New Delhi: All India Imam Organisation (AIIO) head Umer Ahmed Ilyasi has called RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat “rashtra pita” after the two met at a mosque in Delhi Thursday.
All India Imam Organisation chief Umer Ahmed Ilyasi terms Mohan Bhagwat ‘rashtra pita’, says we all believe nation comes first
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) September 22, 2022
“We all believe that the nation comes first,” the chief imam said after the interaction, promoted as the Sangh’s outreach initiative towards the Muslim community.
“Our DNA is the same, only our method of worshipping god is different,” Ilyasi added, saying Bhagwat had accepted his invitation to visit a madrasa later in the afternoon.
The imam said: “Mohan bhagwat is the father of the nation and the head of the largest social organisation. The chief talked to the children about what is taught in the madrasa.”
At the Azad Market Madrasa Tajweedul Quran in Old Delhi, Bhagwat also told students they “were the future of the country”.
Madrasa director Mahmudul Hasan told news agency ANI: “He stayed in the madrasa for about an hour and met the teacher and the children.”
Earlier Thursday — at the AIIO headquarters inside the Kasturba Gandhi Marg mosque — Bhagwat and senior Sangh functionaries had a closed-door meeting with the imam which lasted over an hour.
Sharing details, Ahmed Ilyasi’s brother Suhail said: “It was great that Bhagwatji came on our invitation on the death anniversary of our father. It also sends out a good message to the country.”
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief has recently held discussions with Muslim intellectuals to strengthen communal harmony in the country.
He met Delhi’s former Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, former chief election commissioner S. Y. Quraishi, former chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University Lieutenant General Zameer Uddin Shah, former MP Shahid Siddiqui and businessman Saeed Shervani to discuss a range of issues that has divided the two communities.