Council of Islamic Ideology urges inclusion of jihad verses in Pakistan school curriculum

Expressing concern over excluding proposed jihad verses from the school curriculum, the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), top religious advisory body, has demanded the Pakistan Government to include the said verses.

The concerns were raised during the CII meeting chaired by Maulana Muhammad Khan Sheerani earlier on Tuesday, reports the Express Tribune.

The Federal Education and Professional Training Ministry had earlier finalised its proposed curriculum for public educational institutions in which it pitched to introduce teaching of the holy Quran as a compulsory subject from first to twelfth standard.

The recommendations' final draft was submitted to the CII for review, but when it found that the ministry did not include verses of jihad in the proposed curriculum, it irked the members who demanded the government to include the said verses in the syllabus.

"484 verses of jihad are mentioned in the Quran but they were deliberately not included in the syllabus so students could not be taught about it," said CII member Maulana Zahid Qasmi.

Later on Wednesday the CII rejected the government's proposal to include teachings of Quran in schools syllabus.

The CII members said they found too many lacunas in the books and that they could not be incorporated in the schools' syllabus.