Speakers at a conference on Sunday maintained that social equality was imperative to build a peaceful society where there is no room for violence, extremism and terrorism.
The event titled ‘Ishq-e-Rasool (PBUH) and Paigham-e-Pakistan Conference’ was organized by the Anjuman Mohibban-e-Tareeqat International, Mohra Shareef, in Multan. The conference was the last in a series of events organized under Paigham-e-Pakistan initiative of the government of Pakistan in Burewala, Mandi Bahauddin, Cheecha Watni and Multan from January 25 to January 27.
Council of Islamic Ideology member and Ittehad Mashaikh-e-Pakistan President Pir Shehzad Fazeel Ayyaz Qasmi chaired the session. A large number of religious scholars, intellectuals, lawyers, civil society activists and notables of the area attended the conference.
Speaking on the occasion, Pir Shehzad Fazeel Ayyaz Qasmi called for promoting the true message of humanity given in the ‘Charter of Madina’ for salvage of the society caught up in the clash of interests. He stressed the need to follow the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) whose life is a complete guidance and a source of inspiration for every Muslim irrespective of his age, creed or geographical background.
Qasmi said the role of teachers and ulema is of vital importance in character building of students at educational institutions and madaris to achieve lasting peace and tranquility through elimination of extremism, sectarianism and terrorism from the society.
He urged ulema belonging to different schools of thought to forge unity among their ranks to thwart the evil designs of enemies who wanted to divide and weaken the Muslims on religious lines.
“Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) in his last sermon taught us the lesson of basic human rights. It is need of the hour to review our curricula to include human rights, which will help counter the trends of extremism and sectarianism among youth,” he opined.
Other speakers laid emphasis on the concept of inclusive citizenship as all citizens, whether Muslims or non-Muslims, enjoy equal rights in a true Islamic society. Declaring anyone infidel by an individual is against the teachings of Islam, they asserted, and underlined that the Muslim Ummah need to play collective role to counter such trends.
They said Paigham-e-Pakistan initiative of the government of Pakistan was the best tool to deal with growing extremism and intolerance in the society and to encourage the people belonging to different walks of life towards positive and constructive activities in order to realise the dream of building a peaceful society. They called for giving legal cover to the national counter-terrorism narrative so that it can be propagated more forcefully at the national as well as international level.
Published in Daily Times, January 28th 2019.
