QUETTA, June 22: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) leaders and activists took out a procession on Friday against the British government’s decision to confer knighthood on controversial writer Salman Rushdie.

Members of the JUI-F took out a rally after the Friday congregation from the Jamia Mosque that passed through different roads and culminated at the Meezan Chowk where MNA Maulana Noor Muhammad, Maulana Qadir Luni, Qari Anwarul Haq Haqqani and others spoke.

The protesters chanted slogans against the US and Britain and raised slogans in favour of JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Taliban leader Mulla Mohammad Omar and Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

Speakers criticised the British government for hurting the sentiment of Muslims all over the world by granting knighthood to Salman Rushdie. They maintained that the western world, led by the United States, was an enemy of Islam.

They said that owing to disunity among Muslims the infidels were not only exploiting the resources of the Muslim world but had occupied Iraq, Afghanistan and Kashmir.

They praised the heroic resistance put up by the Muslims of Iraq and Afghanistan. Speakers added that the United States and European nations were responsible for the misery of the Iraqi, Afghan and Palestinian people.

They also criticised the Muslim governments that supported the US.