Lucknow: He is fast becoming Salman Rushdie of India. Not for writing controversial books but for his alleged unislamic acts and utterances in the media. Waseem Rizvi, the former Chairman of UP Central Shia Waqf Board, is under fire from Muslims all over the country for filing a petition in the Supreme Court pleading to remove 26 verses from the holy book Quran.
Enraged over his unislamic demand, Muslims in Lucknow took to streets outside Bara Imambara in protest against Rizvi’s act of approaching the Supreme Court against their Holy book Quran.
Choicest expletives were used against the erring ex-Chairman. A few Musim youth reached his Hayat Mazar (land for grave bought during life-time) and damaged marble stones to vent their grouse against him.
Clerics from both Sunni and Shiite Muslim sects have condemned his act and issued fatwa against Rizvi calling community members to ostrasize him from the community and Islam. Shia Cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad has urged the Supreme Court to reject his petition.
Maulana Jawad has sent a memorandum to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home minister Amit Shah and state government to arrest Rizvi for blasphemy and making an attempt to breach peace by vitiating the communal atmosphere in the country.
The Shia cleric has called upon Muslims to organize Tahafuz-e-Quran (in protection of the Quran) all over the country to save the sanctity of the holy book. Maulana Jawad said that Muslims will hold a demonstration at Jama Masjid in Delhi on coming Friday to protest against Rizvi’s act against Islam.
So much so that the National Commission for Minority (NCM) has served Rizvi a notice asking him to tender an unconditional apology to the Muslim community and directing him to withdraw his petition in the Supreme Court for removal of 26 verses from the Quran within 21 days.
Earlier, Waseem Rizvi had asked the All-India Shia Personal Law Board to surrender nine mosques, which he claimed were constructed on the ruins of temples, back to Hindus. This included Kashi and Mathura.
But Rizvi is unfazed by the hullabaloo against him. He has so far shown an unrelenting mood to withdraw his petition in the SC. “I have approached the Supreme Court as these 26 verses in Quran are violent in nature and against the basic tenets of Islam. Moreover, they were added after the death of Prophet Mohammed,” he claimed.
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