Gurugram: Hindu man offers his vacant shop space for namaz

GURUGRAM: Amid opposition in some parts of the city to namaz being offered in public places, a local resident who is a Hindu has come forward to offer a small commercial space he owns in Old Gurgaon to the Muslim community for Friday prayers.
Akshhay Rao, a wildlife tour organiser who owns several shops at the mechanic market, said most of his tenants are Muslims and were facing problems offering Friday prayers. He said he had made available one of his vacant shops, which can accommodate 15-20 people. “I have not done anything special. It is not the first time I have offered my place for namaz; I had done so a few years ago too,” said Rao.
Rao told TOI he was born and brought up in Gurgaon and had never seen a communal dispute. “I was disturbed after reading reports about namaz being disrupted. My aim was to let our Muslim brothers know that it’s only a handful of people who are causing this. We have been living together peacefully and will continue to preserve and maintain our social harmony,” he said.
District administration officials said they have not included any private land in the list of the places for Friday prayers and no one has yet formally approached them to offer their private land or space for namaz.
Muslim groups welcomed Rao’s “gracious” offer but said they are yet to receive a formal proposal. At the same time, they said private spaces were unlikely to be a solution because there have been instances in the past of neighbours raising objections.
Shahzad Khan of Muslim Ekta Manch said they had met a district administration official on Friday for restoring namaz in Sector 12A. “Two years ago, our mosque was sealed in Sheetla Mata Colony. We have been requesting to open it and clear encroachments from Waqf Board land to provide adequate space to offer namaz,” said Khan. Altaf Ahmad, co-founder of Gurgaon Muslim Council, said Rao’s offer was “a true example of brotherhood”.
Like Khan, he also stressed the number of namaz sites, now reduced, is insufficient for the city’s Muslim community.
The number of sites for offering namaz in the city has come down by nearly half. While 37 spots had been identified in 2018 after the first round of protests over the issue, 20 public places were earmarked for Friday prayers at the beginning of November by a government committee in consultation with community representatives. The sites were reduced after weeks of protests by right-wing outfits and some locals, first in Sector 47 and then at Sector 12A, against the use of public spaces for namaz.