KARACHI, March 2: The German government is giving due importance to the need for an inter-action and dialogue with Muslims and for this purpose, a special envoy has been appointed to have close liaison with them.

This was stated by German Consul-General Holze Heur during his interaction with a group of Ulema at Idara Darul Uloom Naimia, Block 16 F.B. Area, Karachi, where he paid a visit to acquaint himself with the working of seminaries and syllabus being taught to pupils.

The Ulema present on the occasion included Mufti Muneebur Rahman, Mufti Mohammad Rafique Hasni, Maulana Khalil Ahmed Naeemi, Maulana Athar Naeemi, Maulana Ghulam Dastagir Afghani, Mufti Mohammad Abid Qaderi Attari, Maunlana Syed Nasir Ali Qaderi, Maulana Naseerullah Naqshbandi, Maulana Nazar Ahmad Shah and others.

Mufti Muneeb, who briefed the German diplomat on the working of seminaries, on Tuesday told Dawn that Mr Heur was also taken to a round of the different sections of the Darul Uloom, including computers and science labs and departments of mathematics and social sciences.

Mr Heur during dialogues pointed out that in Germany there was no discrimination on the basis of race and religion as all citizens enjoy equal rights, including Muslims of which a visible community pertains of Turkish origin.

In reply to a question Mufti Munib-ur-Rehman said that the German diplomat was pointed out that there had never been any conflict of Muslims with Germans, on the contrary, during Second World War Muslims sided with Germany and paid a heavy price for the support. Now Muslim world has been facing hardships and were being singled out, Muslims expect that Germany would support them in this hour of their tribulations.

"There is a need not to look Muslims from Western standards, perceptions and ideology. Islam stands for peace and justice and Muslims are prepared to cooperate with others for creating a congenial atmosphere and co-existence.

He said that their seminaries were open institutions and could be visited any time as Islam is not a religion of extremism, but moderation and peace and had no links whatsoever with concept of terrorism.

The German diplomat was also informed that the students in the seminaries were being imparted education, besides religion, English, mathematics, social sciences, computers and other subjects up to Matriculation level free of cost, including lodging and boarding facilities, and thus helping to increase literacy rate.

The German diplomat disowned the regime of Germany during the Second World War, but said that the interaction would result in a better understanding of Muslim culture and remove misconceptions about Islam, Mufti Muneeb pointed out.

In reply to a question, he said that as per desire of the government, the seminaries had introduced English, computer and other science subjects in our syllabus and now the government ought to take some CBMs for recognizing the degrees of the seminaries.

Ulema have no objection if action is taken to crush terrorism, but the entire institutions should not be labelled and targeted for the act of an individual, he added.