By IANS,
Deoband (Uttar Pradesh) : Urging terrorists and Maoist rebels to lay down arms, an Islamic cleric Tuesday assured them the community would help them take up their cause.
“If terrorists and Maoists agree to give up violence, they are welcome to join us and I would like to assure them that we will fight for them,” said Maulana Mehmood Madni, the convenor of the annual convention of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind organised at Deoband seminary here.
The convention also passed a resolution to oppose creation of a Central Madrassa Board, proposed by Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, with many speakers opposing any efforts by the government to “meddle” with the madrassas and stressing any change in the existing system and structure was “totally unacceptable” to them.
The clerics were not even impressed by the allocation of a Rs.700 crore annual grant proposed for the madrassas by Sibal.
Among the 25 other resolutions passed at the meet was the clerics’ opposition to reciting ‘Vande Mataram’, homosexuality and terrorism.
A resolution also demanded reservation in jobs for Muslims as well as implementation of recommendations of the Sachar Commission and Rangnath Misra Commission, while seeking a new legislation to equate communal violence with terrorism.