Prophet row: The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Solapur district chief Farooq Shabdi, who gathered people here after Friday prayers said that the party high command had given the order to agitate adding that there will be bigger protests than these if now-sacked BJP functionaries Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal are not arrested over their controversial remarks against Prophet Mohammad. Shabdi added they used social media to gather young Muslims since it's one of the best mediums to raise your voice.
Speaking on protests turning violent, Shabdi said that if there was unrest... disturbance... then only the MIM is not responsible. Everyone is responsible.
The AIMIM leader further said that a meeting was held in Mumbai before Friday prayers. In that meeting, it was decided that a movement would be held against those who speak against the glory of the Prophet... therefore they need to raise their voice against this.
Shabdi further said that don't give too much importance to his appeal to the community... Nupur and Naveen's remarks have hurt the hearts of Muslims... people just wanted that their voice should reach the Centre. This movement is not just taking place in Solapur but all over the country and the world. The AIMIM leader added that Solapur protests showed how a peaceful agitation is held.
This issue is not a political issue but one which is important to their life. This movement was not a conspiracy... the rally was held with permission, he said. The meeting was held in Mumbai... we were expecting that there will be some action against former BJP spokesperons... therefore we agitated. "Our movement was successful," Shabdi said.
Whenever Muslims are persecuted, then only Owaisi (AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi) raises his voice... if there are atrocities on Muslims and if you have to raise your voice in favour of them, then Congress leave them behind, he said. It's already been 10-12 days since Nupur's issue but the Congress did not raise its voice, the AIMIM leader said.
Continuing further, Shabdi said that it would be wrong to say that MIM did agitation all over the country. It was a movement of Muslims... there was no flag of any political party in this protest. There was only an Islamic flag. Dalit brothers also joined the protest... they brought their blue flag. There is no conspiracy in this movement... we had to tell the Center that we love Prophet, he added.
Apart from Solapur and Aurangabad, the movement was carried out at other places by the AIMIM, keeping it within the ambit of the law. On violent clashes, Shabdi said that no organization or party would like to see riots in their movements... unfortunately there were riots. It may have also happened due to some hoodlums who did it deliberately... so that peace is disturbed, he said. We were able to bring the issue to the public, but the success for this agitation will only be when Nupur and Naveen Kumar Jindal will be arrested... and If the BJP is thinking that the matter will be over just by suspending the two leaders, then it's not going to the case.
More fronts will come out and there will be even bigger movements if both of them are not punished, Shabdi mentioned. Guidelines for joining the protest were given by the Maulana to the mosques. Wherever the announcement was made about the protests, the ulema and the clerics told them how the protests would be held... will take this issue forward in the court, Shabdi concluded.
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