Contributing for construction and prayers at Masjid in Ayodhya is ‘haraam’: Owaisi

Hyderabad: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi said the government is distorting the basic tenets of the Constitution by enacting laws to discriminate against the citizens on the basis of religion.

He was addressing a public meeting in Bidar on the topic “Save Constitution-Save India’.

Owaisi said that in the country of Gandhi, Babasaheb Ambedkar and Maulana Azad, legislation had been passed on ‘love jihad’. He said an attempt was being made to spoil the Constitution by enactment laws contradicting the statute.

He said he had taken the canonical opinions of religious scholars, Muftis and even ulema of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board about the status of the masjid in Ayodhya to be built as a replacement for Babri masjid. “All of them had opined that it must not be called a masjid and prayers cannot be performed there. Performing prayers and contributing for the construction of that masjid is haram (not permissible),” Owaisi claimed.

“Muslims should not perform prayers in that masjid. Instead of contributing to the construction of that Masjid, Muslim should contribute to the marriages of poor girls,” Owaisi said.

Owaisi said those who had faith in the teachings of Dr Ambedkar should mould their lives within the frame of the Constitution. “We will enjoy the fruits of independence if we ensure liberty, equality, fraternity and justice in a true spirit for every citizen,” Owaisi said.

Owaisi quoted Dr Ambedkar as saying, ‘until you achieve independence you will not prosper. Until you ensure equality you will not get justice and without fraternity no one will come near you’ and said these four basic principles were mentioned in the preamble to the Constitution.

He asked Muslims to refrain from competing with Dalit and Backward Classes. “The time has come to cooperate with them. If these three communities start cooperating with each other, you will be able to end the 70 years of rule by upper caste people who constitute only 22 per cent of the population,” Owaisi said.