"They should have opposed Vande Mataram's adoption as a national song in 1957," he said.Īpparently, there is no scope for compromise on either side. Ali Mian also proposes to write to all Muslim members of Parliament to oppose the move. While protest notes have already been sent to President K R Narayanan and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a delegation of prominent Muslims proposes to meet Governor Suraj Bhan on November 27 to seek his intervention. Yesterday, Kalbe Sadiq convened a huge meeting of Shias after the Friday prayers at Lucknow's Imambara mosque "to mobilise public opinion". He clarified, "We are not against any other religion, but we are surely very sensitive about our own." We don't worship even our pirs (saints) or paigambars (prophets)." Maulana Sadiq made it clear: "We love India, but we cannot worship her."Īli Mian went a step further: "A Muslim ceases to be a Muslim if he stands with folded hands before a picture of Bharatmata to offer prayers. "Both Vande Mataram and Saraswati Vandana amount to worshipping the nation and the goddess of education, respectively, and Islam does not permit worship of anything other than Allah," they have pointed out. Significantly, the different Islamic schools of thought are unanimous on this subject. Several other Islamic bodies, including the Deeni Talimi Council which controls as many as 22,000 madarsas in Uttar Pradesh, lashed out at the BJP for attempting to "destroy the secular fabric of the nation". Personal Law Board vice-president Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, a renowned Shia scholar, also condemned the government's decision. This is closely connected with the lives of the entire Muslim community here."
He said, "The question of Babri Masjid was related to only one mosque. The usually reticent cleric has termed the issue "more important to Muslims than even the Babri Masjid".
He heads the Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulema in Lucknow, a leading centre of Islamic learning which draws students and scholars from around the globe. "It is not only against the tenets of Islam, but also against the secular spirit of the Constitution, wherein Article 28 explicitly allows everyone the freedom to practise his religion in his own desired manner," Ali Mian said.īesides being president of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, Ali Mian is also vice-president of the World Muslim League, and therefore widely respected in the Sunni world. Things came to a head when Maulana Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi aka Ali Mian publicly denounced the directive as un-Islamic. This is evident from the statements issued by members of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government in Lucknow and Muslim religious leaders.Ĭhief Minister Kalyan Singh - interestingly, he was also the CM when the 16th century mosque in Ayodhya was demolished by Hindu fanatics - is being accused of pursuing a 'Hindu agenda'.Ĭonsequently, the state government and the Muslim community have virtually locked horns, with leading Islamic scholars issuing fatwas (edicts) to the faithful to defy the directive.
Nearly six years after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the compulsory recitation of Vande Mataramand Saraswati Vandana in schools in Uttar Pradesh appears to be sharpening the Hindu-Muslim divide. Muslims, UP government in no mood to compromise Rediff On The NeT: The Vande Mataram-Saraswati Vandana controversy in UP