The caretaker Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Aneeq Ahmed, Thursday, underscored need to impart awareness to youth to promote interfaith harmony in society. He was addressing a seminar titled “Religious Minorities and Interfaith Harmony, Social Tolerance in Pakistan” organized by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony in collaboration with NED University of Engineering and Technology as part of efforts aimed at sensitizing youth in higher educational institutions. Religious scholars, academicians, and intellectuals addressed the seminar and stressed cultivating and nurturing virtuous values of tolerance, tranquility, and respect for each other’s’ beliefs.
The federal minister Aneeq Ahmed said that love for religion was a part of life for every Muslim in the world and their hearts were filled with utmost love for Allah, His Rasool S.A.W, Quran and Islam which could not be vitiated. “Our hearts are the abode of Allah and there should be no space for impurities like envy, prejudice, hatred and violence,” he remarked.
A person who loves and reveres the Quran should also comprehend and follow its message that emphasizes on dignity of a human life and declares the murder of an individual as the assassination of entire humanity and protecting a human life as saving humanity, he argued. All the Pakistanis irrespective of their religion and beliefs were guaranteed equal rights under the constitution, he said adding that the Pakistani nation was living with harmony in a culture embedded with values of peaceful coexistence, tolerance and mutual respect.Economic turbulence, low literacy rate, poverty and other factors have been affecting the social fabric of the society and extremism has found a way to sneak in, he observed and said that strengthening the economy was among the core responsibilities of the state. Aneeq Ahmed recalled that after the occurrence of the unfortunate incident of Jaranwala the entire Muslim population of the surroundings reached for the help of the affected Christian community along with Ulema and state functionaries and even doors of Masajid were opened to provide shelter to the affected families. The caretaker Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Aneeq Ahmedr commended the role of society and Ulema for raising voices against intolerance in society and said that mass awareness events on interfaith harmony are being organized in universities as well as in Masajid and we need to arrange such events in places like churches.
Cardinal Joseph Coutts, Cardinal Pope of the Vatican at Archdiocese of Karachi, said that everyone has their own identity and every society must be inclusive and harmonious so that everyone can live in an environment of peaceful coexistence. He also prayed that this harmony prevails always in Pakistan. Religious scholar and Muhtamim Darul Uloom Naeemia Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman stated that there was no concept of forced conversion of religion in Islam rather it was an unacceptable act. Mufti Muneeb ur Rehman said that it was our principled demand that the religious sanctity of our religion must not be violated and no one should be allowed to take the law in hands. Scholar and former member Council of Islamic Ideology Dr. Mohsin Naqvi, said that injustice and foul playing create intolerance in the society.
