MMA to mark 9/11 with anti-US protests

By Hasan Mansoor

KARACHI: The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) has announced that the six-party religious alliance and all religious seminaries will observe a protest day on the third anniversary of 9/11.

Addressing a press conference on Saturday, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, secretary general of the MMA, said that demonstrations would be held to protest over the United States’ aggressive policies in response to the 9/11 attacks. Maulana Fazl, also the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly and chief of his own faction of the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam, was accompanied by MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed at the press conference.

Maulana Fazal said the MMA was outraged by the American invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. However, he said that the MMA would not send volunteers to perform jihad in Iraq.

He said the US commission on the 9/11 attacks had exonerated Muslims from all charges in this connection. “Besides, the US and the British governments have also withdrawn their charges against Iraq of possessing weapons of mass destruction,” he added.

He reiterated his party’s support to the Palestinians’ freedom struggle against Israel. He also condemned the US for mistreating prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq and Shabarghan prison in Afghanistan.

Condemning the military operation in Wana, he warned the government against “pushing the religious force against the wall”. He said the MMA would launch a protest movement if the government didn’t stop such actions.

He called the government’s plan to streamline madrassas ‘a way to force Washington’s will on the people of Pakistan’. He said the madrassa curricula were already up to date and there was no need to revise them.

He condemned the government for recognising the Aga Khan Foundation’s education board and said it was a conspiracy to secularise textbooks. He said all the religious seminaries should be recognised and the boards governing them should also be recognised. He said his party was also opposed to the proposed amendments to the Hudood Ordinance and the blasphemy laws.

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