New Delhi: The Ittehad-e-Millat Council (IMC) will launch a nationwide protest against the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) if it did not take back its decision to file a review of the Ayodhya verdict, said IMC president Maulana Tauqeer Raza on Wednesday.
IMC is an organisation of Bareilly clerics. Speaking at a press conference Maulana Tauqeer Raza alleged that the decision is not of Muslims but a handful of active politicians, who have hijacked the Board and are acting on the behest of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Nirmohi Akhada.
Hindustan Times quoted him as saying, “Muslims did not lose the case. The Supreme Court has ruled that the Babri Mosque was not built by demolishing a temple. It is the VHP and the Nirmohi Akhada who are losers in the case as the land would now be given to a trust to build the Ram Temple and the AIMPLB was acting as a proxy to help their cause.”
Slamming the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi and AIMPLB office-bearers Maulana Wali Rahmani, Zafaryab Jilani and Qasim Rasool Ilyas for raising the issue of review, the IMC chief accused them of muzzling the opinion of other members who were against the decision.
Mr Raza revealed that Maulana Mahmood Madani (general secretary of Jamiat-e-Ulema Hind) and the Board president, Maulana Rabey Hasani Nadwi were against filing a review of the verdict. He said Maulana Madani had to leave the meeting midway as he was not listened to.
“We will not allow these people with vested interests in the AIMPLB to vitiate the communal atmosphere in the country,” said Raza.
However, Raza is of the opinion that the Board should not accept the five-acre alternative land in Ayodhya given to the Sunni Waqf Board by the SC because a mosque could not be built on a donated or gifted land.
“Shariah laws state that a mosque can only be constructed on a land whose ownership vests with it.” He said. He, however, said apart from a mosque, a school or a hospital, any other structure of community welfare could also be built on this land.