Hindu activists condemn top Muslim cleric

Hindu activists burnt an effigy of India's most prominent Muslim cleric yesterday and condemned his offer to try and save ancient Buddhist statues from destruction by negotiating with Afghanistan's ruling Taliban in exchange for rebuilding the Babri Mosque.

The radical Bajrang Dal group said that by equating Taliban actions with the demolition of a 16th-century Indian mosque in 1992, Syed Ahmed Bukhari had exposed "the ugly side of Islam".
Bukhari, head of New Delhi's Jama Masjid mosque, said in a sermon on Tuesday his offer was conditional on Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee conceding that the razing of the mosque by Hindu zealots eight years ago was a "shameful act".

"The government should arrest him and charge him with anti-national activities," Bajrang Dal National Convenor Surendra Jain said in a statement. "If he feels that too many crimes are committed on Muslims in India, then he can leave and go to an Islamic state."

Around 3,000 people were killed in communal riots sparked by the destruction of the mosque, which many devout Hindus believe to have been built on the birthplace of the god-king Ram. Bukhari said he did not condemn the Taliban's actions, and noted that when the Babri mosque was destroyed the Indian government responded to international criticism by saying it was an internal affair.

About 50 activists of the youth and student wing of the regional Hindu Shiv Sena party protested in the capital against Bukhari's comments, burning a straw effigy of the cleric. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also demanded strong action against Bukhari for his "inflammatory speeches". BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said the Imam's statement was "anti-India" and "anti-national" and therefore the BJP condemned it in the strongest possible words, reports UNI.

"It was surprising that when both houses of Parliament had condemned the Taliban's action in Afghanistan, the Imam here tried to justify the demolition of statues in Afghanistan, linking the action to the demolition of the disputed structure at Ayodhya in 1992."

Malhotra said that no decree was issued by the federal or the state government for the demolition of the disputed structure at Ayodhya and it was yet to be ascertain who were the culprits behind the demolition. But in Afghanistan, the Taliban had issued a decree for bringing down all the pre-Islamic idols in the country, he said.

He said there were about 3,000 Muslim religious places in the country, and about 1,000 religious structures belonging to Islam, Christianity and other religions were permitted to come up every year.

In the Lok Sabha, BJP MP Vijay Goel urged the government to stop Bukhari from making inflammatory speeches such as linking the Taliban's destruction of the Buddha statues with the Babri Masjid episode.

Goel, who represents the Muslim majority Chandni Chowk constituency in the capital, said the Imam was trying to create trouble by linking what had happened in Afghanistan with the Babri Masjid incident. "The Imam does not represent all Muslims in the country. The Muslims in my area have condemned the Taliban for its action. The government should stop the Imam from making such statements," he demanded.