Madrasas on anti-IS drive

Darul Uloom Deoband and Dargah-e-Aala-Hazrat condemn Paris attacks.

Post-Paris attacks, two influential Islamic seminaries have come out strongly against the terrorist group, the Islamic State. Darul Uloom Deoband and the Bareilly-based Dargah-e-Aala-Hazrat have condemned the terror attack as a “murder of humanity”.

Fatwa against IS

The Bareilly-based madrasa decided to mobilise Islamic scholars across the country to issue a joint fatwa against the IS and run a signature campaign among Muslims. The Deoband-based seminary, which generally keeps a low profile, decided to create awareness against the IS through its fatwa against terrorism.

Vice-Chancellor of Darul-uloom-Deoband, Maulana Abul Qasim Nomani, told The Hindu on the phone, “There should not be any doubt about our condemnation of the IS in strongest possible terms. Killing of innocent people in the name of Islam is a crime as heinous as demolition of the holy Kaaba.”

“This terror group has killed far more Muslims than Christians and people from the West. It is a terror group with political ambitions,” Maulana Nomani said.

The Dargah-e-Aala Hazrat, the Bareilly-based headquarters of the Barelvi sect, said it would mobilise clerics and religious scholars across the country to issue a joint fatwa against the IS and terrorism.

Muslims shocked

Maulana Subhan Raza Khan, who heads the shrine, told The Hindu on the phone that Muslims were not only shocked but also embarrassed by the Paris attacks.

He said no Muslim supported terror. “Our fatwa campaign was to tell the world that followers of Islam would never support terror.”

The seminary at the 100-year-old Sunni organisation, Darul-ifta Firangi Mahal, also issued a fatwa against the IS.

“The fatwa, which is signed by 1,000 scholars, condemns all activities of the IS,” said Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahali, who heads the organisation.