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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Clerics slam operation against seminaries |
| 2004-08-25 |
| Hundreds of religious scholars and administrators from Islamabad and Rawalpindi met on Wednesday and criticised the government raid on two religious seminaries, Jaamia Fardiya and Jaamia Hafsa, reiterating their resolve to resist these moves. A gathering of more than four hundred ulema criticised the government's interference in seminaries' affairs on the directive of the US. They said that the government was attacking religious institutions in the name of an anti-terrorism drive. Later, while talking to reporters, Jamiat Ahle-Sunnat leader Qari Saeedur Rehman said that the ulema would not tolerate any raid or search operation on religious seminaries. "The seminaries are the biggest threat to anti-Islamic forces which have started implementing a plan to shut them down," he said. "The government is tightening the siege around religious leaders and seminaries through a string of allegations, court cases, and propaganda," he said. Qari Rehman said the government had started a propaganda campaign against the religious seminaries and former interior minister Faisal Saleh Hayat and former information minister Sheikh Rashid were trying to save their jobs while participating in the anti-madrassa campaign. Qari Rehman said Faisal Saleh Hayat was turning the military against religious leaders and demanded the government replace him with someone "prudent". |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Secular states a good thing. Your religious schools are just schools of intolerance and terror. I say they should be very well examined, after they are blown up, burnt down and the instructors killed. Examined a nail and splinter at a time. Yea I am intolerant of asshats. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-08-26 4:59:16 AM |
#1
Sounds like a good idea to me. Effect, meet cause. "prudent"=="blind in one eye and can't see out of the other" |
| Posted by: Old Grouch 2004-08-25 9:38:36 PM |