Dr Syed Ali Mujtaba
AFTER the destruction of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, more and more mosques are on the radar of the Hindutva brigade.
Reports have been pouring in about mosques being demolished in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh.
Someone needs to do a count of how many mosques have been destroyed since the despicable event in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.
The latest incident occurred on Friday, September 13, at the Railway Colony in Prayagraj/Allahabad. As worshippers arrived for the weekly Friday prayers, they only saw a flattened mosque.
The mosque, situated around 150 meters from Prayagraj Railway Station, was demolished by local authorities without any notice or following any legal procedure. Eyewitnesses reported that during the demolition drive, no one gave any respect to the copies of the Holy Quran kept inside the mosque.
Some apologists have argued that the mosque was constructed on unauthorised land. Since it was done without legal permission, the demolition of the mosque did not warrant any legal procedure.
The straight answer is that this was a functional mosque where people were going for religious purposes and that is protected under the right of religious freedom. In such a case Muslims cannot be subjected to such a targeted attack on their place of worship. No doubt, the sudden demolition of the mosque has deeply hurt the religious sentiments of the local Muslims and the community members are in shock over such an outrageous activity.
This incident has raised serious concerns about the protection of Muslim religious sites and the legal protocols that should be followed in such matters.
What is noticed is that the Hindutva elements have found a new handle to attack the Muslim community and this time they targeted the mosque alleging that it was built on unauthorised land.
Recently, the Sanjauli mosque in Shimla grabbed headlines for “unauthorised” construction. It was followed by a similar incident at a mosque in Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. In both places, a peaceful resolution was reached after consultation with the concerned parties.
However, in the case of the Railway Colony mosque in Prayagraj, no such efforts were ever made. The mosque was demolished to humiliate the Muslim community. Explicit in the design was an anti-Muslim agenda.
This is a sorry picture of contemporary India, where wanton destruction of Muslim religious sites has become a new pastime.
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Dr Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. The views expressed here are the writer’s personal. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com
