Does the prohibition also apply to jihadi/sectarian activities?
‘It does,’ replies Habibur Rehman, a senior teacher at Jamia. The administration of his madrassa takes the alleged link between jihad/sectarianism and Islamic education very seriously. ‘We ensure that our students absorb this belief that changing people’s faith and sectarian affiliations through force is not permissible in Islam,’ says Chaudhry Zahoor Ahmed, Jamia’s general secretary. He proudly tells me that none of the graduates of their madrassa has ever been reported to be involved in jehadi/sectarian activities. ‘We tell them unambiguously that changing the governments and the societies is not our job,’ he says, reciting the Quranic verses that abhor using violence to convert people to Islam. At the educational set-up run by a Dera Ghazi Khan politician, Hafiz Abdul Karim, the administration is quite aggressive in distancing themselves for jehadi elements. ‘Everyone in the city knows us. Our party (Markazi Jamiat Ahle-e-Hadith) is active all over Punjab. We cannot do something tha
