JOIN USThe Christian organizations on Monday said that they had all along been supportive to campaign against corruption, but had reservations and apprehensions over the way the Hazare-led movement for Jan Lokpal Bill had taken shape. Muslim clerics too questioned the social activist’s stir, with the Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari stating that Hazare should first detach himself from the ‘political powers’ backing his agitation.
“Anna Hazare must detach from the political power working behind him. He praised Narendra Modi sometime back who is accused of massacre in Gujarat,” Bukhari said.
He wondered if the 74-year-old Gandhian was secular, then why he had not included any Muslim in the core group of Team Anna.
Media-persons drew his attention that several Muslims had participated in the agitation led by Hazare. Bukhari said that if a few Muslims had joined Team Anna in the stir, they would not represent the 25 crore people of the community in the country.
The Darul Uloom Deoband too distanced itself from the agitation. The vice-chancellor of the prominent Islamic seminary in Uttar Pradesh, Maulana Abul Qasim Nomani, said the movement and his Jan Lokpal Bill were disputed and the varsity distanced itself from it, although it too wanted to see the country being freed from the menace of corruption.