Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind President Maulana Arshad Madani
Credit: PTI
Jabalpur: RSS-linked Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM) on Sunday rejected Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (JUH) president Maulana Mahmood Madani's claim that the minority community feels unsafe in India, saying "separatist-minded clerics" like him hindered the progress of Muslims.
The MRM's national convenor, S K Muddin, in a statement, said Muslims enjoy full Constitutional rights and security in the country.
Madani had on Saturday alleged that efforts were being made in the country to establish the supremacy of one group through actions like bulldozer action, mob lynching, weakening of the Muslim Waqf and Islamic reforms.
He also claimed that the perception that courts were working under government pressure had grown following the Babri Masjid verdict and many other decisions.
Reacting to the remarks, Muddin, the former chairman of the MP Madarsa Board, said that Muslims were "most secure" in India compared to any other country and described the country as "riot-free" today.
Prohibitory orders were rarely imposed now, whereas before 2014, newspapers and television channels carried daily reports of riots, he claimed.
Muddin said that Madani had failed to acknowledge that Muslim sons and daughters were serving the country in the armed forces, security agencies and other key institutions.
The JUH chief had also said: "With regret, it has to be said that organised efforts are being made to establish the supremacy of a particular group and making other groups legally helpless, socially isolated and economically disgraced, defamed and deprived".
Muddin said statements made by leaders like Madani had pushed Muslims behind in the race for progress since Independence.
He said "Vande Mataram" was the national song and reciting it was not against Islam, as it salutes the motherland.
Praising one's soil, he said, was part of a Muslim's faith.
Ordinary Muslims were working hard for two meals a day and raising their families peacefully, Muddin said, alleging that clerics like Madani wanted to mislead them and push them towards unrest.
He further appealed to intellectual Muslims to remain alert against such "separatist-minded clerics" and oppose them openly.
Meanwhile, in Bhopal, right-wing organisations, including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), staged a protest and burnt Madani's effigy at Roshanpura Square, accusing him of speaking ill of the country and the Supreme Court.