The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Thursday reiterated the significance of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, against the backdrop of controversies over Muslim places of worship, and stated this law had ‘closed doors’ for changing the nature of places of worship.
An AIMPLB executive body meeting was organised at Al Mahad ul Aali al Islami, an Islamic seminary in the suburbs of Hyderabad, that is overseen by the organisation president Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani. Soon after the meeting the AIMPLB released a statement in which it expressed these concerns.
“The Executive Committee of the AIMPLB is concerned with regards to the new developments in the lower courts in the Gyavapi case in Varanasi, and the Shahi Eidgah case in Mathura. During the meeting, it was felt that through the law of 1991, the legislature of the country had closed the doors for any change of places of worship,” the statement, issued in Urdu, reads.
The AIMPLB added that the Executive Committee felt that appeals of the Muslims in connection with Gyanvapi and Shahi Eidgah cases were being ignored.
Touching upon other issues, the AIMPLB stated that it feared that the Sunehri Masjid in Delhi and six other mosques could be targeted by anti-social elements. They pointed out that these, and other mosques, were heritage structures and should not be tampered with.
This story was originally published in thehindu.com. Read the full story here .