Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri has said that terrorism has adversely impacted the economies of the developing and the developed countries. Terrorists have no religion. The phenomenon of terrorism has not appeared suddenly out of nowhere. Rather it has evolved through the phases of radicalism and extremism and terrorists are used as fodder for the cannons of the masterminds of this evil. He said that there are five phases through which terrorism passes. Radical and conservative attitudes are ideological in nature and give birth to militancy and terrorism.

According press statement issued by the Directorate of Media, Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri expressed these views while addressing the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Geneva. He is the only Islamic scholar from across the world who has been invited to speak at the World Economic Forum. Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri said that terrorism has no religion and bracketing this anti-human practice with such peaceful religion as Islam is not correct. He further added that the handful of extremists who are the present-day custodian of the Kharjitte thought have nothing to do with Islam. “Those who cause havoc and mayhem through shedding of innocent blood are the criminals who deserved to be meted out exemplary punishment”, he said.

He underlined the need of understanding the Islamic concept of Jihad in correct perspective. Jihad, he said, represents the culmination of efforts made for the establishment of peace and has five broad categories namely spiritual, intellectual, social, political, and defensive. Islam, he maintained, strictly forbids bringing any harm to unarmed people, women, and the old during the course of war. The actions of handful of bigoted elements cannot be dubbed as Jihad. He said that Islam does not recommend any Jihad, which allows people to do suicide bombings and slaughter innocent people.

Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri said that the root causes of terrorism need to be addressed if terrorism is to be eliminated comprehensively. He stressed the need of taking urgent steps for eradication of poverty from the developing world. He further said that the policy of associating terrorism with religions should be abandoned as no religion of the world including Islam approves of violence and the killing of humanity. He said that in order to bring the humanity closer, there is a need to launch interfaith dialogue among civilizations and build bridges. “This calls for highlighting commonalities,” he concluded. Imran Khan, chairman of Tehreek-i-Insaaf, also attended the meeting of the World Economic Forum.