Markaz Dawa-Wal-Irshad

The Markaz (Centre for Preaching) was set up in the town of Muridke outside Lahore by a former professor of engineering at the University of Engineering and Technology aka "UET", Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and his fellow Prof. Zafar Iqbal.

Spread over several hectares, in Muridke a small city which is 30 km for the city of Lahore. The Markaz soon became known for preaching Salafi views of Islam. It includes a large Islamic School, a Science College, a large Horse Farm, Colonies for people, Markets. In fact it is a small city within a city.After the attacks of Sept.11 USA was pushing pressure on Pervaiz Musharraf regime to take actions against Islamists. Before the banning of Lashker-e-Tayba in Jan 2002, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed in Dec of 2001 made a new organization "Jamat-ud-Dawa". He was elected Head of it. Since then very little is known or heard about "Lashker-e-Tayba". Jamat-ud-Dawah has devoted itself mainly only to do preaching of Islam or Social Work. It has done a lot of relief work in natural disasters of Pakistan such as femine of "Thar", flood of Sindh, Masnsehra and now specially in the Quake hit areas of Pakistan. Since they are very much familiar with the terrain of Kashmir and the nature of local Kashmiri people. Even Foreign Ngo's are asking them for help to distribute relief items. [http://www.dawakhidmat.org Ad-Dawa relief] More info about it can be seen on their official website i.e. [http://www.jamatdawa.org Jamat-ud-Dawa] It's annual congregations attracted as many as 500,000 people." [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3181925.stm BBC] "Jamat-Dawa" is involving itself into more and more social work across the country from digging wells in the desert areas to building clinics in the remote villages. The organization frequently held "Medical Seminars" inviting specialists Doctors. Currently they are doing vaccination of the "Hepatitis B" at the much much discounted prices. Overall people of Pakistan including minorities have very good and generous feelings towards "Jamat ud Dawa". The in the favour of Jamat-ud-Dawa all over Pakistan. The protesters express their grief and anger on the recent USA ban on "Jamat-ud-Dawa". The Pakistani Govt. also announced that it will not ban "Jamat-ud-Dawah" as not a single case has ever registered regarding it's activities in Pakistan.