QUETTA, Sept 26: The Muttihada Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) leadership has warned the government that Madaris were centres of the Muslim Ummah and their image could not be tarnished by conducting raids on them at the behest of the United States.

Speaking at a Tahaffuz-i-Deeni Madaris Conference in Jamia Matalul Aloom on Saturday night, MMA leaders vowed that they would at all costs defend the Madaris and frustrate the designs of the rulers to undermine the role of the religious institutions. Sheikhul Hadith Maulana Saleemullah Khan, chief of Federal Al-Madaris Arabia Pakistan, presided over the conference.

MMA acting president Qazi Hussain Ahmed, secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Dr Abul Khair Zubair, Maulana Asad Bhutto, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidari and Hafiz Hussain Ahmed spoke at the meeting.

They blamed the government for conducting raids on Madaris to force religious leaders to include modern education in their syllabus so that their Islamic character could be changed.

The government, they alleged, had hatched a conspiracy against the Madaris so that people should avoid sending their children to the religious institutions. But the people had rejected this fake campaign of the rulers as a large number of children were joining the Madaris, they claimed.

The religious leaders alleged that the raids on the Madaris and change in their curriculum was aimed at misguiding Muslim youth on the issue of Jihad. The speakers claimed that the crackdowns had been launched because the Ulema and teachers of the Madaris were vocal on the issue of Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Palestine, that did not suited to the United States.

They stressed that neither Islam nor any other religion or society support terrorism or subversive acts, saying that they strongly condemned terrorist acts in any part of the world.