Islamabad | September 02, 2004 1:52:05 PM IST
Former Malaysian prime minister Dr Mahatir Mohammad has said that madarsas and religious leaders were responsible for the backwardness of the Muslims. He squarely blamed them of promoting hatred in the community to meet their petty political goals.
In an interview with Pakistan-based GEO TV, Mahatir said the so-called Muslims leaders and the Ulema have distorted the image of Islam by misleading the people through their teachings of hatred.
"Muslim leaders want to use religion for their own personal gain perhaps, and some Ulema would like to be in the position of influence and even to have power. And, because that would constitute politics and because of politics many of them have been deflected in order to keep their followers and keep their positions. They are not actually looking at the Islamic Ummah as a whole but merely at their position in the community," The News quoted him as saying in the interview.
He said that the Ulema want the people to remain dependent upon them.
The ex-PM added that the biggest mistake the Muslims were making today was that they were not following the teachings of Islam. For over 1400 years there have been so many interpreters of Islam that they have now confused the Ummah completely, he said adding "We are now so divided that we are quite ready to fight and kill each other."
Coming down heavily on the (negative) role played by the madarasas, he said financing of such reigious schools should be stopped.
Citing his country's example, he said: "We discovered that they were not teaching religion at all, they were teaching politics, the politics of hatred and we see no reason why we should support institutions that say one thing and do another. And this is very harmful because what they teach is how to hate other Muslims and that is against the teachings of Islam." (ANI)