MYC praises public resolve against terrorism

ISLAMABAD: The Milli Yakjehti Council’s (MYC) Ittehad Ummat Conference on Wednesday urged Pakistan to host Organisation of Islamic Conference’s meeting on evolving a strategy to safeguard the sanctity of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
The conference, the third of its kind, paid glowing tributes to the nation for its firm resolve against the menace of terrorism. It fully endorsed the joint declaration adopted by the all parties’ conference at Mansoora on February 17 this year.
The galaxy of religious scholars and politicians from different background, made it clear that safeguarding the sanctity of the prophethood of Hazrat Mohammad (PBUH) was dearer to them than their life, siblings and wealth.
The conference here at a local hotel under MYC adopted a 12-point declaration at the end of the day-long deliberations, marked by strong voices for concerted efforts to promote unity among all the schools of Islamic thought and that seminaries were prepared to listen to positive ideas by the government.
The declaration noted that in accordance with Article 2 and 5 of the UN Human Rights Charter, blasphemy of all the prophets must be made punishable by awarding death penalty and strict punishment also be envisaged for those, disgracing any divine religion or divine books.
The conference pointed out that the recovery of massive arms and ammunition during the Karachi operation and target killers of a particular group and their confession of killing scholars of both Sunni and Shia schools of thought and public reinforced the religious parties’ contention that the religion had nothing to do with terrorism.
Moreover, the declaration emphasised that the ongoing drive against religious seminaries and masajid appeared to be the part of the global campaign against Islam.On this occasion, the conference strongly condemned the terror attacks on Peshawar school, masajid, imambargahs, mausoleums of spiritual personalities and worship places of other religions reiterating Islam had no link whatsoever with such ghastly acts.
The conference asserted no one could be allowed to hurt religious feelings of 1.5 billion Muslims in the name of freedom of expression or media freedom. The declaration called on the government to free all the detained religious scholars and end the ongoing drive against masajid and religious seminaries and advocated simplifying the process of seminaries’ registration, doing away with hurdles in this context.
The forum urged the government to take concrete measures for making Pakistan an Islamic state and transformation of the society into Islamic society, as two-nation theory was the foundation of Pakistan.
The government was asked to adopt a realistic policy with regards to the use of loudspeakers for religious purposes and needs and that the use of loud speakers for playing songs and content contrary to Islamic teachings must be banned.
Speaking on the occasion, Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Senator Sirajul Haq wished OIC conference had held in Madina Munawwara on the all-important issue of blasphemy of the Prophet (PBUH), as it would have sent a very strong message to the West in this context.
But he regretted that the Islamic world had been behaving like a graveyard instead of rising to the occasion. He called for sensitising the diplomatic fraternity on the blasphemy issue, underlining the need for greater amity among Muslims.
He asserted it should be effectively communicated to the European world and elsewhere that the Muslims could lay down their lives to safeguard the sanctity of the Prophet (PBUH) and in no way, his blasphemy could be tolerated.
Allama Iftikhar Naqvi and Allama Ameen Shaheedi argued that no seminary was involved in acts of terrorism but there was a need to identify those who had entered these facilities with foreign-funded agenda.
They emphasised that religious parties as well as seminaries also had a responsibility to shrug off the perception of terrorism being attached to them by some sections of the society.
In his speech, Amir Jamaat ud Dawah Hafiz Muhammad Saeed said that for enforcement of Islamic system, there was a need for countrywide movement, as the political leadership had failed to fulfill its responsibility in this context.
He believed the sectarian violence had erupted because there had been deviation from the ideology of Pakistan. He said by hoisting Pakistani flag, Kashmiris had hurled a slap in the face of India.
The religious scholars said that rulers had no right to remain in the corridors of power, if they lacked the commitment to fight terrorism and restore peace in the society, ensuring protection of life of each Pakistani, irrespective of his creed or faith.
They asked the government to award punishment to militant elements, who wanted to pitch one Pakistani against the other. They wanted religious seminaries to specially focus on character building of students.
Others, who spoke on the occasion, included Sahibazada Abul Kher Muhammad Zubair, Liaquat Baloch, Allama Sajid Ali Naqvi, Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Sheikh Mohsin Najafi, Prof. Muhammad Ibrahim, Saqib Akbar, Pir Attiqur Rehman, Arif Wahidi, Pir Haroon Gillani and Asif Luqman Qazi.