By Mumtaz Alam, IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, 17 Dec 2014: Heads of leading Muslim organizations in India have strongly condemned the Peshawar school attack which killed over 130 children on Tuesday. A banned terrorist group Tahreek Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the savagery. Indian Muslim leaders said that those who are doing such barbaric acts in the name of Islam are blot on Islam, and they have nothing to do with Islam.
“The Peshawar school attack in which over 100 children were martyred and a number of people wounded is an inhuman act and savagery. This cannot be justified,” said Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari, President, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind adding that neither such acts nor their perpetrators have anything to do with Islam.
“Islam calls for protection of man’s life and property. It does not like wrongful killing of a single person. So such act cannot be linked with Islam. Those who are executing such acts in the name of Islam, they must know they are wrongly using its name. They have no right to do it. Those who are acting against the teachings of Islam cannot use its name for such act,” Maulana Umari, author of over two dozen books on Islam, told IndiaTomorrow.net.
He said no Muslim leader or organization of repute at international level as well as in India has ever supported terrorist organizations like Taliban or ISIS.
“No big Muslim organizations and leaders have lent support to such terrorist organizations like ISIS or Taliban. No important Muslim leader or organization in India has ever supported these groups.” said he.
Mehmood Madani, president, Jamiat Ulema-e Hind, described the attack as “barbaric” and said the act was “indescribable”.
“It is an inhuman attack and cannot be tolerated. It must be dealt with strongly. Islam does not allow this. Those who indulge in such despicable acts are doing disservice to Islam,” Madani told IANS.
Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, President, All India Muslim Majlise Mushawarat, while condemning the killing of school children termed Taliban as a blot on Islam.
“We don’t have words to condemn such barbaric act and savagery. Words look small to condemn them. If they (Taliban) wanted to fight they should have fought with army or police, there is no justification of killing of innocent children. It has nothing to do with humanity, leave aside Islam,” Dr. Khan told IndiaTomorrow.net.
“Those who are doing such barbaric acts in the name of Islam, they are a blot on the face of Islam. Islam is thousands and thousands of miles away from them. They have hardened hearts like Hashshasheen or Khawariji who had no Islam in their heart,” said Dr. Khan, who is also Editor of English fortnightly The Milli Gazette.
A security guard helps a student after a gun attack at a school in Peshawar on 16 Dec 2014.
Condemnations poured in over the killing of 148 people, including 132 children, at an army-run school in Pakistan’s Peshawar city by the Taliban.
“They were not the children of Pakistan they were the children of the world. Taliban are murderers of humanity. I don’t have words,” Kamal Faruqui, one of the progressive Muslim personalities, said.
Maulana Mufti Mukarram Ahmed, the Shahi Imam of Fatehpuri Masjid in Old Delhi, echoed the same views.
“Terrorism in the name of Islam is un-Islamic. They call themselves Muslims, but they are a blot on Muslims,” Ahmed said.
—With inputs from IANS
