New Delhi, 24 Sep 2014: To counter the impacts of the saffron hate campaign in Uttar Pradesh, the state unit of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind has launched a 10-day Peace and Love Campaign. Through the campaign, Jamaat members and leaders are meeting non-Muslims with a message of peace and communal harmony and holding rallies and interfaith public meetings in over two dozen districts of western Uttar Pradesh – the region has been the centre of aggressive hate campaign of Sangh Parivar, BJP and their sister outfits in the name of false propaganda of ‘Love Jihad’ and forced conversions.
The campaign started on 21st Sep with a public meeting in Saharanpur. The program was addressed by Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Omari, national president of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and Mohammad Salim Engineer, National Secretary.
During the campaign, Jamaat is holding over 50 public meetings in several districts including Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Bijnor, Rampur, Moradabad and Aligarh. Besides state leaders of the Jamaat, many of these meetings will be addressed by central leaders including secretaries Mohammad Salim Engineer, Mohammad Iqbal Mulla and Ejaz Ahmed Aslam. State leaders of the Jamaat including Ashhad Jamal Nadwi, Dr. Farhat Hussain, Maulana Sirajuddin Nadwi and Saqib Hussain Falahi are also addressing the meetings.
On the eve of the launch of the campaign, Jamaat organized a daylong seminar on Communal Amity – Need of the hour at Rajendar Bhawan in New Delhi on 20th Sep.
Addressing the seminar, Jamaat chief Maulana Omari said: “India has been a centre of different religions and culture for a long time and it is not true to say that whoever lives here is Hindu but all of us are Hindustani.”
He said that Islam wants a broad environment for dialogue with different religions and ideologies.
Emphasizing that there is no compulsion in Islam, he said that under Islamic law if a person complains to the court telling he or she was forced to embrace Islam then Islamic court will send him back to his/her previous religion and order to punish the person who forced him or her to convert.
He said that there is an urgent need of an environment in which people belonging to different sects and religions can easily understand each other
Referring to ‘Love Jihad’ controversy he said that it is a very dirty blame on Islam.
The program was also addressed by Sikh leader and head priest of Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, Delhi, Giani Ranjit Singh. He appealed to people to live with peace and mutual love.
Islam does not approve of conversion through illicit means. It does not want to increase its membership through cheating or use of force. It promotes welfare of all sections of the society. It also believes in the propagation this religion in the most legitimate ways – using the rights to religion enshrined in the great Constitution of India.