KARACHI: Founder and leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Altaf Hussain has appealed to the Ulema of all sects to spread unity, as Islam did not permit any individual or a party to declare the people of any other sect infidel (kafir).

He stated this while addressing an Iftar reception hosted by the party in honour of Ulema of different sects on Thursday.

He observed that during this century the Muslim nation was facing a serious crisis and the rulers of more than 50 Islamic countries so far had not been able to evolve an effective and united strategy to cope up with the situation.

Referring to the recent meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), he said that the participants of the summit could not evolve a proper strategy.

The Muttahida leader asked the gathering that as to why some of the Ulema were continuously issuing the edict of jihad. "Are we able to announce jihad and fight against the big powers or do we have as advance war skills as they (big powers) do," he questioned.

He said that some Ulema said that the country had nuclear bombs. But, they should not forget that the USSR had a number of atomic bombs and despite having them it could not save itself from disintegration. He questioned the gathering that in these circumstances was Pakistan in a position to counter the superpowers.

Altaf Hussain said: "The most important thing is unity, which we do not have. We are not united even on ethnic and linguistic basis."

Slamming the tendency of declaring infidels (kafir) and killing each other on the name of sect and creed, he said that Islam never taught this, as Muslims of all sects believed in the supremacy of Allah, Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and the Qur’aan. He said that Islam did not teach the lesson of terrorism.

He urged the Ulema to teach the lesson of unity to the masses in order to remove the sectarian differences. He maintained that no individual or a party had a right to issue the decree of jihad, as jihad could only be announced by the head of the State i.e. Caliph.

Altaf Hussain told Ulema that ethnic identity was an unalterable reality and no one should be hated for talking about this reality nor should the patriotism of such people be doubted. He asked the Ulema to educate people that having any particular nationality was not a sin.

He said that Muttahida always believed that every citizen of the country was patriot. But, he said that on June 19, 1992 the army launched an operation against the party owing to the fact that the Muttahida was teaching the lesson of unity and they were Urdu speaking. He said that even the grandson of leader of Pakistan movement Maulana Hasrat Mohani was tortured to death during the army operation.

Commenting on the proposed reopening of Khokhrapar border, the leader of Muttahida said that some people feared that after the opening of Khokhrapar border, a number of Indian Muslims would come here. He said: "Our ancestors would never have opted to migrate to Pakistan had they learnt about such mentality."

He said that the reopening of Khokhrapar border would reduce the expenses and provide more opportunity of employment to the people of Sindh.

A large number of Ulema, including Maulana Irshadul Haq Thanvi, Allama Furqan Hyder Abidi, Professor Ali Raza Shah Naqvi and Maulana Muhammad Akram Qadri, attended the gathering.