ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: To counter narratives of Islamophobia, propaganda against Islam and the Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) through high powered National Rehmatul-lil-Alameen Authority (NRA), Prime Minister Imran Khan has appointed Dr. Ijaz Akram, a prominent scholar of religion and comparative religious studies with teaching experience in the world over universities, as the Chairman of NRA under the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training Islamabad.
Furthermore, to seek advice and guidance of esteemed international and national scholars on Seerat, the prime minister has also constituted a 10 members Advisory Council comprising of Hamza Yusuf, Dr. Sayyed Hussain Nasr, Muhammad Faghfoorey, Dr. Joseph Lumbard, Waleed al Ansari, Dr. Anees Ahmed, Dr. Atta ur Rehman, Barrister Nusret Majid, Dr. Basit Koshul and Dr. Sahibzada Sajid Rehman.
As a Patron-in-Chief of this noble initiative, the prime minister is directly supervising the authority as he is calling meetings of NRA around three times a week and making all out efforts to highlight tolerance, ethical behaviour, rule of law, respect to minority, kind and respectful attitude towards women and character building in line with Seerat of dearest Prophet PBUH.
There are six thematic members of the NRA which will work in areas like Research, International Linkages, role of media, redefining curriculum, outreach, and social justice and it’s progress is reviewed every week by the prime minister himself.
The National Rehmatul-lil-Alameen Authority will also review the national curriculum to incorporate Seerat of Holy Prophet PBUH, rich values of Islam, and ethics in it.
To highlight different aspects of Islam and Seerat, the NRA will organize national and international events to develop an emphatic counter-narrative of Islamophobia.
The efforts and keen engagement of the prime minister with the support of an able and accomplished team, which is capable of reaching out and influencing hundreds of millions of young and old people alike, at a global level is definitely going to generate desired results.
It will be more feasible if other key stakeholders and institutions come to provide strength to this noble and well-meaning project.
