[Reader-list] Islamic groups block shaving contest

[Pawan Durani]

http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/pakistan/Islamic-groups-block-shaving-contest/Article1-525565.aspx

The banned Jamaat-ut Dawah (JuD) organisation, along with other
religious parties in Karachi, have prevented the holding of a
promotion event organised by a leading multinational company for its
shaving razors by ransacking the venue.

The competition, organised by Gillette Pakistan, was supposed to
create a local record of number of people shaving at the same time.
Just as the event was about to get underway, JuD activists forcibly
entered the Expo Centre and disrupted the proceedings. They then
staged a protest outside the Expo Centre and shouted slogans against
the company.

“Anything contradictory to the principles of Islam would not be
accepted in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” Qari Muhammad Usman
told men who started converging at the centre. “It is blasphemous and
the criminals should be punished.”

He also called on people to boycott the MNC and its products. The
event was a follow up to a competition held in Mumbai in which 1,700
people had participated, organisers said.

According to the organisers more than 2,600 participants had entered
the hall and the shaving kits had been distributed when some police
officials and expo centre administration first switched off the lights
of the hall and then informed the organisers that they could not be
allowed to carry on with their work as the centres administrators had
been constantly receiving threats from some unknown people.