Lucknow : Condemning the fatwa issued by leading Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband, Minister of State for Food Processing Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti on Friday said denying people to chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ slogan amounted to insulting the freedom fighters.
“It is showing the fundamentalist side of Islam. Denying ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ shows disrespect to martyrs of the country. It shows their mentality. They should understand that they are not living in Pakistan,” said Jyoti.
Darul Uloom Deoband today issued a fatwa against chanting of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, saying that the slogan goes against the tenets of Islam.
“Bharat Mata, according to some Hindu sects, is a goddess and they worship her. For Muslims participating in worshiping a goddess would be un-Islamic, the fatwa said.
The fatwa added, “We love our country, but we do not worship it, Islam allows worshiping only one God.”
AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi had stirred a hornet’s nest by rejecting RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s suggestion that the young generation be taught patriotic slogans like ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ stating that he won’t chant the slogan “even if a knife is put to his throat”.
“I don’t chant that slogan. What are you going to do Bhagwat sahab?” Owaisi had said at a public rally in Latur.
Leaders of various political parties, including the BJP and Congress, have condemned Owaisi’s stance.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was greeted with chants of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ slogans as soon as he climbed the stage by people sitting in the audience when he went to deliver the inaugural lecture at the World Sufi Forum on March 17. (ANI)