Ulema angry with Godrejs for hosting Rushdie

The All India Ulema Council on Thursday asked Parmeshwar Godrej to apologise to Muslims for hosting controversial author Salman Rushdie, failing which it would ask community members to boycott the company's products.

"Despite knowing that Rushdie has hurt sentiments of Muslim by making derogatory remarks against Prophet Mohammed and terming Quran's preachings as satanic verses, the owner of Godrej group, Parmeshwar Godrej, hosted the author. This is an insult to the Muslims of India," Association chief Maulana Sayed Athar Ali said.

But not all Muslims have welcomed the boycott call. In Delhi, All India Muslim Personal Law Board permanent member Kamal Faruqui said: "I personally feel such boycotts bring a bad name to Muslims. There is no question of accepting Salman Rushide, who has hurt the Muslim sentiments, but instead of calling for boycotts we should educate and make the community aware of what Rushide has done and protest it strongly".

The All India Milli Council, though supporting the Ulema Council's stand, refused to endorse the ban. "People like Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nazreen are hurting the feelings of Indian Muslim. By inviting Rushdie, Godrej was eying some cheap publicity. We are against it and the Ulema council is right in protesting it. But I remain non-committal on the call for the boycott," said its general secretary Mansoor Alam.

Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind spokesperson Abdul Hameed Noamani said, "People like Salman Rushdi are hurting the sentiments of Muslims and we need to protest strongly. Here the All India Ulema Council has done just that with its statement and I support it."

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