Hindu Organisations Seek To Block Muslims From Visiting An Indian Mosque

LUCKNOW: Members of hardline Hindu organisations petitioned a court in northern India on Wednesday to prevent Muslims from accessing a historic mosque until the court rules on an earlier petition asking permission to search for Hindu relics that may be on the site.

Judges in Mathura, a Hindu religious town in Uttar Pradesh (UP), granted the fresh petitions but have yet to begin proceedings in the 2020 lawsuit aimed at obtaining permission to film and survey inside the 17th century Shahi Eidgah mosque.

“We anticipate that Hindu icons may be removed within the Shahi Eidgah mosque, thus we want the court to suspend Muslim admission,” said Mahendra Pratap, a lawyer engaged in the lawsuit.

Another municipal court in the state authorised a team to investigate and film inside one of the most significant mosques in Varanasi, an old town that is also Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s electoral constituency.

The country’s top court rejected a Varanasi court’s decision to prohibit large Muslim prayer gatherings in the Gyanvapsi mosque on Tuesday but allowed the local court to continue proceedings.

Members of Modi’s party’s extreme Hindu factions think that Islamic invaders damaged Hindu temples during their 200-year reign.

“We think that idols of Hindu gods were lying within the mosque established after a temple was destroyed by Muslim rulers to prove superiority,” said Ranjana Agnihotri, a lawyer representing Hindu organisations challenging the authenticity of Mathura’s Shahi Eidgah mosque.

Surveyors engaged in the Varanasi case claimed to have discovered a big relic of the Hindu god Shiva within the Gyanvapsi mosque, while Muslim parties claimed that a fountainhead was being distorted in order to incite religious conflict.

The discovery of idols within the mosque has empowered Hindu organisations in the western and southern regions to demand searches of other mosques.

Police in Aurangabad claimed they had increased protection around the Mughal monarch Aurangzeb’s burial after members of the MNS, a regional political group, threatened to damage the tomb because it was anti-Hindu.

After its officials threatened to perform Hindu prayers outside mosques, the same party recently succeeded in getting the Maharashtra government to lower the decibel levels of Muslim prayer calls.

Muslim political and religious leaders have stated that they will wage legal fights against Hindu organisations that damage the sanctity of mosques and cemeteries.

“We (Muslims) will not allow Hindus to abuse our faith and mosques,” Asaduddin Owaisi, a federal member and chairman of a regional Islamic political party, stated.