by Vaneeza

I am among the many Pakistanis who are against the commercial mullahs in Pakistan running the religion business. Most of them misguide people with their own twisted interpretation of concept of jihad in Islam. They have the opportunity to play a significant role in urging people to do things to improve their quality of life make Pakistan a better society but instead they choose to misguide people into believing in extremist ideology. People listen to them so much here.

If only these mullahs would urge people to put their daughters in school , be honest in their dealings with each other, fight corruption, respect women and other positive things — our country would improve so much! Many people including me believe that they are also not doing enough to condemn the acts of terrorism that the Taliban are committing in the name of Islam and jihad.

Therefore, when I saw the news on TV that a well-known Pakistani religious leader, Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri, had issued a Fatwa against terrorism and had condemned all actions of killing innocent civilians in the name of Islam, this came as a pleasant surprise. Here is an excerpt of his speech:

The armed strife and disruption by the terrorists, the carnage and slaughtering of people, the suicide bombing against the innocent and peaceful communities, and explosions in the mosques, shrines, educational institutions, business streets, government institutions and buildings, trade centers, the defense training centers, embassies, transports, and places of the civil society have become a daily routine. These people mix up the brutal killing of the hundreds and thousands of people and the activities of butchery and slaughter of humanity with JIHAD, and make, in this way, topsy-turvy the entire Islamic concept of JIHAD. This is causing great ambiguity, doubt and perversion to the youths, in particular, and the simple and clean-hearted Muslims, in general.

Despite the fact that the Muslims get persecuted at the hands of foreign non-Muslims powers, and Muslim governments remain silent over it, still no group of Islamic state can individually be allowed to wage an armed struggle against the oppression in the name of Jihad, and massacre the innocent people, whether Muslims or non-Muslims, through suicide bombing as a reaction, leave alone committing terrorism against Muslims in business streets, mosques and homes on the pretext of oppression by non-Muslims. Calling such an act Jihad is sheer ignorance and straying from the right path.