IN THE summer of 2007, things were not looking good for Maulana Abdul Aziz, an extremist cleric who had just failed in his attempt to impose strict sharia law on Pakistan’s capital by force. His Red Mosque and madrassa complex, a stone’s throw from government buildings in Islamabad, was stormed by security forces on the orders of then-president, Pervez Musharraf. Dozens of people died during the siege. Mr Aziz was caught trying to escape dressed in a burqa.

Seven years later it is Mr Musharraf who is on trial for high treason while Mr Aziz is a free man, basking in media attention and busily rebuilding his religious powerbase. “We receive donations from people all over the world”, he says, gazing out at a group of workmen building another marble edifice that will house more seminary students and teachers. “They are inspired by the sacrifice of the martyrs who died protecting the mosque.”

He has his freedom thanks to the government’s tolerance of radical Islamists in national affairs. In February Mr Aziz was among five people nominated by the Pakistani Taliban to represent its interests in peace talks with the government. Although he soon dropped out of the process, the question of how much the country should adjust its constitution to suit its militant tormentors became a routine topic on talk shows.

Mr Aziz says he is not part of the “armed struggle”, but he argues that violence is justified in order to establish God’s laws. He is revered by terrorists for whom the Red Mosque affair was a defining moment. One militant group—Ghazi Force—is named after Mr Aziz’s brother, Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was killed during the siege.

Some suspect the group may have been behind the suicide attack in Islamabad on March 3rd. Among the 11 dead was a liberal-minded judge who outraged extremists last year when he rejected a petition for Mr Musharraf to be tried for ordering the raid on the Red Mosque in 2007.

Zahid Hussain, a commentator, says the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has lost its appetite for controlling illegal madrassa construction in Islamabad. He says there are now thousands of madrassa students in the city. No wonder Mr Aziz feels the tide of history is flowing in his direction. In 2007, we were on the defensive, he says. “Now things have turned 180 degrees and it is the secular forces who are hiding.”