Stop Muslims from offering 'namaz' at disputed sites: Shia Waqf Board's new suggestion to AIMPLB

Lucknow: Dr Waseem Rizvi, the UP Shia Central Waqf Board (UPSCWB) chief, has now given a fresh suggestion to the All India Muslim Personal Board (AIMPLB) that Muslim community members should not offer 'namaz' at the disputed religious sites.

In a letter shot off to Maulana Rabe Hasan Nadvi, the AIMPLB chairman, Rizvi claimed that there are at least nine disputed religious places across the country - four in Uttar Pradesh, two in Gujarat, one each in West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. 

He urged the board to stop Muslims from offering namaz at these sites since they are disputed.

Dr Rizvi said that there is enough historical evidence to prove that these mosques were constructed forcibly by the Muslim rulers on lands belonging to Hindu temples.

Dr Waseem Rizvi pointed out that Islamic laws do not allow construction of a mosque on a land grabbed by destroying other religious structures. “Prayers offered at such mosques are not accepted under Quran and Sharia,” he added.

Rizvi had earlier stalked claim on the disputed land in Ayodhya and offered to surrender the same to Hindus.

The UPSCWB had claimed that several mosques in Mathura, Varanasi and other religious places were built by Muslim rules after destroying temples built there.

The Shia Board chief had urged the Board to surrender nine religious places to Hindus, including Ram Janambhoomi in Ayodhya.

They are Babri mosque in Ayodhya, Keshav Dev Temple in Mathura, Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi, Atal Dev temple in Jaunpur (All in Uttar Pradesh), Rudra Mahalaya temple in Batna Gujarat, Bhadrakali temple in Ahmedabad Gujarat, Adina Mosque in Pandua West Bengal, Vijaya temple Vidhisha Madhya Pradesh and Mosque Kuvutul Islam Qutub Minar Delhi, he said in his letter.

Significantly, Shia Board made this demand a day after the Art of Living Founder Sri Sri Ravi Shanker made a similar statement in Varanasi and Gorakhpur urging Muslims to hand over Babri mosque land to Hindus. 

Sri Sri is mediating with litigants and religious heads of both communities to work out an out of court settlement to vexed land dispute, pending before the Supreme Court.

“Besides these nine mosques, there are scores of other mosques in the country which were built in a similar manner and should be handed over to Hindus as well,” demanded Dr Rizvi.

“Will you approve offering of ‘namaz’ at a mosque which is built on the land of other religion?” Rizvi asked Maulana Nadvi, who is considered as one of the most eminent Islamic scholars in the country.

Earlier, Shia Board had submitted an agreement in the Supreme Court in which it had offered to surrender disputed land in Ayodhya to Hindus for the construction of Ram temple and shifting of the mosque to Hussainabad in Lucknow.