Jardanwala incident sad…. Interfaith harmony is the need of the hour!

A special discussion was organized in “Express Forum” regarding Jardanwala incident.

In which there was a detailed discussion about its various aspects, the steps taken after the incident and other aspects. The forum report is open to readers.

Maulana Syed Muhammad Abdul Khabir Azad

(Chairman Revit Hilal Committee Khatib and Imam Badshahi Masjid Lahore)

The Jardanwala incident is extremely heartbreaking and sad, much less condemnable. This country belongs to all of us. We have and are facing challenges together. We want to send a clear message to the enemy that our country is strong, our defense is excellent, we are all united, so we will not allow any of his plans or tricks to succeed.

Army chief Syed Hafiz Asim Munir has stated that those who burnt houses and places of worship will not sit down from China until they are brought to the status of infidels. To me, there is no better message than this, the enemy will have to eat as always.

Islam teaches respect for humanity and religions. Respect for all divine books is part of our faith. Didn’t Christians have Bibles in their synagogues? We are saddened by the desecration of the Holy Quran in Sweden. Bible burners did the same thing that happened in Sweden. We also believe in this book and strongly condemn its blasphemy.

We should not lose patience, tolerance and tolerance at any point. If someone commits insult, it is the job of the state to punish him, no one should take the law into their hands. No one has the right to make decisions on the streets.

Islam teaches respect and humanity, who are these people who are burning houses and places of worship? So far 174 people have been arrested and more arrests are being made. I have made 3 visits to Jardanwala so far.

I, along with Archbishop Sebastian Shaw, visited the Christian colony there and also the area where people were afraid to go. These victims were encouraged by our departure. I gave a clear message that we stand with the Christians and strongly condemn this sad incident. We are also making arrangements for the rehabilitation of the victims under our help. Message Terrorism, extremism and sectarianism are prohibited in Pakistan.

It is signed by more than 10 thousand scholars and important personalities. Strict action should be taken against whoever is promoting terrorism, extremism and communalism in the country. Similarly, those involved in the Jaranwala incident should also be severely punished.

Chief Minister Punjab Mohsin Naqvi deserves to be praised, under his direction, the construction of churches and houses that were burnt there has started, which is a positive step. We want to make it clear to the world that we will not allow foreign agendas to succeed in our country. The characters of May 9 and the Jaranwala incident have to be brought to Kafir’s role. We stand with the government, the army and the warlord. All together will make the country stronger.

Sebastian Shaw

(Archbishop of Lahore)

The Jaranwala incident should be investigated transparently and those involved in it should be punished. This is such an event that fear will never leave the hearts of children and women. Where Christian houses and places of worship were burnt, many Muslims protected the Christians. People told us that when the announcement was made in the morning, the Muslims woke up the Christians to protect themselves.

In the Christian colony, Muslims wrote the Kalma on the outside of Christian houses, which is why some early houses with the Kalma inscribed on them survive. We pay tribute to these Muslims. At this point we need to clear up our misunderstandings.

References from the Holy Quran and blessed hadiths should be told to the people that promote Muslim-Christian unity. We are all Pakistanis first then our religious affiliation. Muslims and Christians believe in each other’s religion, so those who are inciting chaos are conspiratorial elements, they must be eradicated together.

After the Jardanwala incident, all groups of interfaith harmony mobilized, all playing a role in dousing the fire. There are more interfaith harmony groups in Lahore. Allama Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, Sirajul Haque, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidari, Shia Sunni and other school of thought scholars visited Jaranwala. Their action shows that we are all together, the enemy cannot separate us. The Prime Minister also visited there and placed his hands on the heads of the victims.

Chief Minister Punjab Mohsin Naqvi immediately called a meeting after this sad incident, made special visits there, he ordered the immediate construction of churches and houses, the implementation of which has already started, all necessary steps should also be taken on his instructions. have been. To prevent such incidents, we have to educate people.

Augustine the great scholar

(Former Provincial Minister for Human Rights and Minority Affairs Punjab)

The Jardanwala tragedy is certainly very sad, much less condemnable. Due to this, our country has not been discredited at the international level. In a few hours, 20 churches and hundreds of houses were burnt.

People saved their lives with great difficulty, they lost their own roof. This is such a heartbreaking event that the pain will never go away. The state should work by making a road map and see who are the people who want to destroy the peace of the country.

Be it a Christian, a Muslim or anyone else, bring him to the fore and punish him severely so that no one does such a thing in the future. In the four years from 2018 to 2022, we have done a lot to promote interfaith harmony and peace. At that time I was the minister, I, Maulana Syed Muhammad Abdul Khabir Azad, Archbishop Sebastian Shaw and others worked together day and night.

Big programs were organized for the promotion of inter-faith harmony at Badshahi Mosque, Governor House and other places, which are unprecedented in history. Similarly, committees for religious harmony were formed and activated at the district level, due to these committees many problems were eliminated before or as soon as they arose. In a big city like Lahore, the tragic events were saved from happening, in which the leaders of all religions played an important role, the Muslim scholars themselves took the lead in this and are still with us today.

Unless local scholars, leaders and personalities are involved, it is difficult to stop people. We took on board big scholars, leaders and other personalities as well as local scholars and personalities, included them in the committees and solved the problems through them in every possible way. Now that the incident of Jardanwala has happened, I have to say with great regret that the Interfaith Committees of Faisalabad have not played their role even though the same committees prevented 4 tragic incidents from happening during our time.

What is worrying now is that every day we are getting reports of riots and clashes from some part of the country. After the tragedy of Jardanwala, it is not uncommon for sad events to occur with frequency, the state institutions should think why this is happening all of a sudden, is it not a conspiracy? Who is behind it? The need at this time is that we need to work together to stop the enemy’s moves, to work by making a comprehensive policy in this regard.

We drafted the country’s first interfaith policy in Punjab which is still pending even though it includes consultation of all stakeholders.

This is a comprehensive policy that will help promote inter-faith harmony and prevent chaos in the province. Through this forum, I demand that the interfaith harmony policy be approved on an emergency basis and implemented immediately. If it is implemented in the true sense, every attempt to spread chaos can be thwarted.

Shahid Rahmat

(Representative Civil Society)

After the 18th amendment, the subject of human rights, minority affairs and inter-religious harmony came to the provinces. A department was created in this regard in the province, but there was no policy in the province regarding inter-faith harmony. We drafted this policy after 2 years of long consultation and hard work with the department and all stakeholders. The opinions of scholars, bishops, lawyers, academia, students and others were taken in this.

We took business chambers on board on how they can fund the promotion of interfaith harmony. We have done our job as a civil society. Now this bill is with the Council of Islamic Ideology. According to me, this is such an excellent bill that if it had been implemented, the tragic incident like Jardanwala would not have happened, so it should be passed and implemented soon.

There are many points of this policy out of which three are the most important. The first is to create a system of early warning of any possible danger. Had this system been in place, the Jardanwala incident which started at 5 am, emergency measures would have been taken and the collision would have been avoided. The second point is to make the District Peace Committees functional. These committees exist but are not active. We have seen that even today where the District Committees are active, many incidents of conflict have been avoided, so the District Peace Committees should be made active immediately by giving them powers and resources.

The third point is the implementation of the Loudspeaker Act. Loudspeakers were also used in this incident to bring people together, so if the Loudspeaker Act had been implemented, this problem would not have been so much. Another thing that needs to be noticed is that the educational curriculum contains hateful content.

Apart from this, books are also published which promote hatred and anarchy. In this regard, we are developing software with the help of artificial intelligence that will detect hateful content in any literature, which will surely help in solving the problems.