Kashmir’s top cleric was a fiery freedom advocate. Now he preaches patience

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s changed tone reflects a changed Kashmir where space for dissent has shrunk, say analysts.

Srinagar, India-administered Kashmir – On a sunlit June Friday in Srinagar’s Old City, the Jamia Masjid stands as it always has, ornate and imposing. Its 14th-century wooden pillars have been witnesses to centuries of sermons and struggle.

Inside, about 4,000 worshippers sit in silence.

When Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the spiritual leader of Kashmir’s Muslims, rises to speak, he does so with grace but caution. Draped in his customary golden-bordered white thobe and crowned with a brown Karakuli hat, he delivers a sermon laced with quiet prayers.

“As we enter the new Islamic year,” he said, “I extend greetings to the entire Muslim Ummah. May Allah grant us peace, unity and strength, protect the oppressed, and guide our leaders with wisdom and righteousness in these testing times.”

His tone is unrecognisable from just a few years ago, when the now 52-year-old mirwaiz – as Kashmir’s chief Muslim leader is known – was a fiery orator, thundering with conviction, his speeches a powerful cocktail of religious messaging and politics.