Pakistani madrassas declare suicide attacks un-Islamic

PESHAWAR: Some 2,000 Muslim scholars, teachers and administrators from madrassas across Pakistan on Tuesday declared suicide attacks un-Islamic and opposed enforcement of Sharia by force.

The first such gathering here also declared illegal and un-Islamic threats to hairdressers against shaving off beards and attacks on video shops in the name of curbing obscenity in North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan. They said such acts were a "conspiracy of some hidden powers".

The six-page declaration came as a radical madrassa, or religious school, in Islamabad launched a Taliban-style anti-vice campaign, triggering fears that the Islamic country was heading for "Talibanisation".

A hardline cleric from the capital's Red Mosque this month set up a self-styled Islamic court and issued a "fatwa" against the female tourism minister for hugging a French paragliding instructor after a charity jump in Paris.

Male and female students from schools attached to the mosque have launched anti-vice patrols targeting local music and video shops. They also briefly kidnapped two policemen and three women including an alleged brothel owner.

A declaration issued after the madrassa convention said "some hidden powers are engaged in suicide attacks against the Muslim administration of our country and the victims are our Muslim brothers".

"Such aggressive acts are not only illegal but also against Islamic Sharia, which can never be encouraged," it said.