World-renowned Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband in Saharanpur (west UP) has added a new dimension to the ongoing controversy over whether Muslims should chant “Bharat maata ki jai” by ruling that this would indeed be un-Islamic.
A bench of eight ‘muftis’ (Islamic scholars) has issued a signed statement on the issue after the seminary received numerous queries from Muslims asking for clarity on the contentious issue. The statement clearly says that chanting “Bharat maata ki jai” would be against the tenets of Islam as it is “akin to idol-worship”.
“We love our country as we and our generations before us were born here. But we do not consider it our God / Goddess,” the statement says pointedly. The ‘muftis’ likened the latest controversy to another one which erupted some years ago when singing “Vande Mataram” was being made mandatory in all schools.
“We received thousands of queries on the issue so Darul Uloom Deoband has issued a ‘fatwa’ saying ‘Bharat mata ki Jai’ is not in consonance with Islam and we will not say it. But we love our country immensely as our ‘Madre Vatan’ (motherland) and we can raise slogans like ‘Hindustan Zindabad’,” the seminary spokesman Ashraf Usmani told reporters on Friday. “It is not allowed in Islam to represent the country as a Goddess’ idol and raise slogans hailing her,” he added.
The fatwa reasons that only a human can give birth to a human, “so how can the country be called mother”.
The latest controversy started after RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat said that the younger generation needed to be taught to hail “Mother India”.
In apparent retaliation, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi said he would not chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ as he was not obliged to do it under the Constitution and that he would not do so even if a “knife is put to my throat”.
The issue triggered off a political storm with the Shiv Sena, BJP and other parties slamming the Hyderabad MP over his allegedly “anti-national” stand.
The Maharashtra Assembly suspended an AIMIM MLA after he refused to chant the slogan, while the Madhya Pradesh Assembly passed a censure motion against Owaisi.
?Bhagwat has now sought to water down the rather unseemly dispute by issuing a public statement that no one should be forced to raise the slogan and that efforts should be made to build a “great” India which is hailed across the globe voluntarily.