 LAHORE: Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) protested on Friday to condemn killings of its leaders Aslam Mujahid, Tahir Jamal and Farhan in Karachi and the sacrilege of the Quran in the US and Israeli jails. MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmed led the main protest in front of the Islamabad Parliament House.
| Who else? When it comes to public indignation over something or other, who you gonna get but Qazi? "Indignation for all occasions, only a dollar!" |
Addressing the protest rallies, demonstrations and sit-in at Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad, and Islamabad, the MMA leaders said that Karachi killings were a part of a conspiracy to target Islamic movements' leaders. In Lahore, Ameerul Azim, Dr Rana Mehmoud and Sheikh Mohammad Amin led a peaceful demonstration outside the Lahore Press Club after the Friday congregation. Protesters, carrying banners and placards with slogans, condemned the killing of the MMA leaders, shouted anti-government slogans and demanded immediate arrest of the culprits.
| They look so... ummm... Islamic, jumping up and down, hollering, rolling their eyes, and vowing dire revenge on whomever... |
According to a Jammat-e-Islami (JI) spokesman, more than 50 workers, MPAs and MNAs of the MMA were baton-charged and arrested by the police to stop them from entering the Sindh Assembly, where a budget session was in progress. Syed Munawwar Hassan, MMA secretary general, while delivering a Friday sermon at the Jamia Mansoorah said that despite the provocative action against the MMA leaders, the party's workers would not take up arms to crush violence with violence. |
LAHORE: Qazi Hussain Ahmed, ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami, criticised Pope Benedict's remarks on the concept of 'Jihad' in Islam, saying that it was against the teachings of Christ. Delivering a Friday sermon at Jamia Mansoorah, he said that the US was patronising colonial powers all over the world, adding that Islam was based on logic and rationale, which was attracting a large number of Christians in the West. He appealed to the Pope to urge Washington not to support Israel's military occupation of Palastine and military action in Iraq, Afghanistan and rest of the world. Islam was a religion of peace and the concept of Jihad was to help the oppressed, he concluded.