Over a lakh Muslims take pledge against terror

Over one lakh Muslims Sunday took an oath against terrorism and to spread the message that Islam is a religion of peace and has always promoted harmony.

The ceremony,,organised by the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind, was held at the Ramlila ground here, and came after a two-day conference attended by clerics of Jamiat-e-Ulemas in the Maldives, Britain, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar at Deoband in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district, where it was decided to set up a forum to promote world peace.

"The forum will help promote peace and make the entire world understand that the motive of Islam is to promote peace and harmony. Islam has always wanted that peace prevails in the world," Jamiat-e-Ulema general secretary Maulana Arshad Madani said in address here.

Only better understanding and a proper universal brotherhood will bridge the rift among people and let the world live in peace, he added.

"Freedom is the basic human right of every person in the world and by spreading terrorism, a lot of organisations have just tried to sabotage tranquility prevailing in the world," said Maulana Madani.

Speaking on the occasion, Jamiat-e-Ulema-Pakistan (Fazlur) chief Fazlur Rahman maintained that peace cannot prevail as long as "atrocities are done on the people by the dictators in a society".

"Today the issue of terrorism is not just limited to Afghanistan and Pakistan but has affected almost all the nations of the world, which has made it immensely important for the people to come together and tackle all such sort of issues to let peace prevail in the society," he said.