A day before the Ram Mandir bhoomi pujan in Ayodhya, All India Muslim Personal Law Board has said “Babri Masjid was and will always be a Masjid.”
“Usurpation of the land by an unjust, oppressive, shameful and majority appeasing judgment can’t change it’s status,” an umbrella body of Muslim intellectuals and organisations said in a statement.
The body which fought the Babri case for 45 years, once against expressed their dissatisfaction with the Supreme Court verdict and called it “majority appeasing judgment.”
“Illegal expropriation does not change the reality. Supreme Court has given its verdict but has embarrassed justice,” the Board said.
“It has always been our position that the Babri Masjid was never built by demolishing any mandir or any Hindu place of worship. Supreme Court of India has also affirmed our position in its judgement (of November 9, 2019),” reads the statement.
“… The supreme court also accepts in its judgement that the demolition of Babri masjid on 6th December, 1992 was an illegal, unconstitutional and criminal act. It is indeed regrettable that after accepting all these facts, the apex court in an extremely unjust verdict handed over the land of the masjid to the people who had placed idols in the mosque in a criminal manner and were party to its criminal demolition,” the Board said.
The Board noted that according to the Islamic Shariah, “at whichever place a Masjid is established, it remains a Masjid there forever till eternity. Hence the Babri Masjid was a Masjid before, is a Masjid today and shall Inshallah remain a Masjid”.
“No need to be heartbroken. Situations don’t last forever,” Mohammed Wali Rahmani, the General Secretary of Board further said in the statement.
“Hagia Sophia is a great example for us,” the statement also added.
On August 5, nearly a year after the Supreme Court verdict, the bhoomi pujan ceremony will mark the beginning of the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the chief guest attending the event in Ayodhya on Wednesday.
A 16th-century mosque, known as Babri Masjid, had been at the disputed site in Ayodhya until December 6, 1992, when it was destroyed by Hindu militants.
The demolition of the 16th-century Babri Masjid, which was constructed under the rule of the first Mughal Emperor Babar, triggered attacks against Muslims and genocides of Muslims in parts of India that continued for months. More than 1,000 people were killed.
