Now, fatwa against chanting Bharat Mata...

Amid the raging controversy over chanting of “Bharat Mata ki Jai”, prestigious Islamic seminary Darul Uloom has issued a fatwa against it.

The Deoband-based organisation passed the religious decree stating that it was not proper for Muslims to chant the slogan as according to the tenets of Islam, they cannot worship the nation.

The fatwa, issued by seminary Darul Ifta (department of fatwa) in response to “hundreds of queries”, says Muslims can love their country but cannot worship it.

which had been issued by a group of eight senior `muftis' (clerics) of the seminary,
“To term the land of the country ‘mother’ defies all logic....Muslims should avoid chanting ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’,” the fatwa says.

The fatwa clarified that India was muslims’ ‘madare watan’ (mother land) and they love it. But they could not consider it as their god.

It added that muslims could not worship any other god except Allah.
The clerics also said that the constitution of the country provided rights to every citizen to follow and propagate his or her religion.

Seminary sources said the organisation has been receiving a large number of letters from Muslims who wanted to know if they could chant the slogan.

Senior Muslim clerics here also supported the Darul Uloom’s fatwa though they appeared somewhat flexible. “No attempt should be made to politicise the issue,” said a senior sunni cleric here on Friday.

BJP leader Vijay Bahadur Pathak said every citizen of the country should chant the slogan. Congress leaders, however, chose to tread a cautious path saying the BJP has been deliberately raking up such issues to gain political mileage.

Incidentally, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had said a few days ago that there was no need to impose the slogan on the people. “Our ideals and achievements should be such that the people voluntarily chant the slogan bharat mata ki jai......there is no need to impose it on people,” Bhagwat had.

The controversy over the issue escalated after AIMIM leader Asauddin Owaisi said that he would not chant the slogan even if someone held a knife to his throat.

An AIMIM legislator in Maharashtra, Waris Pathan, has been suspended from the Assembly after he refused to chant the slogan.