‘Treating jihadis as moral equivalents of George Washington destroys civilisation'

America’s erstwhile policy of referring to jihadi leaders in Afghanistan as the “moral equivalents of George Washington” was a policy that allowed warlords and criminals to destroy civilisations in the name of religion, President Asif Ali Zardari said on Friday.

He told the world leaders ttending the United Nations General Assembly that Pakistan had suffered greatly from terrorism and religious extremism. “Terrorism and extremism was not (previously) known to our society and culture. Religious extremism entered into our society and the region when all of us in the free world decided to confront the rival ideology. The policy was based on the exploitation of religion to motivate Muslims around the world to wage jihad,” he added. app