Mawlānā Abdul Rashid Ghazi (Urdu: عبد الرشید غازی; c. 29 January 1964 – 10 July 2007)[1] was a Pakistani Islamic scholar and Islamist dissident who served as Khatib of Lal Masjid and the President of Faridia University.

[4] He was an ethnic Baloch, descending from the Sadwani (Sodvani) clan of the Mazari tribe, in the town of Basti-Abdullah near Rojhan in Rajanpur, the border district of Punjab province of Pakistan.

[7] He was non-religious during that time, hardly if ever going to the mosque and reading authors like Karl Marx, Max Weber and Henry Kissinger, "his greatest ambition was to become a diplomat at the United Nations", a friend added,[7] to the extent that he stopped talking to his father, who was antagonized by his "Westernized" lifestyle.

[7] Declan Walsh also quotes peoples who knew him during this time, saying that he was a secularized student reading the likes of Nietzsche and Rousseau, mingling with women and being fond of singing.

in History, he secured a position at the Pakistan National Commission and later joined the Ministry of Education in Islamabad as a Grade-17 officer, where he briefly served as the editor of its monthly magazine, Piyami.

[9] He initially served at UNESCO's National Office in Islamabad, before being transferred to the organization's Regional Bureau for Education in Asia, based in Thailand.

[11] Due to a lack of confidence in Pakistan's legal system, Abdul Aziz, the elder brother of Ghazi, initially declined to file a First Information Report (FIR).

As pressure mounted, he reportedly faced threats, including a warning to withdraw the case or risk suffering a fate similar to that of his father.

[14] Ghazi adopted the trappings of an Islamist, wearing a pakol (wool hat) and a checkered Palestinian keffiyeh over white robes.

[9] he is credited with modernization of the institute where alongside the traditional Dars-i Nizami, he introduced new academic programmes including information technology, Islamic Economics and himself taught English and Philosophy.

[7] In 2002, Ghazi extended an invitation to Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan to attend the Khatam-e-Bukhari ceremony at his seminary, Jamia Faridia.

[23] Following the devastating 2005 Kashmir earthquake, Ghazi played a significant role in the relief efforts, providing essential aid to the affected communities, including the distribution of food and tents to displaced individuals.

[24] In response to the disaster, Ghazi established the Al-Qasem Foundation (literally meaning "the one who distributes"), a relief organization that mobilized volunteer students from local seminaries, with its headquarters based at Jamia Faridia.

In one notable incident, he narrowly avoided a fatal accident by missing a scheduled flight on a MI-17 transport helicopter, which later crashed in the mountainous region of Kashmir.

[26][27] In 2005, Ghazi joined UNICEF, a United Nations led humanitarian organisation, where he was a member of committee formed to raise awareness regarding aids.

[28] The following year, Ghazi joined a delegation of religious leaders, led by United Nations official Bettina Schunter, to travel to South Africa to learn about HIV prevention.

In the tape bin Laden called on Pakistanis, especially the soldiers, to overthrow President Pervez Musharraf, promising what he called retaliation for the storming of the Red Mosque, stating that "twenty years after the soil of Pakistan soaked up the blood of one of the greatest jihadi fighters, the Imam Abdallah Azzam, today Pakistan is witness to the death of another great Muslim, Imam Abdul al-Rashid Ghazi.