Original version

BBC World Service Online

Assignment

Factual

Investigations and journeys into the heart of global events from BBC correspondents.

Assignment: The Imam of Peace

News

03/03/2011

The Imam of Peace

BBC World Service - Assignment, The Imam of Peace

In this edition of Assignment - the story of John Butt, the hippy turned Islamic scholar

The story of John Butt, the hippy turned Islamic scholar who has made it his life's work to spread a message of peace and tolerance in the tribal regions that straddle Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Back in the 1960s, a young English hippy arrived in Kabul, looking for a good time and cheap drugs. Instead he found there a tribal culture that entranced him. 

Forty years on, he's still there - now a Muslim, a trained Imam, a journalist, a Pashtu speaker and a man with a mission.

His name is John Mohammed Butt and he's made it his life's work to spread a message of peace and tolerance in the tribal regions that straddle Afghanistan and Pakistan.

But as reporter Nadene Ghouri discovers in this week's Assignment, that message has made him a target for militants.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Assignment

The Imam of Peace

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service