KARACHI: Shroud-clad protesters rally against blasphemy
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Feb 19: Protesters, clad in shrouds, held a rally here on Sunday as part of the series of protests under the Tahafuz Namoos-i-Mustafa campaign, pressing the government to sever diplomatic ties with the European countries where certain newspapers had carried blasphemous sketches.
Organized by Jamaat-i-Islami, the rally adopted a resolution which called upon the Organization of Islamic Countries OIC), to convene its summit in Madina Munawwara to chalk out a joint strategy of all member countries to meet the challenge.
It repeated the demand for a total boycott of all western products.
Participants of the rally vowed to march up to Islamabad if the government did not lodge a protest, with the concerned European countries, that truly and fully reflected their sentiments and feelings.
Carrying MMA, JI and JUI-F flags, as well as banners and placards condemning the blasphemous act and the concerned European countries, they torched US and Danish flags and effigies of President Bush and Gen Musharraf during the rally.
The shroud-clad protesters, along with hundreds of other people marched through M. A. Jinnah Road from Noorani Chowk to the Tibet Centre chanting slogans. At the Tibet Centre intersection, the protesters staged a demonstration which was addressed by various MMA leaders, as well as other religious and political figures. Nasrullah Shaji of the MMA conducted the proceedings.
Senator Prof Ghafoor Ahmad, a central leader of the MMA and Naib Amir of JI, told the rally that the strength of the Tahafuz Namoos-i-Mustafa rallies belied Gen Musharraf’s claim of enjoying popular support. He said that the overwhelming support to anti-blasphemy protests tantamount to rejection of the policy pursued by Gen Musharraf and his government towards the culprits of blasphemy, hence rejection to the government altogether.
“Today in Islamabad, the law-enforcement agencies, being used illegally, are subjecting protesters to baton-charge, shelling and other coercive actions to prevent the faithful from expressing their anger over blasphemy.”
Prof Ghafoor deplored that Gen Musharraf, who had resorted to restricting the movement of Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Khwaja Saad Rafique, Liaquat Baloch and others, had failed to check US aggression in Bajaur.
Hafiz Hussain Ahmad of JUI-F said the arrests and detention of the MMA leaders and other protesters manifested government’s weakness. Demanding their release, he pointed out that Gen Musharraf had not dared enter the Parliament House since long, would not dare enter Islamabad now when he had taken this action.
Mamnoon Hussain of the PML-N, a former Sindh governor, condemned the government for taking certain measures to prevent the opposition to hold the rally in Islamabad. Defending the right of protesters to express their anger and shock over the publication of blasphemous sketches, he said that the act had been resorted to deliberately and was not just an oversight. He termed it ‘a calculated move to challenge the Ummah’.
Karachi Amir of the JI Dr Mairajul Huda Siddiqui expressed astonishment over the government’s move to impose a ban on anti-blasphemy rally in Islamabad, pointing out that such a ban had not been imposed by even non-Muslim governments as protest rallies were being staged in London, New York, Sidney and other cities.
Maulana Anas Shah Noorani, Allama Hasan Turabi, Mufti Usmanyar Khan, Maulana Abdul Karim Abid, Mohammad Hussain Mehnati and Sikandar Khan were among those who addressed the rally.
KARACHI, Feb 19: Protesters, clad in shrouds, held a rally here on Sunday as part of the series of protests under the Tahafuz Namoos-i-Mustafa campaign, pressing the government to sever diplomatic ties with the European countries where certain newspapers had carried blasphemous sketches.
