P Chidambaram

The UPA government is going to take a very significant step in the right direction to minimize terrorism. The Home Minister P. Chidambaram will meet on 3 November very influential 10000 Deobandi Muslim clerics with a view to make an opinion against terrorism. Besides the Clerics, around 5 lakh Deobandi Muslims are also expected to attend this very important meeting.

The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and the Congress President Smt. Sonia Gandhi too were invited to attend the meeting but there were probably some reservations about their traveling to western Uttar Pradesh. Hence they are not attending the meeting. This, in fact, will be the first annual meeting of Jamiat-Ulema-i-Hind.

There have been a series of conferences of Islamic scholars of different schools and activists preceding this conference. The main purpose behind the meetings was to make it clear that in Islam terrorism has no place and the Jihadi brand of terrorism cannot in any sense be termed as Islamic. It is very significant that the Home Minister of India is attending the meeting.

Terrorists, in fact, have done a lot of damage to Islam, the religion of peace and love and that which believes in universal brotherhood of man. No religion on earth justifies terrorism, least of all Islam. Besides condemning terrorism, issuing a   fatwa against suicide bombers too is likely to be considered.

It is hoped that UPA government would make the most of this excellent step and such interaction with the clerics and Islamic scholars in future too would certainly go a long way in demoralizing the unscrupulous terrorists who mindlessly kill the innocent and destabilize the governments and cause indescribable harm to the civilized society.