the Afghan War and he still insists on calling the largest CIA mission in history as “Jihad”.)

Page 15:- During my entire six years association with Afghan Jihad, I never heard the term “Al-Qaeda” either in Peshawar or in Afghanistan.
(Incidentally, he has mentioned Dr. Abdullah Azzam in his book who was the founder of Al Qaeda. Maybe Zaid Hamid did not have the “clearance level” to know such details).

Page 103:- Even in those days when almost 4 million refugees lived in various regions of Pakistan, there was hardly a case of Afghans causing any serious law and order problem or participating in riots or violence. However, the fact remains that the political parties as well as the media targeted them as easy scapegoats to blame for all the crime, violence and drugs in the society.
(This is just another conspiracy theory, the facts tell us an opposite story.)

Page 104:- The true importance and incredible strength of information and psychological war dawned on me and propelled me into launching my own counter propaganda war to change the perception of the society about the historic and gigantic struggle taking place on the western borders. It appalled me to see the apathy of the people towards the regional and historical geo-politics unfolding in the region as well as the lack of concern for the great role Pakistan and the Afghan Jihad was playing in the physical and ideological renaissance and reshaping of the Muslim world.
(Perhaps he himself has been waging a “mis-information” war over the years, like the one he has mentioned here).

Page 117:- In the absence of General Zia, there was no solid binding force which could keep them together. General Hameed Gul was another respected man within the ISI and he did his best to keep the Mujahideen united. But unfortunately, now there was no Afghan policy in Islamabad. Abandoned by the US, the PPP regime had no strategic vision for the future. Thus, a series of catastrophic events was triggered.
(Zia, his patron saint, was not just a Jihadi. He was a brutal dictator as well and he emancipated human rights of Pakistanis for well over a decade. Hameed Gul is still going strong, patronizing the Difa-e-Pakistan council).

Page 135:- My heart sank into the deepest pit and I instantly realized that the cause of Pakistani nation and Afghan Mujahideen had also crashed along with that unfortunate C-130. Within months, sham elections were held in Pakistan and Benazir Bhutto was brought into power in a democracy which was fully backed by the US and CIA. The PPP regime then played havoc with the Afghan cause. Pakistan’s Afghan policy was now officially doomed and Pakistan hasn’t been able to recover from this historic disaster till today. The Afghan Mujahideen also knew that with the death of Gen. Zia they had lost their most sincere and loyal patron. General Zia was loved like a father figure by the Afghan resistance and people alike. He was also loved all over the Muslim world for his courage to speak for the Muslim causes and his efforts to bring about unity within a confused and divided Ummah.
(Zaid Hamid is telling half-truth here. It was the 2nd PPP government that formed Taliban, favored by Zaid Hamid himself. Zia was not “loved all over Muslim World” as under his supervision, Black September had taken place).

Page 168:- In 1975, ISI also launched its own war against the Soviet camp in Afghanistan. Kabul University had a strong presence of Islamists and young students influenced by the modern Muslim political thinkers like Syed Qutub, Hasan al Banna and Maududi. The ISI recruited these Islamists and started to strengthen them against the rising power of the communists in Afghanistan.
(Zaid Hamid has mentioned his handlers and their efforts in these lines).

I have written that he “allegedly” took part in Afghan War because even in his book there is no picture of him in Afghanistan. Most of the pictures are those that can be found easily on the internet or archives. He did have links with the Commanders and he acted as Laision officer but that was all.
Summing up the argument, I am not worried that Zaid Hamid will get a chance to rule this country, I am worried because main stream politicians like Imran Khan have espoused the same ideologies as Zaid Hamid and this trend needs to be checked(If you do not believe this, please do watch the show Iqbal ka Pakistan, in which Imran Khan was invited to the show in episode 4 as a guest and apart from other similarities, Zaid Hamid used the word “tsunami” as a political force in episode 21). Fringe players like Zaid Hamid are present in almost every country, they shouldn’t be allowed though to enter the mainstream and affect National Discourse.

(also published at Viewpointonline)