Promotion of Valentine’s Day condemned

LAHORE:Religious leaders strongly condemned the promotion of Valentine’s Day at the media, terming it violation of Quran and Sunnah, besides the Constitution of Pakistan, and demanded the government check promotion of un-Islamic practices in country.

Tanzim-e-Islami ameer Hafiz Akif Saeed said the modesty and morality are like a fortress for Muslims that ensured the preservation and protection of their faith. Majlis Ahrar Islam deputy secretary general Mian Muhammad Awais Islam commanded believers to practice modesty and decency, and strictly abstain from immoral and vulgar practices like Valentine Day. Talking to media, he said, such vulgar festivals had already shattered the very social fabric of western societies.

Milli Yakjehti Council vice-president Allama Niaz Hussain Naqvi said Islam has confined the love between a man and woman inside the strong walls of Nikah. He said un-related (Na-mehram) men and women, can only maintain contacts strictly under the rules fixed by Islam and only for the necessary matters, and not for the sake of maintaining friendship as practiced by the western societies and caused a serious destruction of family values there. He said Islam commands the followers to express their love for their relations everyday all through the year, and not for one day as promoted by the west.

In a joint statement, the religious scholars demanded the government take strict action against the promoters of un-Islamic practices like Valentine’s Day, ban such festivals at the official level and protect the Islamic culture in line with the Constitution of Pakistan.

Our correspondent adds: Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Senator Siraj-ul-Haq, and other leaders, including Secretary General Ameerul Azim and naib ameer Liaqat Baloch and foreign affairs director Abdul Ghaffar Aziz have expressed grief over the death of JI Bangladesh naib ameer Maulana Abdus Subhan during his several years imprisonment at the hands of the Bangladesh government.

In a joint statement Friday, they shared condolences with the family of Maulana Abdus Subhan, praising the late leader for his courage and determination in facing every hardship with resolve without showing weakness against his illegal captivity and the captors.

The JI leaders demanded the international community take action to save the lives of the innocent people of Bangladesh against the death sentences under the so-called illegal war crime trials.