Demand for his arrest intensify
WEB DESK
MUSLISMS across India are outraged over the former Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board chairman Waseem Rizvi remarks and filing of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court demanding deleting 26 Ayats (verses) from the Holy Quran.
Sunni and Shia Ulema have demanded his immediate arrest for hurting the religious sentiments of the Muslims. They have lashed out at Rizvi for the blasphemous move.
They also said that not a single word of the Quran has been changed over the last 1400 years.
“The Holy Quran is the word of Allah and the sacred book in Islam. And even if Muslims have different sects and schools of thought, all of them have a firm belief that this is the final book revealed by Allah to his last Prophet (SAW) and that not a single word has been altered or tampered with in the Quran since its revelation some 1400 years ago,” said Maulana Wali Rahmani, the general secretary of All India Muslim personal law board.
“Rizvi’s outrageous remarks of recommending omission of certain verses of the Holy Quran and his appeal in the court are not only condemnable but unpardonable as well. This vile man has shown disregard for the Holy Quran and hurt the sentiments of millions of Muslims across the globe. We condemn his acts and urge the government to put him behind the bars immediately,” said a spokesman of Majlis-e-Ulmae Imamia kashmir in a statement.
The spokesman said Rizvi is an agent of anti-Muslim forces and with the CBI investigating corruption in the waqf board; he is doing all in his imagination to hold on to their support.
Reacting over it, Raza Academy, a Mumbai-based organization approached the apex court with a request to dismiss the petition.
It also urged the court to pass strictures against Rizvi for hurting religious sentiment, the Times of India reported.
They also said that not a single word of the Quran has been changed over the last 1400 years.
Urging the apex court to dismiss the plea, the General Secretary of All India Muslim Personal Law Board Maulana Mahmood Daryabadi said that violence is not supported by any verse of the Quran.
Meanwhile, Maulana Kalbe Jawad, General Secretary of Majlis-e-Ulama-e-Hind and Maulana Khalid Rasheed Farangimahali, Imam of Aishbagh Eidgah demanded Rizvi’s arrest for trying to create a rift between two communities.
“We strongly condemn the recent statement of Wasim Rizvi of Lucknow, against the Holy Book Quran. This man has become a tool of conspiracies of the enemies against Islam & Shiaism. Indian Muslims have already kicked him out of their midst and he has been excommunicated from Islam”, tweeted Ittehadul Muslimeen President Maulana Masroor Abbas Ansari.
Top Shia leader and former minister Aga Ruhullah Mehdi called Rizvi a servant of Sangh. “I don’t believe in Takfir, but this person, Wasim (not) Rizvi has brazenly let his belief known and his belief is absolutely not that of a Muslim. He is a known servant of Sangh and I suggest he should be left alone,” he tweeted.
In the petition, Rizvi had claimed that these 26 verses were inserted by the first three caliphs, Hazrat Abu Bakr, Hazrat Umar, and Hazrat Usman. He also alleged that terrorists use these verses to promote jihad.
In November 2020 CBI has registered two FIRs against Wasim Rizvi, former chairman of Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board, and has taken over the investigation into alleged illegal sale, purchase and transfer of Waqf properties in Allahabad and Kanpur.
The state government had referred two FIRs registered by the Uttar Pradesh police – a 2016 case registered in Allahabad and a 2017 case registered in Lucknow – against Rizvi and others in connection with the case.
This development comes after the Centre gave permission to the CBI to proceed with the case.
Waseem Rizvi had allegedly allowed illegal constructions at Imambara Ghulam Haider in the Tripolia area of Allahabad and another board property off GT Road. The government had stopped the work but constructions resumed without its knowledge after a few months.