KARACHI, Dec 23: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) on Friday observed a black-day and held protest demonstrations outside mosques in the city against the planned deletion of procedure of offering prayers from textbooks of Islamiat and changes in the education curricula.

Protest demonstrations were held outside major mosques after Friday prayers in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Federal B Area, Liaquatabad, Nazimabad, PECHS, Bahadurabad, Saddar, Lyari, Garden, Baldia, Orangi, Malir, SITE and other areas.

A large number of people attended the demonstrations carrying banners against the deletion of method of prayers from textbooks and other changes in the education curricula. Banners also read demands for removal of the federal education minister and appointment of an Islam-loving person in his place.

They chanted slogans against the Federal Education Minister, Lt-Gen (Retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi, President Pervez Musharraf, US President Bush, and vowed to resist anyone who tries to change the Islamic identity of Pakistan and secularize the country.

Speaking to protesters in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, MMA Sindh President MNA Asadullah Bhutto said the omission of offering prayers on the US directives was a clear attack on Islam in Pakistan.

“The army and its generals are now openly following the US agenda and trying to deprive the nation of Islamic teachings, importance of the creation of Pakistan and promoting Western civilization in the country,” he alleged, adding that the deletion of praying method was a step in that direction.

He said that, under a well-planned conspiracy, chapters on all Islamic personalities had been removed from textbooks, and a poem on George W Bush and topics on Western heroes were being included in the education curricula.

Terming these steps as an open attack on Islamic traditions, Islamic values and civilization, he vowed to continue protest for their protection.

Speaking to participants of another demonstration, the Amir of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Karachi, Dr Merajul Huda Siddiqui, said the “local agents” of the US and other Western states were trying to secularize the education curricula and the whole country, but all their efforts will become fruitless as students were Islam-loving citizens of Pakistan.

He termed changes in the education curricula and deletion of procedure for offering prayers from textbooks a step taken with the backing of US President George Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Israeli Prime Minister Sharon, saying that a poem on the “qualities” of the US president was also part of the same agenda.

MMA leaders speaking at other places said people, students and the whole nation were very much concerned about the present government’s anti-Islam policies and vowed that the government would not be allowed to change the country’s Islamic identity.—PPI