NEW DELHI: All India Muslim Personal Law Board (
AIMPLB) executive member
Salman Nadvi was today expelled from Board after he suggested shifting the site of Babri mosque from Ayodhya.
Nadvi was expelled for going against the stand of the organisation, which today reiterated that its position on the issue of building a mosque in Ayodhya remains unchanged.
"Committee announced AIMPLB Board will continue with its old stand that Mosque cannot be gifted, sold or shifted. Because Salman Nadvi has gone against this unanimous stand, he has been expelled," AIMPLB member Qasim Ilyas said.
Yesterday, during the 26th plenary of the AIMPLB in Hyderabad, Nadvi had suggested that shifting the mosque away from the disputed site of Ayodhya and a university could be considered as a solution to the Ayodhya dispute.
The audio-video clip — where
Maulana Nadvi says the Hanbli school of Islamic jurisprudence allows 'shifting of mosques' and that Muslims will agree to the plan has gone viral. Nadvi made this statement on Thursday, when the Supreme Court, while hearing a bunch of petitions on the Ayodhya issue, said it would hear the case as "a pure land dispute".
Nadvi also said top Hindu and Muslim leaders should meet to hammer out an out-ofcourt settlement to the lingering dispute. He said the government should allot land to Muslims away from the disputed site for a mosque and a sprawling university and Hindu leaders should not stake claim to any other Muslim place of worship.
Nadvi's remark drew flak from other Board members.
Without referring to Nadvi's statement, AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi said Muslims believe that 'once a mosque it's always a mosque'. He said before the formal meeting of AIMPLB, "I expect the board to decide on these lines."
Maulana Nadvi, who teaches at the Islamic seminary Nadwatul Ulema or Nadwa Madrassa in Lucknow, has drawn flak from other senior members of the board who met at Hyderabad.
A source close to Jamiatul Ulema-e-Hind president Maulana Arshad Madani said he was vehemently opposed to Nadvi's suggestion which he likened to sabotaging Muslim claims over the disputed site in Ayodhya. He is learnt to have demanded action against Nadvi at the Hyderabad meeting. Both Madani and Nadvi are attending the Board meeting.
A special invitee to the personal law board's meeting who came from Lucknow said, "Salman Nadvi should not have made this comment when the Board has already said we would abide by the court order."
Zafar Sareshwala, chancellor, Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MAANU) who is close to Maulana Nadvi, however, came out in his support. "You cannot doubt his credibility and credentials as an Islamic scholar. His statement has been blown out of context. What he said makes sense," Sareshwala said.
Read this story in Bengali
