NEW DELHI: Addressing a special gathering held to celebrate Independence Day at Darul Uloom Deoband, the President of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, Maulana Arshad Madani, described the country’s independence and democracy as great blessings, and strongly criticised those elements seeking to destroy the very fabric of India’s secularism.
He emphatically stated: “If anyone wants to know what freedom truly means, they should ask us. We have made the sacrifices. The history of India’s freedom struggle can neither be written nor understood without mentioning the tremendous sacrifices of Darul Uloom Deoband, the Ulama, madrasas and Muslims.”
He said that Darul Uloom Deoband itself was established with the purpose of producing freedom fighters. Following the massacre of 1857, Darul Uloom Deoband was established in 1866. Unfortunately, today attempts are being made to distort history and maliciously link those very madrasas with terrorism, institutions from which one of the earliest calls for freedom against colonial slavery was raised.
Maulana Madani said that the Silk Letter Movement and the imprisonment in Malta are among the glorious chapters of our history that no sectarian force can erase. Shaikh al-Hind Maulana Mahmood Hasan Deobandi (ra), Shaikh al-Islam Maulana Hussain Ahmad Madani, and their companions were imprisoned thousands of miles away in Malta because they wanted to see India liberated from British colonial rule.
Addressing sectarian forces, he asked: “When our elders were imprisoned in Malta, when the Ulama were filling British prisons and sacrificing their lives for the freedom of the country, where were the ideological predecessors of those who today claim the authority to distribute certificates of patriotism?”
Therefore, he said, before demanding proof of patriotism from Muslims and madrasas, they should first look at their own past in the mirror of history.
Maulana Madani further stated that it would be incorrect to suggest that those who were previously in power bore no responsibility for the present circumstances. They too consistently made attempts to harm Muslims socially, educationally and politically, and communal riots and anti-Muslim violence also occurred during their periods of rule.
“However,” he said, “there is a major difference between the past and the present. Earlier, Muslims themselves were the target; today, Islam itself is also under attack.”
He added that those who attempted to eliminate Islam have themselves disappeared, while Islam has survived and, God willing, will continue to live until the Day of Judgment.
Referring to the former Soviet Union, Maulana Madani said that for many years, attempts were made to promote communism and eradicate Islam. Restrictions were imposed on mosques and religious seminaries, and for years even the call to prayer was not heard from mosques. But the world eventually witnessed the disintegration of the Soviet Union, after which several Muslim states emerged. “Despite all oppression and brutality,” he said, “Islam remains alive, and Muslims remain alive.
Courtesy: India Tomorrow
