New Delhi, 04 Oct 2014: Several eminent religious leaders from different communities gave a united call here on Saturday to fight against the rise in communal violence in the country. At the joint press conference called by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind at Press Club of India, they asked both central and state governments to check communalism and hate campaign.

 

In the backdrop of rise in communal violence across the country, top religious leaders from major communities – Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Jains Saturday asked the government to take steps to check the phenomenon, even as Shankaracharya Swami Onkaranand came down heavily on BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj for terming the madrasas as “hub of terror”.

 

Shankaracharya said that “Sakshi Maharaj is ignorant about the role played by madrasas. Sakshi Maharaj is not a religious leader and he is spreading rumors.”

 

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Unnao Sakshi Maharaj a few weeks ago had stirred a hornet’s nest by calling madrasas as “hubs of terror and jihadis”.

 

Besides the Shankaracharya, the press conference was addressed by Mukhya Granthi Gurduwara Rakab Ganj Rajinder Singh, Jain cleric Lokesh Muni, Christian religious leader Father Dominic Emmanuel, Shia leader Maulana Jalal Haider and Amir Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari. The meet was oraganized by Jamaat.

 

Christian religious leader Fr Dominic Emmanuel expressed concern over RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat being allowed live coverage on country’s national news broadcaster Doordarshan and wanted to know whether people from other religions would be considered for such a privilege.

 

“We respect the prime minister (Narendra Modi),” he said but questioned the move of the national broadcaster in giving prime time to the leader of an organization which has a sectarian agenda.

 

As the PM was a former RSS pracharak, the organization was being appeased, the meet observed. The meet also expressed concern over use of technology to spread communalism. Fringe elements in recent times have used social media to spread canard and divisive ideologies.

 

National President of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Maulana Umari said that for the country to prosper, social capital should be built and issues between the communities should be amicably resolved. The policy of divide and rule should end. Political parties blame each other for riots but reap electoral harvest, he said.

 

“India is a country of people with high religious sense and it is the responsibility of the elders and responsible people from across the communities that the social capital is not damaged. Jamaat people reached Uttrakhand to help the non-Muslim victims of the flood trying to set an example of communal harmony in the country,” he said.

 

Jain religious leader Lokesh Muni appealed to the media – both print and electronic – to help spread the message of secularism and peace among communities in the country. “Communalism weakens democracy and the nation. Jain community will always support the idea of peace and secularism,” he said.

 

Sikh Granthi Rajinder Singh expressed concern on how personal disputes among people and families are given communal color. Minor differences are given a communal color, he said.

 

A joint statement was released by the religious leaders at the end of the press conference, calling upon the people of the country to get united to take on the menace of communalism.

 

“If we want to save the nation from distrust, division, violence, hatred and communalism and if we want to promote the atmosphere of peace and tranquility, so that the nation may achieve progress and growth, then we will have to curb the evil tendencies of division, polarization, hostility and hatred. The peace loving people of the country will have to form effective and dynamic front against the forces spreading evil and disturbance,” read the statement.

 

Full Text of the Joint Statement:

Religious Leaders Call Countrymen To Fight Against Communalism

 

New Delhi: 4th October, 2014.

Our country has been inhabited since long by people following various beliefs, hailing from different regions, having diverse cultures and speaking different languages. They also belong to numerous social strata hence in all senses the Indian nation is a real plural society. These diversities and differntialities never became a basis of contention for creating chaos and conflict; rather India has been successful in exhibiting a colourful tradition of tolerance of diversity, in its multiple forms.

 

The British during their regime tried their utmost to put the seeds of division by misguiding the Hindu and Muslim communities on communal and religious lines and provoking one to fight against the other. In spite of this, the two communities fought together for independence and threw the British rule out from India.

