Ayodhya review petition will harm community’s interests, say Muslim activists

Around 100 Muslim activists and professionals from different fields have urged the Muslim litigants in the Ayodhya dispute to not file a review petition in a Supreme Court verdict favouring the construction of a Ram Temple at the disputed site.

The activists belonging to different states, but mainly from Maharashtra, hold that such a step would only harm the Muslims’ interests.

“We share the unhappiness of the Indian Muslim community, constitutional experts and secular organisations over the fact that the highest court in the land has placed faith above law in arriving at its decision,” a statement signed by more than 90 Muslim activists, journalists, businessmen, poets, actors, filmmakers, theatre personalities, students, farmers and home makers.

“But while agreeing that the court order is judicially flawed, we strongly believe that keeping the Ayodhya dispute alive will harm, and not help, Indian Muslims,” it added.

The statement further said: “We urge fellow Muslims to ponder over what has been gained and what has been lost in the course of the over three-decades-old Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute. Has it not meant loss of previous Muslim lives and countless property on one side and the meteoric political ascendency of the Sangh Parivar on the other? Have we not learnt through bitter experience that in any communal conflict, it is the poor Muslim who pays the price?

“Many have been advising Muslims to ‘move on’. Our appeal to fellow Muslims is to ‘move away’ from the mandir-masjid dispute since it only helps to mask the real agenda of the Sangh Parivar: the replacement of our secular-democratic republic with a Hindu Rashtra.

“We believe that continuation of the dispute in the court will add fuel to anti-Muslim propaganda and Islamophobia, aid further communal polarisation. On the other hand, in choosing not to pursue the matter further, Muslims stand to gain the goodwill and empathy of the non-communal millions from the majority community. This will be in the best interests of the community and the country.”