India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI—Expressing serious concern over the sectarian forces having unleashed false propaganda targeting Muslim religious places, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has come down heavily on the Central and state governments, apart from the so-called secular political parties, for not performing their duties with regard to countering the hate-mongers.
AIMPLB is the apex Muslim body representing Muslims of all schools of Islamic thought. The basic objective of the board is to make effort to protect the religious rights of the Muslim community in India.
The board also expressed its disappointment with the courts.
The board made these remarks at its working committee meeting held online last night.
The meeting was held to discuss the “attitude of the sectarian forces towards Varanasi’s Gyanvapi Masjid and other mosques and holy places of Muslims.”
The board felt that the Central and state governments, which have a constitutional responsibility to enforce the Constitution and law, were silent on the issue.
The board felt that the political parties that called themselves “secular,” were also not coming forward to oppose the sectarian forces the way they should have done.
Asking the “secular” parties to clarify their position, the board hoped that secular parties would raise their voice for the protection of the Constitution and the country’s secular character.
The board alleged that the “courts are also disappointing the minorities and the oppressed.”
And “because of this, the sectarian forces that have taken the path of lawlessness, are getting encouraged,” the board said in a statement.
The statement released on Wednesday was signed by Dr. Mohammad Vaquar Uddin Latifi.
The board members said that despite a stay order by the Allahabad High Court passed an order restricting the entry of Muslims and offering of ‘namaz’ inside the Gyanvapi mosque. “This is extremely disappointing and disturbing,” the board pointed out.
The board also constituted a legal committee to look into the 1991 Act on places of worship and the decision regarding the Babri Masjid and to present the case effectively. The committee will review in detail all the cases related to mosques and take appropriate legal action.
The board also decided to launch a peaceful peoples’ movement, if needed, by taking into confidence the members of other minority communities for protecting religious places of worship and other holy places.
Asking the government to clarify its position on the 1991 Act on places of worship, the board alleged that the “government’s silence on such incidents is a criminal act, which cannot be accepted in any way.”
The board asked the preachers and scholars of the mosques to highlight the issues about the importance of the mosques in their weekly Friday sermons for the next three weeks.
The board appealed to Muslims to be patient and present their cases to the people without any provocation.
Board general secretary Khalid Saifullah Rahmani conducted the meeting and its president Syed Mohammed Rabey Hasani Nadvi presided over it. Others who took part in the meeting included Jamaat-e-Islami Hind president Syed Sadatullah Husaini, Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi, Welfare Party of India president Dr. Qasim Rasool Ilyas, advocate Tahir Hakim and Mrs. Atiya Siddiqua and Mrs. Fathima Muzaffar.
