Srinagar, Nov 29: All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman and Kashmir’s chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday said the surveys of religious places is an extremely disturbing and serious issue for the Muslims.
Speaking at the Friday congregation, at the historic Jamia mosque in Srinagar, Mirwaiz said, there seems to be a deliberate pattern in ordering these surveys.
“Five Muslim youth were killed in police firing during the survey of the 500-year-old Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh. The survey was ordered by the court….. While this matter was still ongoing, another court in Rajasthan’s Ajmer ordered the survey of the state’s iconic Ajmer Sharif Dargah of the revered Sufi saint Hazrat Moinuddin Chisti. Before that, the Gyanvapi Mosque is being surveyed under court orders,” he said.
“There seems to be a deliberate pattern where first doubts are raised, then the court orders surveys, and then majority claims have to be satisfied. The Babri Masjid issue, after such claims, followed by its demolition and how it was settled by courts, is fresh in the minds of Muslims,” the Chief Cleric said.
Mirwaiz said this is an extremely disturbing and serious issue for the Muslims of not only India and Kashmir but the subcontinent and the world over.
He said the shrine of the Hazrat Moinuddin, is revered by Muslims all over the world, where thousands of people visit daily.
“This 800-year-old shrine is linked to the history and culture of the spread of Islam in the Indian subcontinent. It holds special significance for the people of Kashmir, who visit the Dargah as a pilgrimage. Such actions backed by the judiciary and government deeply undermine the religious sentiments of crores of Muslims living in this part of the world.
If India is a secular state as per its preamble, run by a constitution which includes the Places of Worship Act, then why are such issues allowed to be raked up and entertained continuously?” the Hurriyat Conference Chairman asked. “People know the answer. But this is a dangerous trend that is being encouraged and can have very serious consequences.”
Mirwaiz said already, the issue of the Waqf amendment is worrying the Muslims in India, as also in J&K, for which the Muttaheda Majlis-e- Ulema (MMU), an amalgam of Muslim religious organizations in Jammu and Kashmir, has again sent a letter to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the matter asking for a meeting.
He said that the Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir, like Muslims of India and the subcontinent, are observing all this very concerningly, and if this mindset is not curbed, people’s backlash against these assaults will be entirely the responsibility of the authorities,” the chief cleric warned.–(UNI)
