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Altaf asks Punjab to stand up against bigotry
Gun-toting goons are destroying schools and confining women to their homes, said Husain and asked lawyers to launch another campaign, this time to actually save the country. - Photo courtesy of www.mqmuk.com LAHORE: MQM supremo Altaf Husain on Wednesday asked people from Punjab to stand up and be counted in fight against Talibanisation. Addressing a gathering of women workers from Lahore, the MQM leader also asked national leaders to break their silence on the issue. ‘It is time to save the country, not for playing politics,’ he said. ‘I am not asking for votes, but a united stand against dangerous Talibanisation which can split the federation.’ He said the gun-toting goons were destroying girls’ schools and confining women to their homes, ‘whereas the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) had asked Muslims to get education even if they had to go to China for that.’ ‘How can a person claim to be a follower of Islam when he is defying the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him)?’ Husain asked. He said the flogging of a girl in Swat was another proof that the Taliban had nothing to do with Islam. The MQM chief said Data Ganj Bakhsh, Bulleh Shah, Rehman Baba and Lal Shahbaz Qalander are respected personalities of Islamic history and must be revered as the beacons of tolerance. How could one threaten to destroy their last resting places and still claim to be a follower of Islam? he asked. The speech, which was broadcast simultaneously at five stations – Rahim Yar Khan, Faisalabad, Lodhran, Muzaffargarh and Lahore – marked a new beginning of an anti-Talibanisation campaign for the MQM outside its Karachi stronghold. The MQM chief asked the people of Punjab to stand up against religious bigotry and asked lawyers to launch another campaign, this time to save the country. Tahira Asif, who had contested the last general election from Lahore on an MQM ticket, arranged the function. Dawn :Staff Reporter:Friday ,May 22,2009
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