The Chhattisgarh Waqf Board has made it compulsory for all Friday sermons delivered at mosques in the state to be vetted beforehand, to prevent political speeches being made under the guise of worship, reported The Indian Express reported on Monday.
Chairman of the Chhattisgarh Waqf Board Salim Raj said that mosque sermons should focus solely on Islamic teachings and avoid political content.
The decision came after the board received reports of “anti-government” speeches being made in some mosques in the state, the newspaper reported quoting unidentified persons.
Chhattisgarh is governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Raj, who is also the head of the Hindutva party’s minority affairs wing in the state, told The Indian Express that a mosque “shouldn’t be turned into a political adda [place]”.
“It’s unfortunate that the place is used to issue fatwas [Islamic rulings] and decide who to vote and whom not to vote…They must talk about Islam, what it says and the message of Allah,” he said. “Politics must be left for politicians.”
Raj announced that the board would send letters detailing the new rules to the state’s 3,800 mosques. “The order will be effective this Friday,” he said.
The directive has faced criticism from Opposition parties, including the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and the Congress.
“The waqf board of the BJP government of Chhattisgarh wants that before giving the Jummah [Friday] sermon, the khatib [person who delivers religious sermons] should get his sermon checked by the Waqf Board and should not give the sermon without the permission of the board,” All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi wrote in a post on social media. “Now BJP people will tell us what is religion? Do I have to take permission from them to follow my religion? The Waqf Board has no such legal power, and even if it had, it would have been against Article 25 of the Constitution.”
Article 25 guarantees citizens the right to profess, practice and propagate their religion.
“The Waqf Board has the authority to assess its properties but does not have the power to give instructions on what a maulana or mutawalli can say in their speeches inside mosques,” said Congress spokesperson Sushil Anand Shukla to The Indian Express. “This is unconstitutional and the Congress party condemns this.”
The BJP argued that the move was needed to prevent mosques “from being misused for political ends”.
“We have seen in Kashmir, where they kept issuing fatwas and it led to Kashmiri Pandits facing violence and fleeing the place,” BJP state spokesperson Tauqir Raza was quoted as saying.
“Here too, if any controversial comments are made against the nation or state or anti-national elements try to participate in such things, the government will act on them,” Raza added. “An eye is being kept on all mosques so they are not misused.”