LAHORE, July 4: Only the spirit of Jihad could strengthen Pakistan’s defence. This was the consensus reached at a seminar on defence requirements of Pakistan held by the Nazaria-i-Pakistan Foundation and the Pakistan Movement Workers Trust at their auditorium here on Friday.
Former Punjab university vice-chancellor Dr Rafiq Ahmad stated in his presidential remarks that efforts were being made to exclude the references to jihad from syllabi and textbooks in Pakistan.
He said that the West including the superpower US was afraid of the spirit of jihad ingrained among Muslims. This fear was not new as a study of the world history showed that all non-Muslim nations had been allergic to the word of jihad. In one of the chapters of the 10-volume History of India, western historians had poured their venom against the Islamic spirit of jihad.
He said that the West was even now so much allergic to jihad that during the past six years as many as 75 books had been published against jihad. Not only the Americans — from president down to a soldier — were afraid of jihad but the Italian prime minister also stated recently that the potent danger to what he called the most splendid civilization of the West was from Islamic civilization.
He said that the Muslims must realise the fact that Allah had blessed them with the spirit of jihad, which no other nation of the world was blessed with. He said that the West had recently coined the concept of human resource development, which also recognized the importance of ideology for the character-building of an individual.
Former Inspector General of Punjab Sardar Mohammad Chaudhry said that Islamic ideology was the basis of Pakistan, and the main requirement of Pakistan’s defence was the defence of its ideology.
He said that the Quaid-i-Azam had no army but he had the spirit of Islam, which he infused in the entire Muslim population of the sub-continent through his message of Unity, Faith and Discipline, and succeeded in winning Pakistan.
He observed that governments come and go but the ideology and the spirit remains.
Maj-Gen Rahat Lateef (retired) and Major Rashid Warraich (retired) also emphasized the importance of the spirit of jihad and character-building among the Muslim youth.