Syed Waseem Rizvi who has been for some years the target of hate and death threats from Islamist organisations and clergy for his stance on gracefully handing over the Ramjanmabhoomi for constructing a grand Ram Mandir in Ayodhya as also voluntarily dismantling the masjids built by Aurangzeb by demolishing Kashi Vishwanath Mandir at Kashi and the Krishnajanmabhoomi temple at Mathura.

Syed Waseem Rizvi has now dared to file a plea in the Supreme Court for the removal of 26 verses of Quran with reference to Kafirs or non-believers of Islam. These verses of Quran, written in the Medieval period, is used even today by Islamists to poison young minds to promote terrorism, violence and jihad.

Rizvi has as reported by Aaj Tak claimed in his petition that these verses were added to the holy book of Muslims later. “These verses were added to the Quran, by the first three Caliphs, to aid the expansion of Islam by war” as averred by Rizvi.

Rizvi’s petition reportedly states that “after Mohammad, the first Caliphs Hazrat Abu Bakr, the second Caliphs Hazrat Umar and the third namely Hazrat Usman released the Quran as a book, based on the oral preachings of Mohammad”. This was passed on from generation to generation.

Rizvi states in his petition that nearly 26 verses added to the Quran by these Caliphs promoted violence as the period of spreading Islam by the sword began. Rizvi points out in his petition that now Islamist terrorists use these verses to fuel jihad against non-Muslims which creates unrest and violence in society.

Rizvi explains the deleterious effect of these toxic verses in Quran by showing how these verses are used to mislead and poison the minds of young generation Muslims making them fundamentalist radicals and pushing them to take to terrorism resulting in massacre of millions of innocents.

Notably, in December 2020 a Public Interest Litigation had been filed by a brave reformist Advocate Karunesh Kumar Shukla before the Supreme Court of India against some verses in Quran which are ‘global threat to humanity’. The young advocate’s plea contended that these verses teach the young Muslims that it is religiously sanctioned to “assassinate and kill people of other faith especially the idol worshippers”. These teachings threaten the very existence and safety of Hindu community in India which is a patent violation of Right to Life under Article 21 and Right to practice individual religion and faith under Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution of India.

However, the current petition of Syed Waseem Rizvi has brought him under severe attack from other Muslim clergy and Islamic organisations. The fundamentalist Jammu & Kashmir Civil Society Forum chairman Qayoom Wani called Rizvi’s act of filing the petition ‘blasphemous’ and said: “Any kind of blasphemous act about Quran is intolerable to humanity in general and to Muslims in particular and whosoever does the blasphemous act, history is witness, he has seen its harsh result. JKCSF has appealed the Supreme Court of India to outright reject the petition of amendments against Quran to safeguard and respect the sentiments of the Muslims and other Quran lovers who seek guidance from this book of Allah”.

This in effect is a virtual threat to Rizvi’s life as Islamic holy books and practices prescribes death penalty as punishment for apostacy and blasphemy in Islam. Notably, Maulana Kalbe Jawad demanded that Rizvi should be arrested for going to courts against Quranic verses as reported by Aaj Tak. Kalbe Jawad also threatened that if Rizvi is not arrested immediately, there would be mass scale rioting and violence in the country by the Muslim community.

Maulana Kalbe Jawad also unilaterally declared that Rizvi was neither a Muslim nor a Shia and he was an agent of enemies of Islam. The Maulana also said that he would be writing to the Shia religious authorities in Iraq and Iran, the Marajiayah and Mujtahid respectively to declare Rizvi as a non-Muslim and expel him from the Shia community.

It is shocking that such veiled death threats and abuses are hurled at Rizvi and the authorities are being blackmailed into arresting Rizvi and threatening to unleash violent riots in the country because Rizvi chose to exercise his fundamental rights to approach the courts for seeking reforms in problematic texts in Quran.

These controversial texts has been the main source of Islamic jihad and violence for the past 1400 years till today worldwide and Sanatan Dharma and Bharat has borne the brunt of it by shrinking geographically by nearly 80% of its original space and losing thousands of million Sanatani men, women, children due to Islamic jihad.

Pertinently, an attempt was made as early as in 1985 by Chandmal Chopra and Himangshu Kishore Chakraborty for banning the Quran in India, by filing a petition in the Calcutta High Court. This petition is famously referred to as the Calcutta Quran Petition this petition was dismissed summarily by the High Court without even going through the facts of the case or even cursorily examining the verses in Quran which calls for annihilation of all other faiths, causing violent mayhem across the world and being in gross violation of the fundamental right to freedom of religion, belief and conscience.

The Supreme Court of India should not shy away from its duty to examine with open mind and do a deep study to examine these controversial texts in Quran which is a cause of hatred and violence in society. The Supreme Court should at least for a beginning issue directions that these controversial verses should not be taught in any madrasas or repeated in any sermons during Namaz in mosques so that young minds are saved from poisonous teachings which kill the personality and development of children and ends up making them monsters.

The government should give adequate protection to Sayed Waseem Rizvi and not cave in to pressures from Islamist fundamentalists and clergy whose ultimate aim is Ghazwa-e-Hind.

News input: Aaj Tak & Opindia. Image sourced from Opindia.

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