Prominent Indian Muslims have condemned the violent reaction, including the attacks on churches, by a section of the community in India to the alleged desecration of the Holy Koran in the U.S.
“Any religious follower has a right to protest the desecration of the religious scriptures but has no right to attack individuals or places of worship of others as Islam forbids it very clearly. Any such attack needs to be equally condemned as that of the desecration of the Koran by two individuals in the U.S.,” said a statement signed by Manzoor Alam, general secretary, All-India Milli Council; Mujtaba Farooque, secretary, Jamat-e-Islami Hind; Niaz Farouqi, secretary, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind; and Navaid Hamid, secretary, South Asian Council for Minorities.
The signatories said they equally condemned the attempts of some individuals in the U.S. to desecrate the Quran: “...these misguided individuals [obviously] never went through the message of the Koran which has universal appeal and the message of peace and brotherhood for all mankind…”
The group appealed to the Muslim community in India to show restraint as any violent reaction would only deepen the divide between the “followers of the two Abrahamic religions — Islam and Christianity — across the globe.”
“We appeal to the governments of U.S. and India to explore all possibilities of legal action against all those who have desecrated the Islamic holy book or have vandalised religious properties or have attacked innocent individuals in the name of religion.”
