Necessary arrangements to set up the ‘Faiz International Forum’ – aimed at helping dissipate negative propaganda against Muslims and Pakistan in the world – have been started, said foreign delegates attending the Faiz Centenary Celebrations 2011 on Saturday.
Addressing an audience at the Kothari Parade, Bagh Ibne Qasim in Clifton where the event is being staged, they said that Pakistan is confronting a massive negative propaganda and it needs to be dispelled. “The negative propaganda might be addressed positively by making strenuous efforts to make the people in the US and Europe familiar with the universal message of peace by Faiz,” they said.
Eminent intellectuals and academicians including president of the Anjuman Tarraqi Pasand Musannafeen I A Rehman, intellectual Mushtaq Yousufi, Sadaf Mirza from Denmark, Akram Qaimkhani from the UK, Dr Ali Jawaid from India, Nadira Raj Babar and Zehra Nigar spoke on the occasion.
The delegates said that though Pakistanis abroad have been striving to improve the image of the country on an individual level, the establishment of the forum would bring about salient changes through collective efforts.
They were of the opinion that people across the globe loved and respected Faiz and that is why his message is fast spreading across the world.
The delegates deplored that Muslims are being declared as terrorists while those posing themselves as the champions of Islam are considered as friends even though they are ones waging wars.
They said that Faiz never bowed down before a tyrant and he did not flee from the scene of his struggle. “Therefore, it is the need of the hour that the whole world should be updated with what Faiz wanted and what he practically did for the deprived and the poor masses.”
The delegates said that it is imperative that the international community should be updated on Muslims, especially the Pakistani people, who are liberal, moderate and peace-loving Muslims and want to stand beside the international community.
Radical religious extremists have failed and nobody knows what their names are but the entire world is familiar with Faiz and his companions. “Those who stood by Faiz have been remembered and awarded with prestigious rewards for their deeds,” they said.
Eminent Indian intellectual Dr Ali Jawaid in his address said that some sections of the society try to impose on others the idea that there is a conflict between different civilisations today. “However, we do not accept that idea and believe that civilisations never collided against the other but always attracted each other with love and harmony,” he added.
He said that Faiz’s message could only be promoted if it is implemented in letter and spirit because he was a poet of humanity and peace.
