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Muslim bodies split on Ayodhya verdict review plea, community at odds with clergy

Some AIMPLB members back filing a review plea while Muslim intellectuals argue leadership's calls to 'move on' has no resonance on the ground.

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New Delhi: Three days after the Supreme Court’s unanimous verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit paved the way for a temple on the 2.77-acre disputed land in Ayodhya, there is a clear split in the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on whether to file a review petition against the judgment.

The board, which oversees Muslim personal laws in the country, will hold a meeting of its working committee members on 17 November to take a final call on the issue. On Saturday, just hours after the verdict, AIMPLB secretary and lawyer Zafaryab Jilani said while the board accepted the verdict, it was considering filing a review.

Sources in the AIMPLB, however, said some in the board don’t want to review the verdict. “There are some members who are certain that the court won’t deliver justice and going to them again with a review petition will serve no purpose,” a source in the board told ThePrint.

“The others who want to file a review petition believe that all the injustices and flaws in the verdict must be documented in the form of a petition,” the source added.

Some other prominent Muslim organisations are also against filing a curative plea.

Zufar Farooqui, chairman of the UP Sunni Waqf Board, one of the key Muslim parties in the title dispute case, issued a statement Saturday saying he “humbly accepted the verdict” and won’t be reviewing it.

Imam Ahmed Bukhari, the Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid, too has said he is against filing a review petition against the verdict, since it would just mean stretching the issue further.


Also read: Indifference, happiness, fear — mixed emotions in Old Delhi after Ayodhya verdict 


Unlike clergy, community at large can’t ‘move on’

Muslim intellectuals, however, say the sentiment in the community on the ground doesn’t mirror that of the clergy who are looking to “move on”.

“Muslims feel cheated by a large chunk of their leadership. They either don’t take positions that reflect the concerns of the larger community, or they keep taking U-turns,” said Syed Zubair Ahmad, editor of Muslim Mirror, a news portal that reports out of Delhi, Mumbai, Guwahati and Kolkata.

“RSS comes and asks Muslim leaders to maintain peace and calm,” Ahmad said. “Why is this expectation only from Muslims? The community is seeing and registering all of this.”

He was referring to the 5 November meeting between Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and several Imams, when the minister urged the clergy to send a message of ‘peace’ once the verdict is out. RSS leaders were also present at the meeting.

Ghazala Jamil, assistant professor of law and governance in JNU and author of Muslim Women Speak: Of Dreams and Shackles, said the variety in responses from Muslim organisations depicts precisely the slew of emotions that the community is presently feeling.

“They (Muslim leadership) express sadness, highlight the flaws in the judicial reasoning, reflecting that Muslims expected precisely this kind of verdict,” she said. “They express the fatalistic relief that any other verdict would have brought upon Muslims more majoritarian violence.”

She, however, sided with the leadership. “There maybe some nuanced disagreements but I don’t feel any disconnect between the community at large and the response of the leadership,” she said.


Also read: Owaisi says Muslims must reject SC’s ‘patronising’ offer of 5-acre land


Mixed view on why there is no spontaneous protests

After the verdict, there have been no spontaneous protests by the Muslim community, and experts say several factors are behind this.

“There are no protests against the verdict from the community because there isn’t a single leader who is calling for one,” Ahmad told ThePrint. “There needs to be some mobilisation for ordinary Muslims to be able to raise their voice.”

Jamil said the lack of protest from the community isn’t surprising as they “are feeling grievously wounded”.

Others, however, argued that one can’t rule out the possibility of protests by the community in the near future — the community may just be waiting out this period.

Zaheeruddin Ali Khan, managing editor of Siasat Daily, a leading Urdu daily based out of Hyderabad, said the Muslim community is giving the promises of ‘no repeat of Babri’ an honest chance.

