UP Shia Central Waqf Board has said that top Shia clerics from Iran and Iraq have supported the construction of temple at the disputed site at Ayodhya and given ‘fatwa’ in favour of temple at Ayodhya. The clerics have said the mosque can be built away from the disputed site at Ayodhya.
The fatwa issued by Ayatollah Makarim Shirazi of Iran, says “Any action that leads to conflict and contention is not allowed. Act through legal process or friendly negotiations’’. The cleric from Iraq Ayatollah Syed Ali Fatmi said “You can try and build another mosque in another place’’.
Presenting the two fatwas from top Shia clerics, the chairman of the Shia Waqf Board Wasim Rizvi said here in a Press conference that the senior Shia cleric and vice-president of the all India Muslim personnel law board Maulana Kalbe Sadiq has already said that the disputed land be given to the Hindus.
Rizvi said that the Shia waqf board favours that the Ram Temple at Ayodhya should be constructed at the earliest for resolving the century’s old vexed issue. The Waqf Board said that a mosque named ‘Masjid-e-Aman’ (mosque of peace) should be constructed in the Muslim-dominated area outside the disputed area in Ayodhya.
“After 1992 demolition of the mosque, makeshift temple with idol was constructed at the disputed site and regular puja is held at the temple for the last 25 years. How can any Muslim thinks of constructing mosque there. Hence, a grand temple should be constructed there and the mosque should be constructed at some other place near Ayodhya’’, said Wasim Rizvi.
“The board is not under pressure from any quarter. The board duly passed a resolution supported by all the members for filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court seeking the construction of a grand temple at Ayodhya. Shia waqf board wants to erase the fact from the memory of the people that an invader Mughal emperor Babar or his commander Mir Baki, constructed the mosque after demolishing the at Ayodhya in 1528-29’’, said Rizvi, adding
“Islam also says that mosque cannot be built on a land of worship of any other religion”. Rizvi suggesting the new mosque to be constructed at Ayodhya be known as symbol of peace and harmony and named as ‘Masjid-e-Aman’.
Rizvi contradicted the allegation that the Shia waqf board has filed the affidavit in the Supreme Court favouring temple only to save his post of chairman of the waqf Board. “There is no pressure on me from any quarter and the BJP has no role in the affidavit filed by the board. The Shia waqf board has the credible reason to believe that Muslims stands to gain by the construction of temple at Ayodhya and they would gain nothing from fighting for the mosque at Ayodhya.”
He said that the ASI reports also said that temple existed at the place of the Babri mosque besides Allahabad High Court in its verdict delivered in September 2010 had also given two-third of the land for the temple, hence now Muslims should give the remaining land to the Hindus for the construction of the temple. He said Goswami Tulsidas, in the epic Ram Charit Manas has also recorded the event in the revered book about the demolition of the temple by Mir Baki, at the birth place of lord Ram in Ayodhya.