Calling upon religious scholars to play an effective role in promoting unity and peace in society, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has enlisted their help in dispelling the propaganda against the true teachings of Islam. He said while addressing a seminar at Darul Uloom Jamia Naeemia that terrorism cannot be defeated until Ulema play an effective role in carving out a counter narrative against the ideology of terrorists.He added that it was for the religious scholars to present the true message of our peaceful religion. The need of the hour is to put forward the narrative of our forefathers who made mosques and shrines the centres for peace.Nawaz said seminaries had always been the centres of religious education and effective source to dispel any misleading propaganda aimed at creating disharmony among the society.Through a collective effort, Ulema must foil all attempts, aimed at creating fissures in the society and must strengthen peace in the country. Religious leaders can spread the true picture of the religion, he added. Nawaz said the young generation should also be educated in the teachings of Islam from the pulpits of mosques and seminaries. Through such a narrative, a new generation should be taught that those elements carrying out massacres in the name of sectarianism have no relation with the religion. Extremism, according to the PM, is falsely being spread in the name of Islam, adding that the second aspect of this menace was a distorted concept of Jihad.He said fanning negative sentiments of sectarianism and distortion of the real message of Jihad have led to the rise of extremism in the world.
They have sowed the seeds of discord among Muslims and carried out inhuman acts, he said.Besides creating fissures on religious and sectarianism basis, the PM said deviant elements were also trying to sow seeds of discord by spreading provincialism. “They are trying to avenge themselves for being rejected by the public,” he added.But the PML-N, he said, would foil all such conspiracies and play its role to further forge unity among members of society as the Muslim League had done at the time of the creation of Pakistan by uniting the Muslims of India.Nawaz said his party would thwart negative propaganda and provincial prejudices among the Punjabi, Pakhtun, Baloch, Sindhi, Mohajir and other federating units.Urging religious leaders to raise their voice against provincialism as well, he said the PML-N government, with the help of Ulema would discard elements of hatred and disunity. The need to have a counter-narrative to fight the extremist thinking has been voiced again and again since the announcement of National Action Plan. It was also being pointed out that to be more effective the counter-narrative should come from the ulema. A handful of well-known clerics in sync with the spirit of the times have spelled out a counter narrative but received neither the government’s patronage nor protection. The government has little realisation of the urgency to prepare a convincing interpretation of Islam that can attract those who otherwise fall prey to the terrorists’ propaganda. The government and all stakeholders of the society should play their role more proactively to eliminate the menace of terrorism from the country because the war on terror has taken a decisive turn.
