MUMBAI: A First Information Report (FIR) was lodged against Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan at the Bandra police station on Thursday night on the allegations that he had insulted Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in the June issue of the film magazine, Time’N Style.
The police registered the FIR on a complaint lodged by businessman Khaled Babu Qureshi, a member of a nongovernmental organization, Mumbai Aman Committee (MAC).
Earlier, a group of 300 Muslims protested against the actor in the Santa Cruz suburb. The mob also created ruckus at the Bandra police station. Qureshi in his complaint said that the Muslims have objected to Shah Rukh’s remarks against the Prophet. He alleged that Shah Rukh has used inappropriate language against the Prophet in the magazine interview.
A case under Section 295-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against Shah Rukh. The case is of cognizable nature and nonbailable.
However, a corrigendum from the magazine was also published in Mumbai newspapers Thursday wherein the magazine accepted the error. The corrigendum stated: “This is with reference to the interview with Shah Rukh Khan that featured in Time’N Style-Luxury Vol-1 issue: The answer to question ‘According to you (Shah Rukh) who is the most impressive figure in history?’ should have appeared as: ‘There are lots of them. Some negative ones like Hitler. Then Napoleon, Winston Churchill were impressive.”
The magazine stated that according to the corrigendum it should be read as “According to you who is the most impressive figure in history?” “If I can call it history then most impressive, positive figure Prophet Muhammad and from recent times there are the nice ones like Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and Mother Teresa.”
The magazine stated that while making the clarification it said that the error was deeply regretted. A police officer of the Bandra police station confirmed that even after the publication of corrigendum by the magazine, the FIR had not been withdrawn. Shah Rukh would be questioned upon his return from the United States, he said.
Shock-shelled, Shah Rukh, who is in Los Angeles for a shooting, reacting to the protests by Muslims and a case against him, yesterday said that he was misrepresented and that there was nobody in the history more important to him that Prophet Muhammad. Being a Muslim and standing up for the tenets of Islam was his most important agenda in life. My comments in the interview were misinterpreted due to a “writing error,” he said, adding that anyone who questions his views on this is doing just that to create a controversy.
Shah Rukh further said that if “the MAC had seen my interviews on TV about Islam and Prophet Muhammad, they would know it’s a writing error and not a thought or view that I believe in and added that for all practical purposes, Prophet Muhammad is the most important positive figure in Islam.”
However, Qureshi is not relenting from his stand and is stubborn on dragging Shah Rukh to the court. “The Muslims would not take anything lying down. The issue was released on June 6. We have received no replies from the actor or the publication. And, hence, the MAC decided to file the FIR against Shah Rukh and the publication. We will not accept any apology and will let the courts decide. A large number of Muslims would demonstrate before Shah Rukh’s house in Bandra after his return,” he said.
