MUSLIM BODY ASKS MADRASAS TO COOPERATE WITH GOVT

MUSLIM BODY ASKS MADRASAS TO COOPERATE WITH GOVT

 Jamiat-Ulama-i-Odisha (JUIO) on Thursday asked the authorities of all madrasas in the State to cooperate with the administration in the wake of al-Qaeda suspect Abdur Rahman’s arrest.

“If the charges against Abdur Rahman are true, let him be punished. We condemn any kind of terror activities. But the innocent people from the community should not be harassed,” JUIO general secretary Mufti Md Ashraf Ali Qasmi told reporters here.

Expressing surprise over the alleged activities of Rahman, JUIO condemned any form of terrorism in a peace loving State like Odisha. “We are deeply hurt and pained over the recent developments relating to the arrest of a suspected terrorist in Odisha,” JUIO president Maulana Md Jabir Qasim said.

“The Government should not blame all the madrasas on the plea of misdeeds by one cleric Abdur Rahman,” Quasmi said, claiming the community is facing difficulties as a section considers all madrasas as same.

“Madrasas do not preach the language of terror. There is a wrong campaign against madrasas after Rahman’s arrest,” he said.

Asked whether the community would impose any ‘fatwa’ on Rahman’s family as his elder brother was an accused in the US Embassy attack in Kolkata in 2002, Qasim said, “Let the law take its own course. If he (Rahman) is guilty, the law will punish him.”

Official sources said there is only one madrasa run by the State Government, but 78 other such institutions get full Government funding while 138 others get part grant-in-aid.