“I spoke to at least 20-25 people from the community after the Ayodhya verdict,” Khan said. “Muslims know the reality and they are angry, but they are keeping quiet. The young people want to give the government an honest chance, and they also hope other religious places won’t meet the same fate as the Babri Masjid.”

“If there are attempts to repeat the 1992 demolition with some other religious place, the Muslim community won’t take it lying down.” he added.

In its verdict, the SC also stressed on the importance of the Religious Places of Worship Act, 1991, and noted that “historical wrongs cannot be remedied by the people taking the law in their own hands”.

Babri Masjid very much a pan-India issue’

The Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoombi dispute hasn’t just been an issue that concerns the people of Uttar Pradesh, its political and social ramifications have gone beyond the state’s borders.

‎P. Koya, the editor-in-chief of Thejas, Malayalam news daily in Kerala, said the verdict has definitely had a pan-India impact.

“Muslims in the southern states may not be living under as much fear but the Ayodhya verdict has affected them too,” Koya told ThePrint. “They are scared of what the future will hold, which is why we haven’t seen much protests from the community post the verdict.”

Koya added that there will definitely be some sort of protest in the time to come.

“People are just buying time and processing their emotions, but people from the Muslim community will certainly express their disappointment and grief in the time to come— through democratic means, of course,” he said.


Also read: 4 reasons why SC rejected Muslims’ claim on Ram Janmabhoomi site 


 

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5 COMMENTS

  1. A review petition should be filed. The genuine grievances with the verdict should be fully documented. It may also give the Hon. Supreme Court to formally address these issues, and if it can, then it would not be dismissed as biased forever to come.

  2. Hope the Muslim Community in India understand that Hindus have been more patiently waiting for a resolution of a known place of worship of their paramathma Shree Ram.

    Give on good reason that this shall not be repeated in Mathura and Kashi – it is more evident in these places that there existed a place of worship on which a Mosque was built, they should rather collectively return back Mathura and Kashi

  3. The Muslim Clergy is out of Sync Discredited in the eyes of Indian Muslims
    Religious Muslims are forming their own Clergy, a self defence force.
    Something has changed the community has been pushed too far.
    Even our Muslim, neighbouring countries are tweeting pictures of glass bangles to Indian Muslim twitter handles.
    Are we Muslims in India are cowards for not supporting the genocide of Muslims in Kashmir.
    Kashmiri Muslims have been proved right we are second class citizens in India and we all feel the rage.
    We still have the the brotherhood of Islam, it’s all that is left, and our Koran? The Prophet was a soldier and led us into wars of good over evil.
    The SC verdict has changed something and it’s palpable, the previous stoic acceptance by Muslims and patriotism under the flag, has changed to a deep hostility towards those Hindus who overwhelmingly voted these monsters to office with their rabid anti Muslim agenda.
    The Hindu hate us and now Embolden by the RSS they openly show it, to our faces.
    Its time to prepare ourselves and our children and elders physically and mentally for the blood, struggle and sacrifices that is to come.
    Just as it came to the Kashmiri people , evil is now here and nothing will protect us but ourselves.
    Allah O Akbar
    He is with those who do Jihad

  4. Very important question to be posed to Supreme Court of India…. If they still order demolition of the Mosque in favor of building of Temple if it was not raged in 1992? Is the supreme court not legitimised the demolition of the mosque in the minds of Hindus? THERE WAS A FAMOUS SAYING ‘Two worngs doesn’t make it right’…. But here in the famous verdict of Supreme Court The wrong of justified with mere lip service.

  5. A review petition would not change the outcome. However, a well drafted petition, which lists out for purposes of record, all the flaws and infirmities of the verdict would do no harm. 2. Frankly, one was not expecting such a one sided verdict. If there is widespread disappointment amongst Indian Muslims, that is only to be expected. Any expression of their emotions should be entirely peaceful and constitutional. 3. For the future, there must be an end to revisiting the perceived wrongs of history. Also much stronger state action against hate crimes directed at the minorities.

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