The spate of terrorism, killings, wars, violence, mischief and anti-humanity and heinous actions such as suicide bombing, which have enveloped the humanity for last two decades, has plunged the world in perpetual anxiety and pain. This is an international phenomenon, which is being funded and sponsored by various powers for their ulterior objectives. This scourge is not confined to any particular region, country, sect or a nationality. Rather, it has undermined the peace of the whole world. It is unfortunate that in addition to the youths belonging to Islamic world, those living in the UK, Canada, and America etc., who do not have conceptual clarity about Islamic teachings, are getting attracted to terrorism and extremism presuming it to be Jihad.

The second irksome issue in this regard is that the terrorist groups bracket their heinous and reprehensible objectives with Islamic concept of Jihad. They talk about imposition of Islamic system with the same terrorist and militant mindset. They raise lofty and attractive slogans couched in Islamic symbols, describe the restoration of Islamic Caliphate as their topmost objective, and try to justify their actions through self-styled interpretation of Islamic teachings and jurisprudence. They quote the text of the Holy Quran and Hadith out of context in order to win over the support and sympathy of ordinary Muslims in general and the youth in particular.

No region of the world has remained safe from the harmful effects of terrorist activities undertaken by the terrorists groups in the name of Islam. The worst human rights violations are being committed with abandon in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Sudan at the global level. The people are being killed in a variety of ways including through mass killings, and beheading which are filmed and posted on the internet to spread terror in the world. Pakistan is not safe from this scourge either. If on the one hand, personnel of the security forces are beheaded and their severed heads are kicked around like football, the hair-splitting and heart-rending incident of mass killing of schoolchildren in Army Public School is committed in Peshawar on the other hand. This is not merely a problem of one country; rather it is a global issue. Whether it is 9/11 in the US, or 07/07 in the UK, or Taj Mahal incident in India, or Charlie Hebdo in France, or mass killings of university students in Kenya, or brutality of terrorist organizations in Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Libya or relentless attacks on Bazars, Mosques, markets or military installations in Pakistan for last two decades, there is one common thing among all of these terrorist and militant organizations that have perpetrated these actions of violence. It is that they have carried out all of these terrorist incidents in the name of Jihad and have tried to justify their actions by interpreting the teachings of Islamic in their own manner to suit their evil designs.

In this backdrop, the situation demands that every segment of society is trained and prepared against militancy, terrorism and extremism at the global level in the light of universal truths and Islamic teachings; practical steps are taken to tackle radicalism from society so that intellectual and ideological sources of terrorists are eliminated at the same time. Moreover, authentic and cogent literature questioning and rejecting the very basis and rationale of terrorist thoughts and ideas is supplied to every segment of society according to its need. The manifest aim of this exercise is to enable the societies to overcome terrorism, radicalism and militancy. It is to be kept in mind that in the battle of hearts and minds, it is the superior idea alone which can kill the inferior idea.