Ayodhya verdict: Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind mulls review plea

Hyderabad: Jamiat Ulema e Hind Moulana president Syed Arshad Madani on Thursday said the working committee of the Jamiat will decide on filing a review petition against the Supreme Court order on the Ayodhya dispute. The Jamiat is one of the key litigants in the case and will sit till late in the evening to arrive at a decision.

Speaking to the media in New Delhi, Moulana Madani said, “The land has not been given to us. The land will be given to the UP Sunni Waqf Board. Our opinion is that the Sunni Waqf Board should not accept the 5-acre land which the apex court in its judgment has directed the Union government to allot for a mosque.”

“It is finally up to the Sunni Waqf Board to accept it or not,” the moulana said.

He said Muslims have enough land to build a mosque. “We have built mosques on our own land and will continue to do so. If the land was given to us, we would have refused,” the moulana said. He said that according to the Shariah, a mosque remains a mosque irrespective of whether ‘namaz’ is being held or not.

“We fought the case for 70 years not because of the land, but for the right,” Moulana Madani said.

The Jamiat had asserted that the Supreme Court verdict, based on evidence, will be respected by it, but the judgment was beyond understanding.

He said the court had accepted that placing idols in a mosque and demolishing the structure was illegal. But the court gave its decision in favour of those responsible for it.

The court also accepted that the Babri Masjid was not built by demolishing a temple during Babar’s regime, he said.