Staff Reporter
Faisalabad
Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, Dr Pir Noorul Haq Qadri said on Saturday the government had successfully foiled the nefarious designs of anti-Islamic forces which wanted to destroy Pakistan like Yemen, Iraq and Syria by promoting sectarianism.
Addressing the Ittehad-e-Ummat Conference at Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI), he said that clear-cut statement of Prime Minister Imran Khan not to recognize Israel had dragged the Arab states out of uncertainty- whether accept Israel or not.
However, it was very encouraging that most of the Arab states had decided to follow the Pakistani stand, he added. He said that conspiracies hatched by social media to promote sectarianism in Pakistan were geared up during last 6-7 months.
‘Certainly anti-Islamic forces were involved in these conspiracies’, he said and added that Pakistan was fully aware of the ill-impacts of sectarianism and the government with the cooperation of religious circles decided to cow down such elements. In this connection, a decision was taken to ‘Don’t leave your sect; don’t intervene in others sect’, he added.
The minister said that few years ago, a conference was held in Saudi Arabia which had clearly pointed out that the followers of eight sects were Muslims and could not be dubbed out non-Muslims. He urged the religious scholars to promote the 90 percent similarities in these schools of thought instead of projecting the 10 percent minor and academic differences.
He further said that he had made it clear one month before Muharram that the elements sowing seeds of hatred would not be tolerated and they would be dealt with an iron hand. He appreciated the cooperation of religious leaders and said that with the efforts of government, Muharram had passed peacefully and now it was the duty of ulema to maintain peace in future also.
He also quoted a joint declaration of ulema on sectarianism and said that other Islamic countries were quoting the clauses of this declaration while it would be translated into other languages very soon. He said that people belonging to different sects would have to live in this country and in this connection, we must explore new avenues of unity and tolerance. ‘This could be possible only through dialogue’, he added. Pir Noorul Haq Qadri also mentioned the efforts of Prime Minister Imran Khan to highlight the Kashmir issue at international level effectively. Regarding fresh publication of blasphemous material in Norway.
