PESHAWAR, April 7: A cleric on Friday warned cinema owners to stop showing films as a mark of reverence to the holy month of Rabiul Awal and said if they failed to comply, they would be forcibly shut down.

Khateeb of the Mohabat Khan Mosque and head of Jamia Ashrafia seminary Maulana Mohammad Yousaf Quraishi said: “We would launch a campaign against cinema houses and close them by force if they do not shut them voluntarily.”

The khateeb warned: “Cinema owners as well as the government would be responsible if any damage is caused to these theatres.”

Maulana Yousaf, who recently issued an edict (fatwa) for killing the cartoonist who drew the blasphemous sketches besides announcing a huge reward for the killers, said he had been receiving “phone calls” from different segments of society, expressing their resentment against cinema houses that do not close down in respect of the holy month.

“Cinema owners have been regarding Rabiul Awal with respect for the past 15 years but I wonder why they do not do so now that the MMA is in power in the province,” the head of Jamia Ashrafia, one of the oldest seminary, stated in a statement issued here.

The khateeb of the oldest seminary in Peshawar said that there was no room for a compromise on the issue. Muslims had already been hurt by the publication of sacrilegious cartoons in some western newspapers and they would not tolerate any thing against sanctity of Rabiul Awal. — PPI