Hindus allowed to worship at Gayanwapi Masjid: ‘It’s not a mosque’s problem’

In the Indian city of Varanasi, where Hindus go to perform the last rites of their dead on the banks of the Ganges River, there is now a battle going on for Hindus to take possession of centuries-old Islamic monuments.

According to the French news agency AFP, the campaigners to occupy Islamic buildings have found an ideological mentor in the form of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi inaugurated the grand new temple built on the site of the Babri Masjid last month. Decades ago, Hindu extremists destroyed the Babri Masjid.

78-year-old Yasin told AFP, “We are facing oppression and oppression.

“This is not just a mosque issue. (The slogan of the Hindus is that ‘Not a single tomb or mosque will be spared).’

Yasin is the Joint Secretary of the Management Committee of the Gyan Vapi Masjid. Located in the center of Benares, this mosque hosts one of the largest congregations of Muslims.

The city’s Hindus have long held that the Gyan Vapi Mosque was built during the Mughal Empire on the site of a temple to the Hindu god Shiva. The Mughals ruled most of India centuries ago.

Muslim worshipers have been going to the mosque under police surveillance for years to prevent the conflict from escalating. However, the dispute intensified this week as a local court ordered the basement of the mosque to be opened to Hindus within seven days of its ruling.

The next morning, a Hindu religious ceremony was held there. The Supreme Court of India refused to hear the plea of ​​the Muslim petitioners to set aside the order of the local court.

Yasin says that the court verdict and the subsequent number of Hindus flocking to Blaruk Tok to worship at the mosque shows that the Hindu claim has government patronage, which worries him.

According to Yasin: ‘They (Hindu) are coming through courts and system. As a Muslim I felt whatever pain I could feel. I was restless all night.’

Tension was palpable outside the mosque on Friday. A heavy police force was deployed and about two and a half thousand Muslims arrived at the mosque for Friday prayers, almost double the usual number.

Dozens of Hindu devotees gathered in the street outside the police cordon and chanted slogans of Shiva, who according to their religion is the god of both creation and destruction.

Since Modi took power in 2014, calls to end the country’s officially secular system and turn it into a Hindu state have intensified as the country has a Hindu majority.

The Modi government’s support for Hindu causes peaked last month when he presided over the inauguration of a newly constructed temple in Ayodhya. This town, located near Banaras, used to be peaceful.

The grand opening of the sprawling temple complex, built at an estimated cost of $240 million, was a major event that drew public jubilation and media coverage for weeks.

Modi hailed the event as a defining moment for India’s freedom from the ‘chains of slavery’, but many of India’s 210 million-plus Muslim population see the event as another sign of their growing marginalization. is

The new Ram temple has been built on the site of the 500-year-old Babri Masjid. The Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992 by a mob of Hindu extremists during a campaign led by top leaders of Modi’s ruling party.

The riots that followed were the worst riots since India’s independence. 2000 people lost their lives across the country, most of whom were Muslims.

Hindu activists claim that the Babri Masjid was built during the Mughal Empire on the site of a Hindu deity’s temple. Hindus involved in the campaign see the Mughal era as a period in which their religion was persecuted.

Sohanlal Arya, a longtime advocate of Hindu causes, said the court’s decision to open a place of worship to Hindus in Varanasi was a “step forward” in the campaign to right historical wrongs.

72-year-old Arya said, ‘It is a matter of pride for us.’

‘They (Mughal rulers) destroyed our holy places and made mosques. Our evidence is correct. That is why we have full faith in the courts.’