RAWALPINDI: Sixty-one members of the Bar Association, Rawalpindi, have expressed their “extreme sense of grief” at the “unfortunate and uncalled for” execution of the Muslim scholars of Egypt by the UAR Government.

Execution of scholars and of political opponents, a joint statement of the Lawyers said, was a sad tradition in any civilised society which was always followed by undesirable consequences. These executions in Egypt become more serious when they are allowed by the “proclaimed” champion of Arab cause, Nasser, in the face of the Israel threat, it added.

They expressed their profound sympathy with the families of the executed and with the cause of Arabs.

The execution of three Ikhwan leaders in Egypt yesterday [Aug 29] was bitterly criticised by a Jamaat-i-Islami leader today.

In a Press statement, Maulana Fateh Mohammed, Amir of Jamaat-i-Islami, Rawalpindi division, said the hanging of these leaders and long imprisonments imposed on others were incommensurate with their valuable services for the propagation of Islam.

It was for this reason, he added, that the UAR Government had the Ikhwan leaders tried by a military tribunal and the way this tribunal carried out the proceedings were fully exposed, the Maulana alleged.

By ignoring the resolution of the Sudanese Parliament and mercy appeals by prominent Muslim personalities from all over the world, the Jamaat leader said, the UAR Government had shown its utter callousness.

Maulana Fateh Mohammed, however, expres­sed the confidence that the supreme sacrifices of the martyrs would bear fruit one day, making the Ikhwanul Muslimeen still stronger to carry on the struggle for the realisation of Islamic ideology.

[Meanwhile, as reported by agencies from Ankara,] Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal has repeated his appeal for Islamic countries of the world to unite. The Saudi monarch, on a week’s official visit here, stressed that he wanted a Muslim union, not an Arab union.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2016