OIC has failed to counter propaganda against Muslims: Mirwaiz

Srinagar: Chairman Hurriyat Conference (M) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq Friday said the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) had failed to counter the “global propaganda campaign” to link the problems of Muslims with terrorism and Islam.
“Be it Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq, Syria or Bahrain, attempts are being made to link the issues in Muslim countries with terrorism without anyone bothering to look at the political and economic context. Several organizations are running a global campaign to defame Islam and Muslims,” Mirwaiz said addressing a Friday gathering at Jamia Masjid.
“Unfortunately, due to uncertainty and mistrust, the OIC members have failed to devise a strategy to counter this propaganda campaign against Muslims,” he said.
“The OIC which along with the UN is an important world organization has failed to fulfill its duty of highlighting the problems of Muslims,” Mirwaiz said.
Mirwaiz said it was the responsibility of Islamic scholars and clerics to highlight the economic and political issues of Muslims. He said being Muslims Kashmiris could not shut their eyes to the woes of their brethren in other Muslim countries.
Condemning the “harassment” of Kashmiris in different parts of India, Mirwaiz alleged that Kashmiri students and traders were being implicated in “fake” cases to dub the “peaceful freedom struggle as terrorism”.
Referring to the arrest of two Kashmiri youth in Delhi and Jharkhand, Mirwaiz said that such incidents are orchestrated to halt the peace process between India and Pakistan. “Whenever India and Pakistan try to move forward, the security agencies and police in India up with the fake stories of Kashmiri people being involved in plotting bombs, etc. But the truth is that our movement is completely peaceful movement,” he said.
“As far as the Indo-Pak subcontinent is concerned, the Kashmir issue is tormenting the people of the region and will continue to do so unless all the parties to the dispute show political maturity and resolve. Since 1947, several agreements have been signed but no progress could be made vis-à-vis the resolution of Kashmir issue,” he said.
“While the improvement of trade ties between India and Pakistan is a welcome sign, both the countries need to understand that peace and stability will continue to elude the region until the Kashmir issue is resolved according to the wishes and aspirations of Kashmiri people,” Mirwaiz added.
“Proposals to resolve the Kashmir issue through talks and harassment, arrests of kashmiri students, traders under fake charges in different parts of India cannot go hand in hand. Hurriyat wants to reiterate its stated position that unless steps are taken to improve the ground situation in Jammu and Kashmir no dialogue process to resolve the issue will succeed,” he said. (KMW NEWS)