Islam is ‘religion of peace’ no place for violence in Malawi — Jakhura

The chairperson of Limbe Muslim Jamaat Abdul Gaffar Jakhura has said the  peace and stability in the country could only be susta8ned by strictly adhering to Islamic ideology is ensuring peaceful campaign and voting process.

During prayers at Mpingwe Sports Club in Limbe, Blantyre, to celebrate the end of Ramadan with the Eid-ul-Fitr festival on Friday, Jakhula said that Islam was the religion of peace and love which could be ensured in the country by strictly following the teaching of Holy Quran and Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) in a true spirit.

Jakhura prayed for a non-violent and impartial next year’s Tripartite Elections, “for the good of the nation.”

Said Jakhura: “Islam is a religion of peace and as we prepare for the forthcoming elections, as Muslims, we urge the leaders [political] and prospective voters to exercise peace throughout the electoral process.

“Co-existence must at all times prevail while we pray that everyone looks at the need for next year’s elections to be peaceful, fair and credible for the progress of our nation.”

He said Islam was the religion which could lead humanity towards lasting achievement of peace and harmony.

But a critic argue that Islam is not peaceful and truth is there for all to see.

“To claim that people who punish people by killing them for blaspheming Islam while shouting ‘Allah is greatest’ has ‘nothing to do with Islam’ is madness. Because the violence of the Islamists is, truthfully, only to do with Islam: the worst version of Islam, certainly, but Islam nonetheless,’’ wrote Douglas Murray in the Spectator magazine.

“Islam is not a peaceful religion. No religion is, but Islam is especially not. It is certainly not, as some ill-informed people say, solely a religion of war. There are many peaceful verses in the Quran which — luckily for us — most Muslims live by. But it is by no means only a religion of peace.

“I say this not because I hate Islam, nor do I have any special animus against Muslims, but simply because this is the verifiable truth based on the texts. Until we accept that we will never defeat the violence, we risk encouraging whole populations to take against all of Islam and abandon all those Muslims who are trying desperately to modernise, reform and de-literalise their faith. And — most importantly — we will give up our own traditions of free speech and historical inquiry and allow one religion to have an unbelievable advantage in the free marketplace of ideas,” he wrote.

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