Madrassas do not fuel terrorism: Wafaq-ul-Madaris

Leaders ask govt to identify seminaries allegedly inculcating jihadi ideas in young minds.

ISLAMABAD: Leaders of Wafaq-ul-Madaris Al-Arabia Pakistan on Sunday asked the government to identify seminaries which are allegedly inculcating jihadi ideas in the young minds.

Rejecting the allegations levelled by Interior Minister Rehman Malik last week that some seminaries were promoting terrorism in the country, they said that the government should bring evidence against such seminaries.

The interior minister said that some madrassas were teaching literature that was fuelling terrorism and moulding students’ minds with Jihadi ideals.

“Malik should not sabotage the good relationship between the government and the seminaries, on the issue of protection of the sovereignty of the state, as the madrassas are promoting Islamic education,” a statement issued by Wafaq-ul-Madaris’s media centre said.

Maulana Salimullah said that the minister should not criticise the role of madrassas because they have always promoted peace and provided higher education to millions of poor students who would have remained uneducated otherwise.

He said that the religious parties would support the government to ban madrassas if the charges that they were promoting terrorism proved true.

It is pertinent to mention here that religious leaders have issued this statement at a time when various banned outfits have been found to be involved in killing dozens of people.

The suicide attack on Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s shrine last week is a case in point.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2010.