Hindutva outfit threatens to Storm Shahi Idgah Mosque
Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM), a Hindu right-wing outfit has asked the Mathura district administration in Uttar Pradesh state to bar Muslims from entering the historic Shahi Idgah.
Rajyashree Chaudhary, the outfit’s President, threatened that if Muslims were not barred from entering the mosque, his group members would storm the premises on December 6 and recite the Hanuman Chalisa (Hindu chants). Notably, December 6 is also marked as the anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya.
“The festival of Krishna Janmashtami will be celebrated on August 18. We warn the district administration to seal the Idgah by August 17. We have also moved the court regarding this. We are requesting the district administration to take an early decision in the matter and seal the Idgah by August 17,” Chaudhary told a press conference on Wednesday.
Repeating the hateful rhetoric of RSS against historic Muslim mosques, Chaudhary claimed that the Shahi Idgah was built on the sanctum sanctorum of a temple.
Delhi Court Grants Bail to Muslim Journalist Mohammed Zubair
A Delhi court has granted bail to journalist and fact-checker Mohammed Zubair in the 2018 tweet case of insulting religious beliefs on a personal bond and surety of 50,000 rupees.
The Court has imposed one more condition with the bail: Zubair cannot leave the country without it’s permission.
While granting the bail, Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Devender Kumar Jangla observed that the “Hindu religion is one of the oldest religions and most tolerant. The followers of the Hindu religion are also tolerant.”
“In Indian democracy, the political parties are open for criticism. The political parties are not shying away from public to face the criticism of its policies. The voice of dissent is necessary for healthy democracy,” the judge added.
Jangla also noted that the police had failed to identify the Twitter user who had lodged the initial complainant against Zubair after claiming to be offended by the tweet.
Zubair was arrested on June 27 by Delhi Police in connection with a 2018 tweet and has been in police custody since. The bail doesn’t guarantee freedom for the Muslim journalist as five other cases remain pending against him in the Hindutva hotbed of Uttar Pradesh.
Gyanvapi Mosque Case: Allahabad Court Bars Lower Court from Resuming Hearing
Fresh hearings have commenced before the Allahabad High Court in connection with a petition filed by the committee that manages the Gyanvapi mosque to stay the proceedings before a lower court in Varanasi.
The committee argued that the lower court should not be allowed to conduct proceedings, given how the judgment in the title suit pertaining to the Kashi Vishwanath temple and the Gyanvapi mosque dispute has been served by the Allahabad High Court.
The Times of India reported the lawyer representing the Kashi Vishwanath Trust (KVT) argued on July 13 that the court could now adjudicate historical wrongs.
For decades, the land dispute between the Kashi Vishwanath temple and the Gyanvapi mosque has become fodder for controversy and hate-mongering by Hindu supremacist groups like the Ayodhya dispute which resulted in the demolition of the Babri mosque and the killing of thousands of Muslims across the country in deadly riots.
