RSS asserts mosques in India built over razed Hindu temples, deepening sectarian tensions
\nNEW DELHI
\nA powerful Hindu group said several mosques in India were built over demolished Hindu temples, apparently hardening its stance in a decades-long sectarian dispute just days after a huge temple was inaugurated on the site of a razed mosque.
\nThe comments from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s Hindu-nationalist party, come after Modi and the RSS chief led Monday\u2019s consecration of the temple on the site of a 16th-century mosque demolished by a Hindu mob in 1992.
\nThe fight over claims to holy sites has divided Hindu-majority India, which has the world\u2019s third-largest Muslim population, since independence from British rule in 1947.
\nFour days after the temple was inaugurated in the northern city of Ayodhya, a lawyer for Hindu petitioners said the Archaeological Survey of India had determined that a 17th century mosque in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi, in Modi\u2019s parliamentary constituency, had been built over a destroyed a Hindu temple.
\nThe Archaeological Survey did not respond to a request for comment.
\nLate on Friday, senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar questioned whether Varanasi\u2019s Gyanvapi mosque and three others, including the razed one in Ayodhya on the site where many Hindus believe Lord Ram was born, were mosques at all.
\n\u201cWhether we should consider them mosques or not, the people of the country and the world should think about it,\u201d Kumar told Reuters in an interview, referring to the sites in Gyanvapi, Ayodhya, one other in Uttar Pradesh state and one in Madhya Pradesh. \u201cThey should stand with the truth, or they should stand with the wrong?\u201d
\nIn the group\u2019s first reaction to the Gyanvapi findings, Kumar said, \u201cAccept the truth. Hold dialogues and let the judiciary decide.\u201d
\nRaising questions about the mosques does not mean Hindu groups comprise \u201can anti-mosque movement\u201d, he said. \u201cThis is not an anti-Islam movement. This is a movement to seek the truth that should be welcomed by the world.\u201d
\n\u2018Nothing political\u2019
\nMuslim groups are disputing the assertions of Hindu groups in court.
\nZufar Ahmad Faruqi, chairman of the Sunni Central Waqf Board in Uttar Pradesh, said the group \u201chave confidence in the judiciary that it will do what is correct.
\n\u201cWe want to live in harmony and peacefully while protecting the monuments as they are,\u201d he said. \u201cNothing political about it, we are in the court and facing it legally.\u201d
\nThe Modi-led opening of the Ayodhya temple fulfilled a 35-year-old pledge of his Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of a general election due by May. He is expected to win a third straight term, the longest stretch since India\u2019s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
\nThe razing of the Ayodhya mosque sparked riots across India that authorities say killed at least 2,000 people, mostly Muslims. Hindu groups have for decades said that Muslim Mughal rulers built monuments and places of worship after destroying ancient Hindu structures.
\nIndian law bars the conversion of any place of worship and provides for the maintenance of the religious character of places of worship as they existed at the time of independence – except for the Ayodhya shrine. The Supreme Court is hearing challenges to the law.
\nThe court this month halted plans for a survey of another centuries-old mosque in Uttar Pradesh, the country\u2019s most populous and politically important state, to determine if it contained Hindu relics and symbols.
\nThe RSS\u2019s Kumar, who is also the chief patron of the group\u2019s Muslim wing, said Islamic law requires mosques to be constructed on undisputed land, or the land should be donated by someone who has bought it or the people building the mosque should buy it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RSS asserts mosques in India built over razed Hindu temples, deepening sectarian tensions NEW DELHI A powerful Hindu group said several mosques in India were built over demolished Hindu temples, apparently hardening its stance in a decades-long sectarian dispute just days after a huge temple was inaugurated on the site of a razed mosque. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-383494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n