KHAR: The Jamaat-i-Islami leaders on Wednesday announced that their party would make every effort for the protection of seminaries as they had nothing to do with terrorism and religious extremism.

The announcement was made during the ‘Ittehad-i-Ummat Conference’ organised here at the Madrassa Ahiayul Uloom.

JI provincial general secretary Shabbir Ahmad Khan said his party condemned the attempts to link seminaries with terrorism and religious extremism in the country.

“Linking seminaries with terrorism is unfair as Islam preaches love and brotherhood and seminaries act accordingly,” he said.

The JI leader said the false propaganda against seminaries was part of the agenda of secular elements to malign Islam but it won’t succeed. He said Islam and seminaries had nothing to do with terrorism and religious extremism and instead, the two always played a tremendous role in promoting religious and sectarian harmony and tolerance in society.

Says will protect religious educational institutions

Shabbir said his party was not opposed to the registration of seminaries by the government and wanted the government to identify seminaries involved in terrorist activities if there were any.

“If the government begins registration of seminaries, we will support it but the government has no interest in doing so,” he said.

The JI leader said his party would offer strong resistance if the government banned or tried to ban seminaries.

“We will use all efforts to protect seminaries,” he said.

Shabbir said his party was opposed to horse-trading in the Senate elections as it believed in free, fair and transparent political process.

He said no JI lawmaker was involved in horse-trading and that all party legislators would follow the leadership’s policy for the Senate elections.

The JI leader said an effective strategy should have been made to ensure transparency and discourage horse-trading in Senate polls but the government failed to do so.

Other speakers, including Sahibzada Haroon Rasheed, Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, Maulana Inayat Rehman and Maulana Mehboob Ahmad, said JI would continue striving for the enforcement of Islamic system in the country by ballot and not by bullet.They said Sharia enforcement was the need of the hour as the country was created in the name of Islam.

Published in Dawn March 5th , 2015

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