President General Pervez Musharraf on Thursday urged religious scholars to play an active role in ridding society of extremism.Talking to a 15-member delegation of clerics at Aiwan-e-Sadr, he said a handful of misguided elements were tarnishing IslamÂ’s image all over the world. He said people across the world, who have little knowledge of Islam, saw Muslims blowing up each other and wrongly perceived Islam as a religion of intolerance, violence and extremism. Musharraf asked the clerics to use their influence to remove hatred from society, adding that they should expose the people to the true spirit of Islam.
The delegation extended its full support to the president for his efforts to discourage terrorism and appreciated the development in the country during MusharrafÂ’s eight years in power. It said the government had made sincere efforts to achieve tranquility and peace in the country and effective measures had been taken against elements promoting hatred, violence and extremism.