Assessing Strength of Lashkar-e-Taiba

Daily Times, March 18, 2006
Over 20,000 attend Hafiz Saeed-led rally
By Mubasher Bukhari

LAHORE: Around 25,000 people attended a conference in Lahore on Friday to condemn the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in newspapers across Europe and the “failure” of the United Nations and the Muslim leadership to resolve issues plaguing the Muslim Ummah.

The conference – Tahafuz-e-Hurmat-e-Risalat – was organised by religious group Jamaatud Dawaa at the Minar-e-Pakistan on Friday, and was led by its chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed. People from all over the country attended the conference. Religious leaders at the conference demanded that the Pakistan government “stop following American dictation” and focus on jihad to safeguard the interests of Muslims.

Independent sources put the number of participants between 20,000-25,000, while Jamaatud Dawaa spokesman Yahya Mujahid claimed that over 50,000 people attended the conference. Strict security measures were taken by police and activists of the Jamaatud Dawaa for the conference. Photographs of the conference were not allowed. Saeed told the conference that the United Nations had failed to play its role in the world community and urged Muslim countries to disassociate themselves from it.

He said that cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in Denmark and other European countries had been published in response to the increasing popularity of Islam and jihad. America supports the cartoons “because all of them wanted to eliminate Islam”.

He accused Jews of conspiring against the Muslims to publish the cartoons, while the “Christians are playing into their hands”, he said. The Europe should “hand over the blasphemers to the Muslims so that they can be brought to task according to the Quran and Shariah, he said.

“(US President George W) Bush is a foolish man who is dancing to the Jewish tune. The US wants to enforce its own world order but the Muslims have the ‘Mohammedan World Order’ in response to it,” Saeed said. He criticised the Musharraf government for compromising on the Kashmir issue, saying that the people of Pakistan “will never accept a bargain on Kashmir”. Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam-Sami chief Maulana Samiul Haq said that President Pervez Musharraf “should come out of the frontline of the American allies and tell the US that Pakistan cannot go along with her anymore”. He said that Pakistani rulers always forsake their religion and jihad for friendship with the US, “but Americans have always betrayed Pakistan”. He said that the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has been able to do nothing for Islam and the Muslim Ummah. Former Inter Services Intelligence director general Lt Gen (r) Hamid Gul said that Muslims did not want money but respect for their beliefs and their Prophet (PBUH). He said that the solution to Pakistan’s problem was “not elections but revolution”. He said that the US would not attack Iran but Israel could. Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Maulana Jalil Naqvi, Ameer Hamza, Ibtisam Elahi Zaheer and several other religious leaders also addressed the conference.