LONDON, April 2: Altaf Hussain, leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), has appealed to journalists, intellectuals, lawyers, religious scholars, human rights organisations, women rights organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the people of the country to unite, demonstrate their solidarity and raise their voice against those fostering religious extremism.

In a statement issued here on Monday, Mr Hussain stated that for the past few days the way certain elements were indulging in extremism and obscurantism and resorting to violence in Islamabad by kidnapping women, by levelling wild allegations, forcibly occupying public properties, attacking public vehicles, ransacking shops and intimidating shopkeepers, traders and public in the name of Islam was not only damaging the name of Islam in the country but throughout the world.

He said that under Islamic jurisprudence no citizen had the right to take the law into his own hand, and added that those taking the law into their own hands and subjecting citizens to atrocities in the name of Islam were in fact defaming Islam throughout the world.