Mufti Muneebur Rehman,
the Central Ruwet-e-Hilal Committee chairman, has issued
an edict (fatwa) against suicide attacks in mosques and
imambargahs, Dr Amir Laiqat Hussain, minister of state
for religious affairs, told Fact.
The minister said that
Mufti Muneebru Rehman has decreed that such suicide attacks
were un-Islamic. Though various clerics were reluctant
in issuing an edict on the insistence of the government,
it finally succeeded in obtaining the edict and various
clerics were inclined to support the edict, said Dr Hussain.
The state minister for
religious affairs said that the edict would be operative
only in Pakistan and not in other countries. He said that
Maulana Hanif Jallandhri, a Deobandi cleric and the Wafaqul
Madaras superintendent (nazim), has not supported the
fatwa. He said the government wanted to obtain the edict
from a mufti and not a maulana, because under Islamic
Law only muftis had authority to pronounce an edict. Every
Pakistani was against suicide attacks in mosques and imambargahs,
said Dr Hussain.
Mufti Muneebur Rehman has
also started a campaign to convince other clerics to support
the government on this issue, sources told Fact.
Sources said that clerics
were hesitant in supporting the fatwa because the government
had charged two Deobandi clerics, Maulana Abdul Aziz and
his younger brother Abdul Rashid Ghazi, with terrorism
and put their names on the exit control list.
Ejazul Haq, the religious
affairs minister, had withdrawn all charges against them,
which, according to sources, was an attempt to please
Deobandi clerics. On the direction of the Religious Affairs
Ministry, a three-member team has met Maulana Hanif Jallandhri
in Multan and sought his help, sources said and added
that the government is still waiting for a response. Daily
Times contacted Maulana Jallandhri for the comments but
he was not available.
