Religious parties Vs.secularists

Daily Times, August 20, 2005

JI urges religious parties to fight secularists
MNA condemns disqualifying candidates with religious schools’ certificates
Staff Report

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan naib ameer Hafiz Mohammad Idrees on Friday urged religious parties to regroup and tackle the secular onslaught against seminaries.

Talking at Jamia Mosque’s Syed Maududi Institute, Idrees said the country’s rulers were following a foreign agenda and it was imperative to launch Jihad against them by mobilising the people. He condemned the ban on magazines Friday Special, Zarb-e-Islam and Wajoud. “The only fault of these papers was their commitment to expose Western and the ruling party’s double standards,” he added.

The JI leader said the local council elections had been compromised when the Sindh government “allowed” the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) to forcibly confiscate ballot boxes. He said the electoral staff was caught filling ballot boxes with bogus votes in Karachi. He added that the government’s claims of foolproof security for the polls had proved false in the wake of the people killed in the election’s first phase.

Meanwhile, Jamiat Ittehadul Ulema president MNA Maulana Abdul Malik condemned the disqualification of candidates with religious schools’ certificates. He told the congregation at Jamia Mansoorah during Friday prayers that religion and politics should be separate. Malik said several Muslim rulers and the Holy Prophet’s (PBUH) companions had graduated from the Suffah at Masjid-e-Nabvi, adding, “They were qualified in Quran and Sunnah which proved its worth in their practical lives.” The people present asked the government to accept the equivalent certificates issued by religious institutions for all practical purposes.