'Poet Iqbal's secularism can’t be confined within religious walls'

Srigar, May 3: It has been a sinister conspiracy to confine poet Iqbal’s secular glory within the four walls of religion, Jammu and Kashmir Education Minister eem Akhtar said here on Tuesday. Speaking at a function held to pay tribute to Urdu philosopher-poet Allama Iqbal at a women’s college on Maula Azad Road here, Akhtar said, “We have been unfair to Iqbal. We have reduced him to the level of a few slogans.”

“Whether it is ming a dhaba, a grocery store or a shopping centre, we catch hold of Iqbal’s me.” The minister said: “Iqbal is a river that is capable of taking both purity and pollution without offering any resistance.” “(It’s) unfortute that we Muslims have mostly, only made attempts to pollute that great river.”

He said Iqbal has been the most positive and modern thinker whose secularism knew no religious boundaries. “Iqbal has always been proud of his Kashmiri Brahmin forefathers.” “His concept of global competitiveness was such that he told his son towards the end of his life to find secular spaces by adopting modern methods and tools. How long can we bask in the glory of our past by invoking the greatness of our ancestors,” Akhtar asked. (IANS)