The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Friday made it clear that only a court verdict would be accepted in the ongoing Babri Masjid-Ram Janambhoomi matter pending before the Supreme Court.
“There is no change in our stand. Only SC verdict in the case will be acceptable to the board. We had made our position clear in April also soon after the SC suggested that attempts should be made at for a negotiated settlement. Our position remains the same,” said AIMPLB secretary and spokesperson Zafaryab Jilani.
His statement comes a day after Maulana Salman Nadwi, a member of the AIMPLB’s executive committee along with some other Muslims, met Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in Bangalore to explore an out-of-court settlement of the dispute.
“We have never turned down any offer for talks from Hindu parties to the dispute but always requested that the offer for mutual settlement should be just and practical. But we were always told that the Muslims should give up their claim on the land and mosque,” said a statement issued by the AIMPLB.
A mosque cannot be a subject of negotiation. Once a mosque, always a mosque and nobody has any right under the ‘Shariat’ (Islamic laws) to give it away for worship of another religion, said the statement.
{{/usCountry}}A mosque cannot be a subject of negotiation. Once a mosque, always a mosque and nobody has any right under the ‘Shariat’ (Islamic laws) to give it away for worship of another religion, said the statement.
{{/usCountry}}Hence, the board has decided to go by only the apex court’s verdict in the matter. Whatever the decision, no party should view it as its victory or loss in the case, the board said.
The religious body, however, refrained from commenting on Maulana Salman Nadwi’s meeting with Ravi Shankar, perhaps because the Nadwa cleric is a kin of board president Maulana Rabey Hasani Nadwi.
Though AIMPLB is not a party to the case, it has been spearheading and bearing the expenses of the court battle for the past several years now. Maulana Salman Nadwi, too, had also made it clear on Thursday that a negotiated settlement would only be possible if a consensus was arrived at with all parties to the dispute, including UP Sunni Central Waqf Board, Jamait-e-Ulema as well as AIMPLB.
Jilani said this was not the first time the Art of Living founder had offered to mediate on the issue. “He had met us in New Delhi several years ago. More recently, he had again sent an invite for a meeting in Lucknow in November last year but we had expressed our inability to attend as such negotiations have no meaning now,” he said.