President for unity to counter extremism and terrorism

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari Friday called for unity and harmony among the people for addressing the challenges of extremism and terrorism.

Addressing the concluding session of National Conference on Interfaith Harmony on "Living together with diversity - Interfaith and inter-cultural dialogue" organized by the Ministry of National Harmony here at Aiwan-e-Sadr, the President said he had been pleading with the world that the way the issue of terrorism was being addressed, would not lead it to success.

Among others the session was also attended by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

The President said, "We believe in tolerant Islam and have to counter those, who believe in hate, with peaceful efforts."

Referring to the fight against terror in Afghanistan, the President said more than three decades of war could not bring peace and Pakistan was the worst affected by turmoil in Afghanistan.

He said there was time when no one in Pakistan could think of blowing himself up as a bomber as Islam was against suicide.

People at that time lived in peace and harmony and there were no sectarian issues but then global politics changed the situation when religion was used as a weapon of war, he added.

He said there was a need for adopting the approach of peace and reconciliation to eliminate the menace of extremism and terrorism.

President Zardari said that the world has not yet fully realized the dangerous consequences of using religion and faith as a weapon of war.

He said that after witnessing the dire consequences of using religion as a tool to win wars, the world cannot afford to allow anyone use the religion for their vested interests.

Spokesperson to the President Senator Farhatullah Babar while giving details said that the President in his speech recalled the prescient words of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto during a conversation with George Bush when she had said that a veritable Frankenstein was being created to defeat the rival ideology.

Spokesperson said that the President during his speech dilated upon how militants were created and nurtured by the international community to defeat a rival ideology and the same militants had turned on its creators as was predicted by Shaheed Benazir Bhutto.

The President said that it was disturbing to see that the values of tolerance and harmony were fast eroding during present times.

He said the extremists have destroyed the peace in the name of religion. He said that extremism was not confined to any one religion or country. It was growing the world over and was an alarming trend.

Recalling his meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in the UAE in January 2010, the President said that he had appealed to UN Secretary General that the United Nations should work out special plans for promoting cultural and religious harmony.

He said that he made that appeal because we believe that rationality and sanity were fast eroding.

"We must act before rationality is completely destroyed," the President continued.

The President said that Pakistan fully supports the universal values of tolerance and harmony promoted by the UN.

That is why, he said, we urge the UN to take practical steps for promoting religious harmony and tolerance.

The President said that the values of tolerance and harmony cannot be divided into Islamic or Christian.

Efforts for promotion of tolerance and harmony must be across the religious and geographical divides.

"We must guard against making exceptions and selectivity. Exceptions and selectivity will not promote harmony. If anything, it will only further increase it," he said.