Jamiat head loses crown

Jamiat head loses crown

RASHEED KIDWAI (Kolkata, Telegraph)

March 8: The head of Dar-ul-Uloom’s parent organisation finds himself out of a job barely two weeks after the influential Deoband seminary issued a fatwa against terrorism and suicide bombing.

The exit of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Hind chief, Maulana Arshad Madni, is a setback to the Congress at a time general elections are inching closer and several Assembly polls are coming up later this year.

Unlike other apolitical religious orders, the Jamiat has been a declared Congress ally since its inception in 1919. It participated in the Khilafat movement and opposed the two-nation theory.

Arshad, a moderate, was often seen in the company of senior AICC functionaries. In his absence, his nephew Mahmood Madni has emerged an all-powerful leader.

Mahmood, now a Rashtriya Lok Dal MP in the Rajya Sabha, told The Telegraph the Jamiat would review its political stance.

“We are for the protection of Muslims in India and bringing them into the national mainstream. We will extend our support to political outfit(s) after closely examining their credentials,” he said.

“Our pledge against terrorism will continue.”

The Jamiat has been in the throes of a power struggle since the death last year of Maulana Asad Madni, a Congress Rajya Sabha MP for decades. A section of the Jamiat leaders wanted his son Mahmood to succeed him. But organisation elders favoured Asad Madni’s brother Arshad.

Mahmood has, however, declined to wear the crown directly. After Arshad was removed at an extraordinary working committee meet in New Delhi on Thursday, the Jamiat “elected” Qari Mohammad Usman, the vice-rector of the Deoband school, as its interim president.

Arshad was present when 24 of the 32 working committee members adopted the resolution. He stormed out, vowing to seek legal intervention against his “illegal exit”.

In accordance with the Jamiat constitution, a general council has been convened on March 26 to ratify the verdict.

Muslim scholars familiar with the Jamiat said Arshad might float a breakaway group. But Assam Jamiat chief Badurddin Ajmal hoped the Arshad and Mahmood groups would come together.

“I am neither with this group nor that group. I am for a united Jamiat… (we) are trying our best to avert a split. Let us pray to God for the best,” Ajmal said.

On Thursday, the Mahmood group had claimed Ajmal’s support. Ajmal’s nascent Assam United Democratic Front had won 10 seats in the 2006 Assembly polls after he fell out with the Congress, but he continued his link with the Jamiat.

In Delhi, Congress leaders said the real fear was that under the new leadership the Jamiat might embark upon the “Ajmal model” across the country.

http://telegraphindia.com/1080309/jsp/frontpage/story_8998365.jsp