NEW DELHI, 18 August — The shahi imam of India’s largest mosque yesterday demanded UN troop deployment in Israel to save what he said were Palestinians facing Israeli “barbarism and oppression”.
After a 20-minute speech at the Jama Masjid during which he denounced Israel, Shahi Imam Syed Ahmad Bukhari presided over a noisy protest outside the 17th-century mosque against the killings of Palestinians.
Nearly 4,000 Muslims joined the demonstration shouting slogans and waving placards, crippling traffic in a one-km stretch in the heart of the national capital’s old quarter. Hundreds of people watched the rally from rooftops of nearby buildings and from inside the red sandstone mosque.
The crowd chanted slogans against the US and Israel and hailed Syed Bukhari.
In his address, Bukhari thundered: “The Islamic world can no more tolerate the ugly acts of genocide which Israel had started since last September and is still continuing. “Muslims are being killed and tortured mentally, emotionally and physically in every lane of Occupied Jerusalem. How long can we tolerate this? We want to tell the Palestinian Muslims that each and every Indian Muslim is with them and they are not alone.”
Bukhari said: “The Israeli barbarians are trying to snatch the Muslims’ right to live. But history is witness that whoever has tried to destroy Islam or Muslims has always lost.
“This time too we promise that we will teach Israel a lesson. Islam has never bent before any of its enemies. I pay rich tributes to Palestinian ‘mujahedeens’ who are sacrificing their lives for the sake of God and glory of Islam.”
Later, led by Bukhari, a 10-member delegation submitted a memorandum to the UN office here, requesting Secretary General Kofi Annan to convene a special session of the Security Council to discuss the Middle East violence and to impose economic sanctions against Israel.
“The Muslims of India feel that if the world does not initiate immediate and strong action against Israel, peace in the region would be in danger and Palestinian ‘intifida’ would be geared up.
“We demand an international inquiry commission may be set up to investigate Israeli oppression on Palestinians and all Arab territories should be got vacated on which Israel has established its possession violating internationally recognized norms and rules.” Besides Bukhari, Nawabuddin Naqshbandi, the imam of a mosque at Delhi’s Safdarjung tomb, Professor Akhtarul Wasey of Jamia Millia Islamia, and Wasim Ahmed Ghazi of the Citizen for Peace group also signed the memorandum.
In a separate development yesterday, many Muslim organizations urged Congress party President Sonia Gandhi to help rebuild the Asind Mosque of Bhilwara district in Rajasthan. The mosque, demolished by Gujjars on July 27, should be built at the same site, not elsewhere, they said in a memorandum to Sonia.
The memorandum signed by nine Muslim organizations said, “It was the state government’s duty to rebuild the mosque at the same site without any delay. The delay of each day would weaken the trust of the minorities and the weaker sections in the Congress ruled state,” said the memorandum.
“You can very well understand the feelings and sentiments of Muslim community in this regard. It has reminded us of the Babri Masjid demolition and the role of the Congress government at the center at that time,” the Muslim leaders said.
