Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board Chairman Waseem Rizvi said on Friday that Muslims who oppose the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya should go to Pakistan or Bangladesh. He called such people fundamentalists, PTI reported.
“Ayodhya is a sacred place for Hindus, so a mosque should not be built there...” The Times of India quoted Rizvi as saying. “Those who are secular have never been against the temple. Those who want to spread jihad in the name of the mosque must go and join the forces of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State chief.”
Rizvi was offering Friday prayers at the disputed site in Ayodhya and met the chief priest of the makeshift Ram temple.
“Those who are opposing the Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya and want to build the Babri Mosque there...people having such fundamentalist mentality should go to Pakistan and Bangladesh,” he was quoted as saying. “Such Muslims do not have any place in India.”
He also said fundamentalist Muslim clerics were trying to destroy the country, and should go to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
In November 2017, Rizvi submitted a draft proposal on the matter in the Supreme Court, offering to amicably resolve the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute. The Shia Waqf Board proposed to have the Ram Temple constructed on the disputed land and to have a mosque built in Lucknow.
The Shia Central Waqf Board was set up by the government to oversee governance, administration and supervision of auqaf, a description on its website states.
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