Clerics: Spread Shariah to all Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, April 20 (UPI) -- A Pakistani cleric says a government deal to allow Islamic law in the Swat Valley will open the way for its installation in other parts of the country.

Cleric Sufi Mohammed, in a televised speech Sunday, defied Pakistan's federal judiciary by saying he would not allow any appeals to state courts of decisions made under the system of Shariah, or Islamic law, approved for the Swat Valley as part of peace deal signed by President Asif Ali Zardari, The Washington Post reported.

"The Koran says that supporting an infidel system is a great sin," Mohammed said of Pakistan's modern democratic institutions, adding that in Swat, all "un-Islamic laws and customs will be abolished," and suggesting that the accord will enable Shariah to be instituted in other areas.

Coupled with a call Friday from freed radical cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz to spread Shariah nationwide, an unprecedented religious challenge to Pakistan's modern state authority seemed to be building, the newspaper said.

"The government made a big mistake to give these guys legal cover for their agenda," Rifaat Hussain of Quaid-i-Azam University told the Post. "Now they are going to be battle-ready to struggle for the soul of Pakistan."