Strongly reacting to President Asif Ali Zardari’s remarks terming Osama bin Laden the “greatest evil”, Jamaat-e-Islami chief Syed Munawar Hasan said on Tuesday the US and its allies were in fact the axis of evil and had thrust a war on the Muslim world to grab its resources, killing millions of innocent Muslims in the process.
He said bin Laden was the hero of the Muslim world because he had laid down his life as expiation for the Muslims, but President Zardari’s statement was only to please his masters in Washington. Zardari’s views reflected a slave mentality and such a statement was not becoming of a Muslim ruler, he added.
The JI chief also said the US and its allies had neither proved the charges against Osama bin Laden and his colleagues nor the existence of chemical weapons in Iraq, the pretext on which the West invaded Iraq. He said the US’ lies had been fully exposed and Washington’s double standards regarding the Muslims were no longer a secret.
Hasan said that instead of implementing parliament’s unanimous resolutions, President Zardari was rubbing salt on the nation’s wounds. He called Zadaris’s statement a negation of national honour and said the nation would have to get rid of the US slaves in the next elections.
The JI chief pointed out that the US, which had been levelling serious allegations against the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was now pressing the same agency to arrange talks with the Taliban.
PEOPLE OF THE BOOK: Separately, the JI chief told a gathering of Muslims and Christians in Islamabad on Tuesday that the JI believed in service to humanity irrespective of religious differences. He said Christians and other minorities in Pakistan were equal citizens and enjoyed equal rights under the law. He assured the minorities that upon coming into power, the JI would fully protect their basic rights. He also invited the Christians to a joint struggle against tyranny and oppression. He said the People of the Book were all brothers and a big chunk of Muslims did not know that.
