ISLAMABAD, May 12: Federal Education Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi on Thursday blasted “extremist elements” who were crying hoarse that modernity was not compatible with religion. “We must confront such people because appeasement would take us nowhere,” he told an international seminar that discussed the Turkish war of independence and commemorated the 85th anniversary of the Turkish Grand National Assembly.

“Our salvation lies in following the example of Kemal Ataturk so that Pakistan could also forge ahead in the international mainstream, with (adhering to) our religion,” he said.

It was time for Pakistan to shake off stagnation and move forward. The call should go from the seminar to march ahead as a modern and progressive country without changing our religion, he said.

Turkey as a modern progressive Muslim state has belied the premise that modernity was in conflict with religion, he added.

The minister endorsed President Musharraf’s thrust for achieving progress by following moderation, adopting science and technology.

He said people who had opposed the creation of Pakistan were now leading the opposition to the efforts to make Pakistan a modern Islamic state, while those who were in the vanguard of the Pakistan movement had receded into background.

“The policy of appeasement would take us nowhere and we have to confront them,” he said.

In their remarks in the seminar, the prime minister’s senior adviser, Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, who was presiding, and Turkish Ambassador Kemal Gur referred to the Khilafat movement launched by Muslims in India in reaction to the Treaty of Severes of 1920 which was designed to place Turkey under permanent European subjugation.

Mr Pirzada said the decay of the Ottoman caliphate was a trying time for the Muslims. Maulana Mohammad Ali and Quaid-i- Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah boldly supported Kemal Ataturk’s heroic Turkish war of independence.

Ambassador Kemal Gur said time had not been able to shake or wither away the bond cemented then. “We remember that your grandmothers donated their jewellery to raise funds for the Turkish nation and for the success of Kemal Ataturk,” he said.

He said Muslims of the subcontinent were rewarded handsomely for the sacrifice of the Turkish people in the war of independence also spurred the independence movement of Pakistan.

Regarding the Turkish Grand National Assembly, the ambassador recalled its elected representatives lived on brown bread and spent their own money in repairing its leaking roof and held vibrant debates over all national questions, even criticizing the role of the army or Kemal Ataturk.