Sunni Waqf Board should not accept 5-acre plot for mosque: Jamiat chief

New Delhi, November 14

The Sunni Waqf Board should not accept the 5-acre plot which the Supreme Court in its Ayodhya judgment has directed the Centre to allot for a mosque, head of prominent Muslim body Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (JUEH) Maulana Arshad Madani said on Thursday.

He said the Jamiat had asserted that the Supreme Court verdict in the Ayodhya case, based on evidence, will be respected by it.

Maulana Madani, however, said the judgment was “beyond understanding”.

The court accepted that placing idols in a mosque and demolishing it is illegal. “But the court gave its decision in favour of those responsible for it,” he said.

The JUEH president also said the court has accepted that the Babri mosque was not built by demolishing a temple during Babur’s rule.

Madani said a decision on whether a review petition in the Ayodhya case should be filed will be taken in a meeting of the working committee of the JUEH which would sit till late evening to deliberate on the matter.

Settling a fractious issue that goes back more than a century, the Supreme Court, in its verdict in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi title case on Saturday, said the entire 2.77 acres of disputed land should be handed over to the deity Ram Lalla, who was one of the three litigants in the case.

The five-judge Constitution Bench also directed the Centre to allot a 5-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board in Ayodhya to build a mosque.

Asked about his views on whether the land should be accepted by the Muslim side, Madani said, “The land has not been given to us. They have given the land to the Sunni Waqf Board.”              

“Our opinion is that the Sunni Waqf Board should not accept the land, but finally it is up to them,” said the head of JUEH, which was also a litigant in the case.

“The issue is about rights not about land. We don’t want land. Muslims don’t need land,” he said.

Madani said that according to religion, a mosque remains a mosque irrespective of ‘namaz’ is being held or not.

“The SC said it was mosque and not made by destructing a temple. For us, according to religion, it is still a mosque,” Madani said.

Responding to a question, he asserted that whatever they have to say on the verdict they will say only within the country. — PTI