Shia Board chief demands closure of madarsas
LUCKNOW: Controversial chairman of Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board Waseem Rizvi has once again raked up a controversy by demanding the closure of primary ‘madarsas’, accusing them of promoting ISIS ideology.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rizvi has said that half of the Muslim youths would become ISIS agents/ adherents in the next 15 years if these madarsas were not shut down immediately.
“Madarsas’ across the world teach Islamic extremism because of which they are a soft target of the ISIS which picks Muslim children and trains them for terrorist activities,” said Rizvi, who had written a similar letter to the PM in January last year, terming ‘madarsas’ as the breeding ground for terrorists.
He said that Muslim children should study with students of other religions in schools so that they were able to get better education.
Rizvi comments have evoked a strong rebuttal and condemnation from clerics and Islamic scholars.
“Many of these madrasas being run in the country cater to the poorest members of the Muslim community and many of them operate as orphanages, providing shelter, food, and education
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Many madrasas cater to poorest members of the community and many of them operate as orphanages, providing shelter, food, and education to the orphans MAULANA KHALID RASHEED FARANGI MAHALI, member AIMPLB
to the orphans,” said Maulana Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahali, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB).
Another prominent cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad has demanded Rizvi’s arrest. Rizvi, he alleged, was involved in several shady land deals as chief of the Shia Waqf Board and was giving these statements to please his political masters and save his skin.
There are approximately 19, 123 madarsas in Uttar Pradesh, out of which 16,283 are registered with the state-government run Madarsa Board.
The Yogi Adityanath government has issued a directive making it mandatory for all these religious seminaries to subscribe to text books prescribed by the NCERT.
But Rizvi cites the situation in Kashmir to buttress his point. “In Kashmir, ISIS supporters can be seen in huge numbers. In rural areas, madrasas are destroying the future of our children as their owners are hungry for money.”
On the clerics’ reaction against his statement, he said the ‘mullahs’ and ‘moulvis’ who were condemning him never sent their own wards to these ‘madarsas’ which spoke volume about the standards of these seminaries.
This is not the first time Rizvi has made a controversial comment.
Apart from supporting the construction of Ram Temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, the Shia Board chief has towed the BJP line on issues like triple ‘talaq’ and ‘halala’ in the past.