BAHAWALPUR: Speakers at a seminar on Monday emphasised the need to promote the culture of tolerance in matters especially pertaining to religion as the policy of ‘zero tolerance’ in religious affairs and considering everyone wrong except himself is one of the major causes of extremism in the society. Speaking at a seminar jointly organised by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Inter-Faith Harmony, Higher Education Commission and the Islamia University Bahawalpur, renowned Islamic research scholar Dr Kashif Mahmood said that when a person considers himself absolutely perfect in the matters about religion and labels people from other schools of thought with fatwa of ‘kufr’, such attitude leads to extremism in the society. He said that difference of opinion was the beauty of a society, adding that zero tolerance policy for opinion of others fans extremism in the society. “Islamic Sharia always emphasises the need to promote peace and culture of self-respect for others … it never allow extremism in religious affairs,” he said. He said that government had organised a program at Faisal Mosque in Islamabad on May 26 last year where stakeholders from all five schools of thought got assembled and decided that fatwas declaring others ‘kafir’ (infidel) would not be issued in future. He said that consultative meetings with at least 2,000 religious scholars were held in connection with the ‘Paigham-e-Pakistan’ programme. He said that stakeholders from all non-Muslim schools of thought gathered at the Faisal Mosque on October 18 last year where they were assured that they were equal citizens of Pakistan. On January 16 this year, Paigham-e-Pakistan program was launched at President’s House in Islamabad that was attended by leaders from all religious schools of thought, 70 ambassadors, over 100 MNAs, 50 senators and 60 vice-chancellors of universities, he said. He said that for the first time in the history of Pakistan, women religious scholars gathered on February 1, 2018, and were urged to play their due role for religious harmony and culture of tolerance in society. Speaking on the occasion, Ministry of Religious Affairs and Inter-Faith Harmony Director Hafiz Mushahid Bukhari said that it was need of hour to promote inter-faith harmony. “White colour in our national flag represents minorities and it is our responsibility to provide security to their life and property,” he said. “We all need to play a significant role in controlling extremism. All schools of thought including Deobandi, Brelvi, Naqshbandia, Chishtia and others will have to focus on their personal religious principles instead of considering others as wrong,” he added. IUB Faculty of Islamic Learning Dean Prof Dr Razia Musarrat said, “We would have to convince rest of the world that people of Pakistan hate extremism and terrorism. The US and European countries have misunderstandings about us and we will have to prove that we love peace and harmony.” Discipline of Islamic Learning Chairman Prof Dr Hafiz Iftikhar said that a false and baseless propaganda was being made against educational institutions of Pakistan. “No single terrorist was found in educational institutions,” he said. “Recently, a student sprayed volley of bullets at other students of his school in US and killed 17 of them. World knows that the killer was not a Muslim,” he added. He said that the princely state of Bahawalpur was founded 220 years before the creation of Pakistan. “Quaid-e-Azam himself said that the state of Bahawalpur provided financial aid for release of salaries to government employees of the newly created country of Pakistan for a period of six months,” he said, and demanded of the government to pay special attention towards educational institutions of Bahawalpur. “Financial resources should also be allocated for Bahawalpur like that earmarked for mega projects in other parts of the country,” he said. Prof Dr Zia-ur-Rehman appreciated armed forces of Pakistan for playing their special role in restoration of peace. “Operations launched by the Pakistan Army resulted in restoration of law and order in volatile areas of the country,” he said. The seminar was attended by a large number of academicians and students. Published in Daily Times, February 20th 2018.