From Ayodhya Ram Mandir to Qutab Minar, Wasim Rizvi asks AIMPLB to surrender 9 disputed sites to Hindus

Lucknow, Mar 1: Stirring a controversy yet again, the Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Wakf Board Chairman Wasim Rizvi asked the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) to hand over those nine sites where mosques were built after demolition of the then existing temples.

The Shia Wakf Board has already asked the AIMPLB to give up its claim on the disputed site of Ramjanmabhumi at Ayodhya. This new suggestion from Rizvi is likely to create another controversy in coming days.

The nine disputed sites Rizvi has cited in his letter to the Board are located in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. These nine temples were razed by the then Muslim rulers to build mosques there, he claimed. The letter said that these nine places should be immediately handed over to the Hindus by the AIMPLB.

In his letter to the AIMPLB Chairman Maulana Rabe Hassan Nadvi which was released to the media later, Rizvi gave the list of those nine places.

The nine temples places of worship are ---Ayodhya, Keshav Dev (Mathura), Atala Dev at Jaunpur (Uttar Pradesh), Kashi Vishwanath (Varanasi), Rudra Mahalaya in Batana district of Gujarat, Bhadrakali in Ahmedabad, Adina in Pandua of West Bengal, Vijaya (Vidisha) and Qutubul Islam in Qutab Minar in Delhi.

In the three-page letter sent to the AIMPLB chairman Maulana Rabe Hassan Nadvi on Tuesday, which was released to the media here a day later, Mr Rizvi asserted that in Islam construction of a mosque was illegal on occupied land where there was a temple.

Wasim Rizvi said in a press statement that Namaz offered at any encroached place is not acceptable to Allah. It is considered as haram. He, therefore, suggested that such places be handed over to the Hindus. He said that the he had submitted this proposal to the AIMPLB and urged it to take initiative in this direction.

Rizvi also said that his information on temple demolition and mosque building was based on historical records and books. According to Islamic tenets, if a mosque is built on a place of worship of some other faiths, is not permissible and the namaz offered at such place is not acceptable to the Allah. He urged the AIMPLB to discuss this matter in their board meeting and take a positive decision in this regard.

It may be mentioned that way back in the late 70s, when the Janata Party government headed by Prime Minister Morarji Desai was in power, a delegation of Muslim scholars and Sufis called on him to discuss the Hindu-Muslim divide and how to bridge the gap. At that meeting, Morarji Desai asked them to hand over the three important places –Ayodhya, Mathura and Kashi- to Hindus and assured them that if they do this, there would be no Hindu-Muslim conflict. But that proposal was not accepted by the Muslim delegation. Today Rizvi has made the similar proposal to the AIMPLB.

The Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM) under the guidance and patronage of senior RSS functionary Indresh Kumar has championing the cause of creating awareness among the Muslims of India and urging them to feel proud of their Hindu ancestors. ‘Ram is Khuda and ‘Khuda is Ram’ Indresh Kumar would say in many of his recent meetings in the Muslim strongholds in UP.