‘Any move against seminaries to be countered’

LAHORE: The leadership of religious seminaries and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) have warned against the west-sponsored propaganda against the seminary students in wake of the Peshawar killings, calling upon the government to take immediate measures to stop the hate-mongering campaign.
The warning was issued by the leadership of Tanzeemat-e-Madaris al Islamia (TMI), the association of religious educational institutions, and JI chief Sirajul Haq after a meeting at Mansoorah on Saturday.
Briefing newsmen, they strongly condemned the propaganda against seminaries under the West’s pressure and called upon the government to immediately stop the campaign unleashed against Islam, Islamic signs — the mosque and the religious educational institutions — under the cover of the Peshawar tragedy. The meeting was chaired by JI chief Sirajul Haq and attended among others by Mufti Munibur Rahman, Maulana Qari Muhammad Hanif Jallundhari, Maulana Yaseen Zafar, Maulana Abdul Mustafa Hazarvi, Maulana Ghulam Muhammad Sialvi and Maulana Abdul Malik. They declared that the male and female students attending the seminaries were not only loyal to Pakistan but also ready to lay down their lives for the country.
A declaration unanimously adopted at the meeting termed the Peshawar terrorist attack and those taking place earlier as heinous crimes against Islam and humanity. It said the bloodletting of innocent citizens was a mischief of the last degree and noted that Islam did not permit the killing of innocent people, women, minors and the aged even during the war. The meeting fully supported the unanimous plan adopted by the political parties and the armed forces for wiping out terrorism.
The meeting strongly condemned the attempts to bracket terrorism with religion and seminaries and was of the firm view that it was a calculated plan of the secular elements, colonial powers and the Zionists to malign religion.
It said the seminaries being fortresses of Islam were the seats of the teaching Holy Quran and the Hadith.
It said the mosques and the seminaries had been functioning in the region for centuries in the prevailing form and with present curriculum and were promoting Islamic values and brotherhood, while disseminating religious knowledge and information in the society. Stating that the seminaries had nothing to do with terrorism or extremism in the country, the declaration said out of those charged with terrorism or those sentenced by the courts on the charges of terrorism, only a few were related to them.
It said the responsibility of any terrorist act of an individual having past link with a seminary could not be placed on the seminaries in general, and there was no justification for the resultant propaganda.
The declaration declared that any unlawful or immoral measure against the seminaries or the mosques would be countered with full force. It said Pakistan had come into being in the name of Islam and as such the struggle for building the country into a true Islamic and welfare state would continue.
The meeting demanded that the reference made to the seminaries in the National Action Plan and the official ads be dropped. It also demanded that seminaries should also be included in the list of educational institutions receiving government grants. Talking to media, Siraj said it was a matter of shame that poisonous propaganda had been unleashed against the seminaries at the instigation of the West and the secular lobby, which aimed at keeping the humanity away from Islam. He said any action against the mosques and the seminaries under the cover of terrorism would not be allowed. He demanded including the representative religious leaders of seminaries in the action plan and any decision regarding the seminaries should be taken with their consultation.
Siraj said the seminaries were not allowed to open bank accounts and the State Bank was not taking any decision on their request on the issue.
The declaration noted that most of the seminaries were already registered. It welcomed the seminaries’ registration in line with the formula already decided by the government and the seminaries’ body.