Amid clashes over Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s portrait at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in India, the popular Dargah-e-Aala Hazrat (shrine of Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi) in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday issued a fatwa against the founder of Pakistan and directed the Muslim population of the country not to support him, reported India.com.
According to the spokesperson of the shrine, Maulana Shahabuddin, “Jinnah was responsible for the partition of the country and no Muslim in India should stand in his support.”
“Jinnah is a leader of India’s enemy nation [Pakistan] and his portraits should be removed not only from the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) but from everywhere,” said Maulana Shahabuddin while issuing the fatwa.
Meanwhile, Jamiate Ulema Hind Secretary General Maulana Mohammad Madani expressed similar views and asked the agitated students of AMU to remove Jinnah’s portrait from the Aligarh Muslim University Students’ Union (AMUSU) Hall of the varsity.
It is pertinent to note that the controversy over Jinnah’s portrait at AMUSU had begun when a lawmaker of the BJP had written to the AMU vice chancellor seeking the removal of the picture. On May 2, activists of the Hindu Yuva Vahni (HYV) and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) had burnt an effigy of Jinnah outside AMU’s main gate and tried to break into the campus.
The incident had resulted in retaliation by the students of AMU, after which the police had to fire teargas shells and use force to disperse the agitated mobs, injuring dozens of students. Since the incident, AMU students are holding a sit-in at the gate of the varsity while boycotting classes.
