Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan
Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP) or Clerical Party of Pakistan, is a political party participating in the government, desiring Islamic rule, opposing the current insurgency, but also having taken anti-Western positions.
In 1998, a JUP leader signed Osama bin Laden's fatwa declaring war against Crusaders and Zionists, essentially the U.S.[1] calling for jihad against "Crusaders and Jews", and, specifically, Americans.
The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim.
In 2009, however, it organized a conference of ulema, which condemned suicide attacks as contrary to Islamic law, and attacked the Taliban-aligned insurgency as bad for Pakistan and supporting its enemies. U.S. attacks on militants, however, were also condemned as violating Pakistan's sovereignty. It supported the all-parties conference called by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani.[2]
References
- ↑ Shaykh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin; Ayman al-Zawahiri, amir of the Jihad Group in Egypt Abu-Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, Egyptian Islamic Group; Shaykh Mir Hamzah, secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan; Fazlur Rahman, amir of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh (23 February 1998), Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders; World Islamic Front Statement
- ↑ Syed Irfan Raza (18 May 2009), "Suicide attacks are un-Islamic: Ulema", Dawn (Pakistan)