Agencies/New Delhi


One of India’s top Islamic clerics cautioned Muslims yesterday against joining an anti-graft drive that has galvanised the nation, saying its leader Anna Hazare lacked secular credentials.
“I have advised all Muslims to stay far away from Anna Hazare, because he has done nothing for Muslims,” Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid mosque said.
“Today he is fasting against corruption, but in all these years he has never even fasted half a day when communal riots occurred in the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, killing so many people,” he said.
Bukhari took a swipe at the activist for calling himself a devotee of Mahatma Gandhi, who used hunger strikes to great effect while fighting against British rule.
“Hazare is not a secular man. Gandhi united Hindus and Muslims, he took the whole country with him in the freedom struggle,” he said.
He particularly criticised Hazare for publicly praising Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who is a divisive figure in India after communal riots in the state nine years ago left some 2,000 people dead, mostly Muslims.

Spiritual leader and founder of the Art of Living Foundation Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is seen with Anna Hazare
Bukhari also objected to the campaign’s use of the slogan “Vande Mataram” (Hail to the Motherland) to rally its supporters, saying it was blasphemous for Muslims.
Vande Mataram was a popular hymn invoked during India’s independence struggle, but remains controversial among religious minorities due to certain verses that liken India to the Hindu goddess Durga.
However, prominent Maulanas and Islamic scholars of Uttar Pradesh have reacted strongly to Bukhari’s call.
Leading Sunni cleric Maulana Abul Irfan Mian Firangi Mahli and well-known Shia scholar and cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawaad said since Hazare was not forcing Vande Mataram on anyone, there was nothing wrong if Muslims joined the campaign launched by the social activist.
“The issue is not about Vande Mataram but corruption. I see absolutely no reason why Muslims should be dissuaded from joining this campaign when we all know how corruption is eating into our system and making the lives of people miserable,” Maulana Firangi Mahli said in Lucknow.
He added: “After all this slogan of Vande Mataram was widely used by Mahatma Gandhi during the freedom movement in which so many Muslims stood by him and remained part of the struggle.
“The time is now ripe to exhort the youth of this country to rise up in arms against corruption. The best way to do so could be by ensuring that the corrupt are not voted to power.
“That could be done by ensuring that Muslims just do not support any candidate who spends tonnes of money in his campaign. We must remember that anyone using money power in his election was bound to recover the same by illegal means as soon as he gets elected.”
Maulana Kalbe Jawaad said: “While we do not subscribe to chanting of Vande Mataram which goes against the spirit of Islam, we have to join this great battle against corruption.
“After all Anna is not forcing anyone to chant Vande Mataram. So while others recite Vande Mataram, Muslims can call out ‘Allah-o-Akbar’ or just remain quiet. Yet they can continue to be a part of the anti-corruption movement that has gained so much momentum.”
The All India Ulema Council (AIUC) too declared support for Hazare and claimed that religious minorities like the Muslims were bigger victims of corruption in India.
AIUC general secretary Maulana Mehmood Daryabadi said the Muslim community is in no manner isolated from corruption or the Hazare movement, as is being projected in some quarters.
“In fact, we suffer more than the average Indian citizen due to corruption. We have to face religious bias as well as the menace of corruption whenever we want to get our work done in government,” Daryabadi said.
He said the Muslims welcome the efforts of Hazare and as Indians, all Muslims support him.
Tens of thousands have gathered every day to watch Hazare fast in Delhi’s Ramlila grounds, an open-air venue where the veteran activist is enacting his hunger strike.
He has been given official permission to fast there until September 2.