 

It is a fact that we had to inherit the bitter fruits of hatred, discord and enmity created by the British for a long period. Communal riots that erupted soon after partition of the country, it took around six decades to contain them to a certain extent. The conditions gradually improved; and people began to breathe a sigh of relief that unity in diversity has returned and has become the new reality. People began to dream about and visualize a great nation in the future; wherein all citizens would jointly stand and struggle for the wellbeing of its entire population. The progress of the nation would overcome the shortfalls and pitfalls of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment. The communal fascist forces were kept on the margin, by virtue of ideology of tolerance. Now such negative forces have resorted to the same British policy and have started planting seeds of division in the polity on communal or caste and cultural lines to gain power. They began to form political alliances to promote the divisive policy. They knew well that by ideology alone, they would never come near to power. Hence they set their political agenda of coming to power on the basis of politics of hatred and hostility. We see today that under the patronage of such elements, all destructive and negative forces are engaged in creating the atmosphere of hatred and communalism. Apprehensions are high that this great nation might turn once again to the catastrophe of riots, killings and violence.

 

It is a fact that majority of the people wants peace and tranquility and are keen to take the country forward on the path of harmony and security. But the pity is that at critical times like this, they keep either silence or become passive spectators.  This silence becomes the license for the troublemakers, though their numbers will be usually very minimal. They succeed in enflaming entire villages and towns with riots, loot and killings, distrust and division.

 

If riot and disturbance erupt at a place, the local administration should be held responsible for that. It is the duty of the state authorities to control such incidents at the earliest and to contain the disruptive forces. But we are sorry to note that many local administrative authorities and state governments fail to perform their obligations and duties in true letter and spirit. If the local authorities deal with trouble with iron hand and the state governments fulfill their constitutional obligations, then violence and unrest can easily be controlled.

 

It is not uncommon or unnatural that differences might erupt in any plural society, but efforts should be made to see that such differences are resolved through dialogue and discussion before they become volcanoes to explode. The identity of a civilized society is measured by the environment for mutual interaction and communication that it maintains always. Freedom of expression is a basic right granted by constitution, but there are some reasonable boundaries and restrictions for it.

 

Most Indians are religious. The religious heads always used to disseminate the message of peace and tranquility and they paid special attention to character building among people. People suffering from the strains of prevailing situations and seeking peace flocked to them to get peace and salvation. But it has to be said that many of our religious heads and leaders have forgotten their responsibilities when anti-social and disruptive elements are active in tearing off the social fabric of peace and fraternity. The same can be said about the intelligentsia and peace loving elements.

 

If we want to save the nation from distrust, division, violence, hatred and communalism and if we want to promote the atmosphere of peace and tranquility, so that the nation may achieve progress and growth, then we will have to curb the evil tendencies of division, polarization, hostility and hatred. The peace loving people of the country will have to form effective and dynamic front against the forces spreading evil and disturbance. In these circumstances and with this background, the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind has given a call to all peace loving people, leaders and heads of all religions, human rights organizations and institutions, intelligentsia, to come forward and form a strong platform against the trends of communal fascism. Jamaat-e-Islami Hind is a well-known socio religious movement. It has been always active in promoting values to promote constructive atmosphere in the country. We are extremely grateful and glad that a significant number of religious heads and leaders of the intelligentsia have positively responded to our invitation and some of them are present in this press meet. They will put their ideas and suggestions before you. The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind will try to initiate an effective movement across the country against communalism. It will promote the message of peace; tranquility and brotherhood. It has recently conducted a ten days campaign in Utter Pradesh and Utra khand which has generated positive response among the people.

 

•           Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Omari (Ameer, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind)

•           Mr. Rajinder Singh (Mukhya Granthi, Gurudwara Rakab ganj)

•           Shankaracharya Swami Onkaranand ji

•           Lokesh Muni (Founder President Ahimsa Vishva Bharti)

•           Father Dominic (Editor, The Word Among Us )

•           Maulana Jalal Haider (Gen. Secretary, Majlis Ulma-e-Hind)