A handful of misguided and thoughtless indulged in terrorist activities in the name of jihad are responsible for defaming Islam. Islam neither links to any kind of terrorism nor it supports any kind of terrorist activities. Government agencies should refrain from identifying terrorism with particular religion or community. With this message, the 29th national convention of the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind concluded here at the Nizam College grounds late on Sunday.
“The time has come to redefine jihad to wipe out any confusion between ‘holy war’ and ‘terrorism’ in the country. Jihad and terrorism are poles apart. While jihad is basically a constructive phenomenon, terrorism is based on destruction alone. Terrorism is a crime and in the eyes of Quran—the biggest crime,” the resolution said at the conference attended by over 6,000 Islamic clerics, scholars and community leaders from all over the country.
The spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar of the Art of Living Foundation, Swami Agnivesh, Pandit N.K. Sharma and Joseph D Souza, president, All India Christian Council, Chief Minister Y S Rajshekhar Reddy and some MPs shared the dais with eminent ulemas and Muftis of Darul Uloom, Deoband.
All the leaders, academicians strongly denounced terrorism and condemned its linking with Muslims. Some ulemas said despite our repeated condemnation of terrorism, Islam is being linked to any terror act in an orchestrated manner. This tendency must stop- they urged the government.
“We condemn both—people who are directly linked with terrorist activities in the name of Islam and also those who are defaming Islam by involvement in terrorist activities. The country is facing a challenge. We must fight it together without calling it as a Hindu-Muslim problem,” said Abdul Hameed Nomani, one of the organisers of the conference.
Earlier this year in May the ruling or fatwa against terrorism was issued by the religious school, Darool Uloom Deoband. It said: Islam rejects all kinds of bloodshed and the killing of innocent people for selfish and politically motivated gains.
Sri Ravishankar strongly condemned any kind of violence and said terrorists whichever faith they belong to should be dealt with strong hand.
Swami Agnivesh denounced any attempt to link Islam with terrorism. He wondered why some political parties, which repeatedly talked of POTA, had suddenly gone silent after the name of Sadhvi Pragnya Singh Tahkur cropped up in the Malegaon bomb blasts.
Apart from showing grave concern over terrorism, the forum took up some progressive issues pertaining to Muslim society including the backwardness of Muslims in the realm of modern education and education of girls.
The forum felt that competent Muslims should set up primary, secondary, higher secondary schools and colleges. The resolution outlined here the institutions would teach only the existing modern syllabus besides a special arrangements for providing education about religious studies.
Taking into account the backwardness of Muslims girls in the realm of education, the resolution insisted on the non-residential modern educational institutions for girls.
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