By Asim Hussain
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister’s Special Representative for Interfaith Harmony and Middle East Hafiz Tahir Memood Ashrafi on Tuesday said the message of Hajj Sermon 2022 was peace and love.
Addressing the Paigham-e-Hajj Conference here, he said the interfaith dialogue had also been discussed in the divine command Holy Quran but some miscreants had tried to misinterpret the teachings of Islam which were completely based on religious coexistence.
Ashrafi who is also the chairman of Pakistan Ulema Council said they also attempted to make Sheikh Dr Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa controversial who delivered the Arafat Day Sermon at Namirah Mosque in order to create religious disharmony.
Shedding light on the religiopolitical significance of Sheikh Dr Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa, Ashrafi said he was secretary-general of the Muslim World League and member of the Council of Senior Scholars.
Regarding Hajj 2022, he said the world was expecting that the Hajj rites would be suspended due to coronavirus pandemic but the Saudi government, instead of suspending them completely, restricted to a tentative figure in 2020 and 2021 in a bid to save the Muslims from this viral infection.
He said although it was a gigantic task to organize the Hajj Operation 2022 at a massive scale after the hiatus of two years, but by the grace of Allah Almighty and preventive measures adopted by the Saudi government to curb this deadly disease, not a single case of COVID-19 was reported during the pre and post Hajj operation.
He also appreciated the outstanding services of Saudi government, provided to the pilgrims during the Hajj rituals.
Ashrafi said ‘Road to Makkah’ project was the expression of strong love and affiliation of Saudi Arabia with Pakistan.
Through this project, the immigration process of pilgrims was conducted at the Islamabad International Airport, he said expressing the hope that the following facility would be expanded to other cities next year.
On American President Joe Biden’s visit to Jeddah, he said certain elements tried to propagate false notions amongst the Muslims on the globe but the way Saudi leadership raised the issue of Palestine in the conference was appreciative.
He made it clear that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia was on one page either it was the matter of Kashmir or Palestine.
Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the only united forum of Muslim countries, had the same stance on the Palestine and Kashmir issues since the day one and it would never change, he added.
He quoted Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal who said during his visit to Islamabad that Saudi Arabia was standing by Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir as it remained in the past.
He said the world knew that Saudi Arabia was at the helm of affairs of OIC and this year, it held two meetings in Islamabad giving loud and clear message on the Palestine and Kashmir issues.
He said Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman generously extended his all out support to Afghanistan when he was realized that Afghanistan and Pakistan’s future were correlated.
At the end, the participants offered ‘Fateha’ for the departed souls of Pakistan Army officers in the helicopter crash incident in Balochistan.
The event was attended by Saudi Ambassador Nawaf bin Al-Malki, Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Mufti Abdul Shakoor, Council of Islamic Ideology Chairman Dr Qibla Ayaz, Senate Deputy Chairman Mirza Muhammad Afridi and ambassadors of various countries and renowned Ulema and Mashaykh.
