Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Set Your House in Order, Deoband Tells Pak


Responding to Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN Abdullah Haroon’s claim, that Darul Uloom, Deoband held strong influence over the country’s terror-infested north-west and FATA provinces, clerics and scholars at the seminary said Islamabad should set its own house in order.

Haroon had said Deoband should direct its “fatwa” against terrorism specifically to Pakistan’s north-west and tribal agencies, the seminary responded by issuing a statement saying “controlling jihadis in their (Pakistan) territory is their business not ours” and added that Fatwas issued by the institution applied to the “whole world.”

Though believers in Islam’s purist traditions, Darul Uloom had earlier issued a fatwa stating that Islam does not sanction the killing of innocents.

Darul Uloom organised an anti-terror convention in May which adopted a “declaration against terrorism”. The meeting, organised by Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind, was followed by a similar convention at Hyderabad.

Haroon’s statements also came in for criticism from the external affirms ministry, spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said “Statements by the Pakistani permanent representative are indeed regrettable,”

“The Dar-ul Uloom Deoband is one of our highly respected institutions of Islamic learning,” he added.

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