Pakistan religious body wants to include Jihad verses in syllabus

An Islamic religious body in Pakistan on Wednesday demanded the government to include Quranic verses about importance of jihad in the proposed school curriculum.

The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) raised serious concerns over not including verses about jihad in the proposed syllabi for public educational institutions. The CII chairman Maulana Muhammad Khan Sheerani said that that the Federal Education and Professional Training Ministry should include the verses about importance of jihad in curriculum.

The council also asked the four provinces to make the teaching of the Holy Quran as a compulsory subject from grade one to 12. The issues of verses about jihad and teaching of Quran was raised when the government presented a draft of proposed curriculum before the CII, which is constitutional body, to suggest measures for implementation of Islam in the country.

According to CII sources the members of the religious body were not happy to leave an important topic like jihad out of teaching course being set for students. "484 verses of jihad are mentioned in the Quran, but they were deliberately not included in the syllabus so students could not be taught about it," CII member Maulana Zahid Qasmi told media. "I personally conveyed my reservation over the proposed draft," he said.