Interfaith harmony: PIPS activities to formally begin next month

PIPS and Ulema representing all Islamic sects in Pakistan launch programme to promote peace

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) and a team of religious clerics (Ulema), representing all Islamic sects in Pakistan will launch what they call a comprehensive programme to promote peace and religious harmony in the society. According to PIPS these activities will formally start from the next month.

The announcement came after the Ulema Advisory Board met in Islamabad a few days back. According to Amir Rana, Head of PIPS, the meeting decided that the programme will include a range of activities in different categories of intellectual and academic discourse, an advocacy campaign and capacity building measures.

Noted religious scholar and former Chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology Dr Khalid Masood presided over the session, which was attended by Mufti Muneebur Rehman, chairman Ruit-e-Hilal Committee and Secretary General Wafaqul Maddaris Qari Hanif Jalundhry.

The Ulema Advisory Board was established after a PIPS seminar on “The Role of Religious Scholars in Promotion of Peace and Harmony in Society”, held between June 21 and 23 in Islamabad.

In this first roundtable meeting, the board members reaffirmed that they will ardently propagate and implement an “agreed-upon set of recommendations” that emerged during the seminar in June.

PIPS will hold discussions on the national education system and give recommendations to madrassas and the government, publish a booklet comprising essays highlighting dangers and harms of sectarian differences and organise discussions between the Ulema and human right activists on the concept of freedom. The institute will also organise trainings and workshops for madrassa students.





Published in The Express Tribune, August 7^th, 2011.