Brownsville Muslims pray for Bhutto, victims of attack

The day after Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated at a rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Brownsville Muslims gathered at the city’s mosque for a Friday afternoon prayer.

After a weekly ceremony, the 80 attendees held a special prayer for Bhutto, called the “Namaz-e-Janazah.”

“We prayed for Ms. Bhutto and the other victims of yesterday’s tragic accident,” said Mahdi Shaheen, who moved from the Palestinian territories to the United States 30 years ago.

But Shaheen emphasized that the prayer—while an important part of dealing with the tragedy of any death—was not held solely in honor of Bhutto.

“Whether the deceased is a king, a president or a garbage man, the prayer is the same,” he said. “It’s a reprieve. We pray for God to have mercy.”

Because the mosque’s imam was away on vacation, Ahmed Khalil, a community member, led the prayer for the congregants from Pakistan, Syria, Jordan and the Palestinian territories.

For some of the participants, the prayer was the only time they left their homes on Friday. Bhutto’s death has taken an especially heavy toll on Brownsville residents like Baker Niazi, who met her when she spoke at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College three years ago.

“I just didn’t feel like going to work today,” Niazi said.

When she spoke at the university in October 2004, she talked about the kinds of terrorist acts that claimed her life.

“(Terrorists) are opportunists and hypocrites. They are criminals, they are not clerics. When the terrorists attacked America they were not fighting for Islam, they are fighting for themselves,” she said, according to Brownsville Herald archives.

Niazi spent most of the day calling his family members who are still in Pakistan. Conditions are getting worse and worse, they told him.

When the prayer ended, participants embraced and offered each other consolation for their collective loss.

But, according to Shaheen, the prayer does not mark an end to Bhutto’s legacy.

“We can do something about this,” he said. “We can educate the people. Education is more powerful than bombs. People need to stop killing in the name of God.”

Based on what she said at the university, it is clear that Bhutto would have agreed.

She removed terrorist organizations from Pakistan by relying on the democratic process, not dictatorship, she said.

“My only regret is that we were unable to destroy (terrorist groups) completely.”