Musharraf rakes up Kashmir at OIC meet

Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Thursday again raked up the Kashmir issue, saying the "plight" of the people of Jammu and Kashmir is a "core Islamic cause."

Addressing the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Conference in Putrajay, Musharraf stuck to his usual anti-India rhetoric and oft-repeated demand of right of "self-determination" for the people of J&K.

Contending that India's "confrontation with Pakistan is dangerous and pointless", Musharraf said his country "will never submit to Indian military coercion or blackmail."

Seeking to draw parallels between the Kashmir and Palestinian issues, he said, "The plight of the people of J&K is also a core Islamic cause. They are struggling-like the people of Palestine for their right of self-determination recognised and promised to them in a series of Security Council resolutions."

Musharraf referred to his action plan for peace with India proposed by him at the UN General Assembly and said, "Unfortunately, India has rejected it." He urged the OIC persuade India to reconsider its stand.

Noting that suppression of people has intensified, power asymmetries were widening and with terrorism spreading, Musharraf said the Islamic world was in the vortex of this emerging global crisis. "Most of those under foreign occupation are Muslim people. Witness the tragedies of Palestine and of Kashmir. Witness the wanton attack against Syria and last year's coercive diplomacy against Pakistan."

Observing that Islamic nations were being perceived as sponsors of terrorism and proliferators of weapons of mass destruction, Musharraf said, "Terrorists and extremists do not represent Islam and Muslims."

The Pakistani military ruler, who has been under pressure from the US for not taking enough steps to curb terrorism, said some mosques and madrasas were being misused to propagate extremist version "of our moderate religion."

Their acts of violence, perpetrated in the name of Islam, were "abhorrent and unacceptable. We must not allow them to hijack our religion, to preach religious and sectarian hatred with impunity, and to tarnish the image of Islam and Muslims."

He regretted that Muslims were being subjected to "discrimination and exclusion" and said, "This insidious thesis of an inevitable clash of civilization - between Islam and the West - is being openly propounded".