Madrassa students to fill jails if raids not stopped: Fazl

LAHORE: Top religious leaders from almost all schools of thought alleged on Thursday that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has surrendered to the global secular forces by bracketing terrorism with religion through enactment of the 21st Amendment.
They termed it an attempt on the part of the PM to protect all other forms of terrorism, adding that it would ultimately divide the nation and promote terrorism instead of eliminating the menace.
Addressing a national seminar, organised by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and chaired by Maulana Fazlur Rehman here on Thursday to chalk out a strategy against the raids on seminaries in the wake of the 21st Amendment, they expressed their anguish that the premier was playing into the hands of secular forces working on the agenda of pitting the Pakistan Army and Islamists against each other and taking over the country. The religious leaders noted with concern that the PM had taken the worst measures against the Islamists and seminaries by diverting the national anger at the Peshawar schoolcarnage towards them, something which even an overtly secular military dictator like General Musharraf did not dare to take.
They warned against any victimisation of religious seminaries, mosques and scholars in the light of the controversial amendment. They said such moves were a clear violation of the constitution and these symbols of Islam would be protected with full force in the country, created in the name of Islam.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman demanded of the prime minister to rectify the controversial amendment to save the country from chaos and civil war. He said doors were still open on talks with the government, but warned that if the government further tested their patience and continued raids at madrassas, the religious leaders and seminary students would prefer filling jails in the country.
Condemning secret agencies’ raids at seminaries, Fazlur Rehman said all previous governments made agreements with the

alliance of seminary boards of all schools of thought over the past two decades, fully scrutinising their syllabi and auditing their finances and organisational structures. He condemned the establishment and bureaucracy for victimising seminaries, saying no seminary ever imparted arms training to its students.
Without naming any institutions, he asked, “who invited the seminary students to wage jihad against the super power occupying Afghanistan; who trained them to use arms; who took them to Kashmir after withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan; who ‘switched off’ the support to Kashmir freedom struggle on foreign dictation but kept the western front and borders open in order to trap and victimise Islamist elements.”
Fazl said the establishment conveniently ignored acknowledging the stance of scholars and leaders of Deobandi school of thought time and again that armed struggle inside Pakistan was forbidden. He said not all of them martyred in the Army Public School were children of the military personnel, as majority of them came from civilians and those of religious scholars and followers.
Maulana Fazl alleged that the PM manipulated the religious leadership into supporting the controversial amendment, adding that Pakistan People’s Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Awami National Party and Jamaat-e-Islami were also against it. However, the PM managed to win the support of the secular parties in the opposition but ignored the JUI-F, despite being an ally. He said when his opposition was dubbed as an attempt to protect the terrorism in the name of religion, he had proposed that words liking terrorism with religion and sect should be kept intact but all the crimes mentioned in the scheduled list in the constitution including terrorism committed in the name of separation, language, region and other biases should also be inserted in the proposed amendment to make the legislation comprehensive and eliminate the chances of its selective use.
He said even the proposal was rejected and it was passed in a deceitful manner while a team of ministers was negotiating with the leadership of the JUI-F and JI.
The joint communiqué issued at the seminar warned that the assembly considered controversial 21st Amendment a brazen attack on the teachings of Quran and Sunnah, objectives of creation of Pakistan, Two Nation Theory, mosques, seminaries and other symbols of Islam. It said the manner the government of Nawaz Sharif destroyed the national consensus over Peshawar school killings on the behest of enemies of Islam and Pakistan, showed that national command had been shifted from the parliament and democracy to somewhere else, and that would create immense problems for the army officers and Jawans engaged in the war against terrorism.
The communiqué demanded the government stop tinkering with the issues settled in the constitution like blasphemy laws and other Islamic laws, reverse its measures of bracketing terrorism with Islam and schools of thought in the 21st Amendment which was an agenda of the enemies, and get rid of slavery of the US, Europe and their secular ideology.
The communiqué welcomed the unity of all schools of thought against the 21st Amendment and vowed to fight against the ugly conspiracy and win this war. It asked the government to recognise that terrorism committed under any pretext, whether separatism, nationality, regionalism, religion or economic benefits is terrorism, and its perpetrators deserved the same punishment.
JI leader Liaquat Baloch said no terrorism was bigger than the 21st Amendment which was actually a conspiracy to divide the nation. He wondered that a national criminal like Gen Musharraf, who pardoned thousands of terrorists through National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) and was facing high treason trial, was not being touched but all those who tried to kill him were being hanged to death.
He alleged that the long-nurtured desire of Nawaz Sharif of eliminating the accused through extrajudicial steps was capitalised by his secular cronies and secret hands, who trapped him into getting passed the dangerous piece of legislation. He recalled that Nawaz Sharif had always been making new special courts above the existing judicial system in his two brief stints in power, but always ended up in the dock in the same courts he had constituted.
Maulana Samiul Haq said by targeting Islamist right wing quarters, Nawaz Sharif had committed the worst enmity with them. He said students of seminaries had always been humble, civilised citizens unlike the unruly students of contemporary secular colleges and universities known for chasing girls, drugs, money etc. and involved in crimes of all sorts.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan Secretary General Awais Noorani said controversial 21st Amendment would increase terrorism by giving clean chits to those committing terrorism on a host of pretexts. He asked why 34 agencies of the government failed to pinpoint those killing dozens of innocent citizens in Karachi on daily basis, but had aimed their guns at only those with beards and caps, sitting in seminaries. He further asked why no legislation was ever done against secular leaders controlling terrorists by sitting in Europe.
Senator Sajid Mir, Maulana Ataul Momin Bukhari, Milli Yekjehti Council leader Dr Abul Khair Muhammad Zubair, Shia leader Maulana Ramzan Taunsvi and others also addressed on the occasion.