SUKKUR, April 28: Leader of opposition in the National Assembly and chief of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, has said that anti-Islam forces had resorted to aggression against Muslim countries and the Muslims were being destroyed in the name of democracy and independence.

Addressing the annual Dastaar-e-Fazilat conference here late on Thursday night, the Maulana termed the US and the UK the biggest terrorists, and asked the Muslim Ummah to unite to counter their conspiracies

MNA Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidari, Senator Dr. Khalid Mehmood Soomro, Maulana Mohammad Murad Halejvi and others also spoke on the occasion.

In his presidential address Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that the United States and other European countries have put the world’s security at stake, through destruction of Afghanistan and Iraq by forcibly occupying it.

He said that if the Muslim countries failed to unite, their fate would not be different from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Strongly slamming the western intellectuals, who were terming Muslims as terrorists and extremists, the Maulana said that Islam was the religion of peace and “we prefer dialogue to resolve all issues rather than to use force.”

He also criticized the double standards of the US and other European countries regarding democracy, who were not ready to recognize the decision of the people of Palestine.

Elaborating the role of religious institutions in respect of education and politics, he said that these were the centres for promoting Islamic ideology, and added that Sindh has always remained the cradle of education and religion.

He said that now the anti-Islamic forces were trying to eliminate the role of religious scholars and operations were being carried out against religious institutions.

The Maulana said that integrity of the country had been endangered due to pro-USA policies, while Afghanistan had become our enemy as a result of these policies.

He said that during the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, there was no need to deploy a single army man at the Pakistan-Afghan border, while today a contingent of 70,000 army troops was deployed there.

Earlier, Maulana Fazlur Rehman performed Dastaar Bandi of 115 ulema and muftis on their passing out from the Madrassa Hamadia.