New Delhi: Syed Waseem Rizvi, the chairman of Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Board of Waqfs on Monday announced the first Shia based political outfit in the country, ‘India Shia Awami League’ in order to not let the majority Sunni Muslims “overshadow the Shias” in the country.
Rizvi has been appointed the national president of this new political outfit. He recently moved a PIL demanding a ban on hoisting the Pakistan Muslim League flag in mosques, madrassas and Muslim majority areas in the country.
According to Rizvi, the Pakistan Muslim League flag that has a crescent and star on a green background is often raised in Muslim majority areas and it has got nothing to do with Islam.
Rizvi further stated that the new political outfit was triggered by a continuous ignoring of Shias within the Muslim community as Sunnis continue to overshadow them.
“Though the Shia community is a part of the Muslim minority, but on account of being just 20% of the total Muslim population, it has been an object of oppression and exploitation of the fundamentalist section of the Muslim minority. Since the Sunnis constitute about 80% of the Muslim community, benefits under the government schemes meant for the minorities along with other social and political benefits are always reaped by them,” states the official party release.
The new party, which has a flying eagle as its logo, has also initiated its registration process with the Election Commission of India with a national executive body in place.
Rizvi has claimed that the Sunnis do not consider Shias as Muslims thus denying them of their due.
“We have want to work towards the political and social upliftment of the Shia community and ensure that the community gets its due which has been denied to it. The Sunni sect has never considered us their brothers and conversely the fatwas are issued world over to kill the innocent Shias,” states the National President of the ISAL.
Rizvi had recently created an uproar when it asked the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) to hand over nine medieval period mosques constructed by Mughal kings.
Rizvi had earlier appealed to the AIMPLB to drop the claims of Muslims over the Babri mosque at Ayodhya and suggested that a new mosque ‘Masjid-e-Aman’ be constructed elsewhere.
Posing a question before AIMPLB, Rizvi had then asked, "Does Islam permit the construction of mosques at the site of religious places of other faiths in a multi-religious country. Will such mosques be rightful places of worship as per the basic tenets of Islam?”
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