By IRNA

Srinagar : The United Jehad Council (UJC), the Muzaffarabad-based amalgam of militant groups operating in Kashmir, has expressed regret at the edict on terrorism issued by top Deoband clerics, saying that the fatwa was unilateral.

The chief rector of the Daar-ul-Uloom Deoband, one of the most influential Muslim seminaries in the sub-continent, Maulana Marghoob-ur-Rahman had issued a declaration at the end of an anti-terrorism conference Thursday, saying that Islam rejects terrorism in all forms and manifestations, and does not consider it legitimate.

Respected Kashmir daily the Kashmir Observer quoted UJC spokesman, Syed Sadaqat Hussain, as saying that the Maulana's edict was correct but unilateral because he had not made clear the distinction between terror and jehad fii sabeelilah or struggle in the way of God.

"To emphasize the distinction is essential because non-Muslim powers the world over label all movements launched to secure usurped rights from oppressors as terrorism," he said.

"In the holy Qur'an, the Almighty himself permits oppressed people to wage jehad," he said.

"We hold the ulema of Deoband in high esteem, but expected them to mention the armed struggles in Palestine, Kashmir, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Arakan in the light of Qur'anic proclamations on jehad fii sabeelilah or qitaal, and try to clear the misconceptions of the Indian people and the government.

"The ulema have totally ignored this, which is regrettable," he said.

The spokesman said that during the conference, Rajya Sabha member and a leader of the Jami'at-e-Ulama-e-Hind, Maulana Mahmood Madani, had described the US president, George W Bush, as the greatest terrorist of the world saying that he subjected Muslims to genocide and laid the blame of terrorism on the Muslims.

"This is entirely true, because President Bush is a great terrorist for his support to Israel against the Palestinians and killing Muslims by invading Iraq and Afghanistan," he said.

"If, for this, George Bush was given the appellation of terrorist, why did Maulana Madani not call the government of India a terrorist because India has illegally occupied an independent state by military might 60 years ago, and is grinding the wheel of oppression since by state terrorism," he said.

"Five lakh Kashmiri Muslims have been put to the sword in this period, thousands of women violated, thousands of youth subjected to enforced disappearances, lakhs disabled because of physical and mental torture, thousands of innocent people put behind bars, lakhs orphaned and widowed, and property worth arabs of rupees destroyed,' he said.

"The Maulana thinks it well to live life under a brutal, oppressive regime like India. But he should not have mixed up terrorism and jehad by issuing a unilateral edict to please the government of India," he said.

"Maulana Marghoob should know that jehad will continue till the day of judgment, and the people who are fighting occupying forces in Kashmir, Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq are practically fulfilling the obligations of struggle in the way of God," he said.