17 September 2004	Friday	01 Shaban 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 16: President Gen Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday that the United States, being an influential world power, should play a vital role in addressing with justice political disputes involving Muslims.

Addressing an international inter-religious conference, the president said the government stood for inter-faith harmony, asserting that the Pakistani nation and state had always respected the rights of minorities.

Underlining the need for just resolution of political disputes facing the Muslims for durable peace in the world, he said the US was in a position to play a key role in achieving that objective.

The president referred to challenges of extremism, terrorism, misperceptions and political deprivation born of non-resolution of political disputes involving Muslims and said his OIC-adopted strategy of enlightened moderation offered a win-win situation for both the Muslim world and the West.

The Muslim world should reject extremism in favour of socio-economic development under the strategy of enlightened moderation, he said. The Muslim world may have differences with the United States on issues like Afghanistan and Iraq but a timely US intervention also saved Muslims of Bosnia and Kosovo from massacre, he said, citing recent remarks of Bosnian president.

Referring again to the Bosnian leader, who recently visited Pakistan, the president said the US had also taken part in the rehabilitation and economic development of Bosnia.

He said all countries should strive for promoting inter-faith and inter-cultural harmony to make the world a safer place to live in. He reiterated Pakistan's position that it stood for protecting the rights of minorities living here.

He dismissed as contrary to ground realities a US State Department report placing Pakistan among countries where state was hostile to minority communities. "I say it with full conviction that there is absolutely no state hostility towards minorities living in Pakistan," he said, rejecting the report.

"The reality on the ground is good but our perception is bad," he remarked. The president said the Pakistani Muslims had been co-existing peacefully with other religious communities despite events in the neighbourhood where Muslims faced worst forms of violence.

President Musharraf said the Blasphemy Law might be reviewed to reassure that it did not victimize the minorities. He also informed the moot that Pakistan was streamlining the education system of madressahs.

President Musharraf said that Wafaqul Madaris, the organization which controls 85 per cent of the religious schools across the country, was to introduce modern disciplines in madressahs to enable students to have better economic opportunities in the mainstream of national life.

Referring to misperception about Islam, he said the great religion "has democracy, modernism and secularism." "There is democracy as Islam says decisions should be taken through consensus, there is modernism as it is for all times to come and is adopted as a way of life in countries around the world, there is secularism as it grants equal rights to minorities."

Islam has no link whatsoever with extremism and terrorism, he said, adding that it had strictly forbidden suicide. Gen Musharraf said the vast majority of Pakistanis were religious but moderate and progressive.

He pointed out that it was only an 'extremist fringe' that "tries to impose its thoughts on others" and said it was unacceptable that some organizations called themselves as sipahs, jaishs or lashkars.

He declared that only armed forces of Pakistan "are lashkars of the country." Reiterating Pakistan's commitment to the fight against terror, the president said the country will continue to act against foreign terrorists.

"We have to break the nexus and strike at masterminds, planners and local extremists; we have to flush all foreign terrorists out of the country." The president made it clear that not a single Pakistani had ever been handed over to another country.

Reverting to the subject of madressahs, Gen Musharraf described them as the biggest NGOs, providing both shelter and education to millions of poor children across the country.

"We want madressahs to regain their old spirit as institutions that produced men of excellence in a wide variety of disciplines and were not confined to religious education alone. We will encourage sports activities and education in modern disciplines at these institutions." -APP