While strongly condemning the offender, a BJP spokeswoman Nupur Sharma, for making highly objectionable comments on the highly venerated personality of Islam (PBUH), the Jamaat said Times Now, which conducted the debate can’t escape the blame.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – Taking a serious view of the derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) made in a debate over a TV channel, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind demanded immediate action against the panelist who is guilty of the offence and the channel that hosted the programme.
In a press statement, JIH Vice-President Prof. Salim Engineer, while strongly condemning the offender, a BJP spokeswoman Nupur Sharma, for making highly objectionable comments on the highly venerated personality of Islam (PBUH), the beloved of entire Muslim community the world over, said the TV channel Times Now, which conducted the debate can’t escape the blame.
Viewing it as a very serious offense, Prof. Salim said any attempt to deliberately target the revered personality of the prophet (PBUH) should be seen as a violation of Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) i.e. a deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.
“This is also an attempt to spread hate and enmity against Islam and Muslims and hurt their sentiments and provoke them. It must be seen as a violation of Section 153A of the IPC i.e. – Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony,” he added.
Calling on the government to punish such offenders in accordance with the provisions of the law, the JIH Vice-President said, “The TV channels and anchors who supervised such debates also deserve to be penalised under the necessary legal provisions. No one should be allowed to play with the religious sentiments of people and take the law into their hands. Unfortunately, such hate-mongers do not fear the law as they are confident that their acts won’t be taken seriously by those entrusted with task to maintain uphold law and justice.”
Prof. Salim called upon all justice-loving people to condemn such acts borne out from Islamophobia, which in fact is a deliberate attempt to spoil the communal amity in the country.
