Pramod Chunchuwar | India Tomorrow
MUMBAI, AUGUST 19—Strongly condemning the violence in Bengaluru following a content defamatory to Islam in a Facebook post, a group of Muslim intellectuals in Maharashtra have demanded strong legal action against the perpetrators of the crime and their masterminds.
They also applauded the Muslim individuals and groups who formed a human chain around a temple in their locality to prevent any attempt at desecration.
However, they also said in a joint statement, that “any communally coloured action by state with vindictive motive will be counterproductive”.
They said that in a democracy, any group of aggrieved citizens have the right to protest, express their dissent through peaceful means. “But no individual, group or community can be allowed to take the law in their own hands. We, in particular, question the wisdom of Muslims who resorted to violence at a time when the community as a whole itself feels targeted and threatened”, they said in the statement.
“We appeal all the sections of the society to follow the peace and democratic norms. We should observe the norms where religious sentiments of any community should not be hurt and those who do that purposely, should be brought to justice”, the statement said.
Signatories to the statement are Justice (retd) Shafi Parker, former Member of Parliament and leader of Congress Party Hussain Dalwai, social activist P P Inamdar, Hasan Kamal, Javed Anand, Irfan Engineer(son of Asghar Ali Engineer), who is also head of Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS), academician and educationist Rehana Undre and well-known thinker and activist Gulam Peshimam.
A total of four persons died in the violence on August 11 night and 110 were arrested by the police.
