HVK Archives: Shias look up to BJP
Shias look up to BJP - Organiser
Posted By Krishnakant Udavant (kkant@bom2.vsnl.net.in)
10 August 1997
Title: Shias look up to BJP
Author:
Publication: Organiser
Date: August 10, 1997
Disowned by Sunnis and disillusioned with the self-styled secularist parties.
The contumacious Shia community is telling its beads on Shri Atal Behari
Vajpayee, a trustworthy and lovable person and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
the only party which will get the Shias their due, according to Maulana
Kalbe Jawad, the community's top religious and political leader.
The Maulana. who is spearheading the present agitation, was arrested under
National Security. Act, sent to Lalitpur jail and freed after he accepted
the Government's conditions. He says that Vajpayee and the BJP's pressure
helped him. Virtually inaccessible to - the media, Maulana Jawad in an
exclusive interviews to Organiser said that the biggest enemies of the
Muslims were the Samajwadi Party the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress
and very few knew that Shias and Sunnis were not fighting; they were
wahabis (militants).
The Maulana explained at length what azadari was and why the present
situation has arisen. He said that Muslims offer qurbani (sacrifice) in
memory of Hazrat Ibrahim (father) and Hazrat Ismail (son). Moharrum is the
first month in Islam and Id-e-Zaihra was celebrated as Hazrat Imam
Hussain's birth day.
He blamed Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav and Maulana Bukhari of Delhi's Jama
Masjid for the violence that took place in Lucknow recently. He said the
same Bukhari had tried to stop the azadari procession 20 years ago and now
wanted the procession to be allowed.
He said that Lucknow was the centre of Shias and although they were in a
minority, the Sunnis did not create problems for them but. the politicians
have once again made it an issue. It was Shri Ram Naresh Yadav, the then
Chief Minister, who at the behest of Indira Gandhi and Abdullah Bukhari had
banned the azadari and thus deprived us of the right to mourn. Aza, he
said, meant sorrow and dari meant to express. "We can't even observe
Chahellum of prophet's assassination", he said with a sigh.
According to Shri Jawad, Shias have in common with Sunnis Muhammad, Quran,
Ka'aba and Kalma--Muhammad Rasoolullah. How could one tolerate the wahabis
celebrating "panja thana pak" pure five--Muhammad, Ali, Fatima, Hussain and
Hussain on the same day--barehvefat or Id-Mulad-un-Nabi. We Shias take out
tazias in azadari and there starts the trouble, when the wahabis, at the
behest of politicians, disrupt the proceedings. Shri Jawad said that in
the name of Sunnis. the wahabis have started Madha-e-Sahaba praising the
companions of Muhammad Sahib and accuse us of reading the tabrra. And all
this was the handiwork of the Congress and the new 'well wishers' like
Mulayam Singh Yadav." But aye would not allow us to be used as pawns in
their game of chess, he added.
Shri Jawad said rather emotionally: "We are thankful to Shri Vajpayee who
got us released from jails and brought peace back in Lucknow".
On the other hand, a completely demoralised bureaucracy, particularly
J.P.S. officers, have healed a sigh of relief since the Maulanas accepted
the Government's conditions.
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