Jamiat Ulema scuffle comes to a boil

By TwoCircles.net staff reporter

New Delhi :  The tussle between Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind president Maulana Syed Arshad Madani and its general secretary Maulana Syed Mahmood Madani had been simmering and simmering since the day, nay much before, the former was named the organisation's president under an agreement between the two following the demise of then president and father of Mahmood Madani last year. But it has now come to a boil when Arshad Madani chose to nullify the said agreement at a meeting of Jamiat's working committee held at its headquarters here Monday.


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The meeting reportedly convened to contain the rising popularity of Mahmood Madani, was attended by only 7 out of the 20 members of the committee and 4 out of 21 special invitees. 13 members of the committee, including Ameerul Hind Maulana Marghoobur Rahman and Assam UDF leader Maulana Badruddin Ajmal and some other members from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Delhi did not participate in the meeting.

A report published Tuesday in Urdu daily Hindustan Express argues that Maulana Arshad Madani was named Jamiat president under an agreement and not through any electoral process. When he has got the agreement annulled, there is no question of his continuing to function in the capacity of Jamiat president.

The report also questions the very legality of the meeting of the working committee, for the quorum of the meeting was completed with Mufti Abdur Razzaq of Bhopal against whom the Jamiat was probing the allegation that he had openly supported Bhartiya Janta Party in the last election. "The question is whether an accused can sit in judgement of his own case. If this cannot be, why was the quorum completed with Mufti Abdur Razzaq?" the report questions.

In one resolution adopted in the meeting, the Jamiat withdrew the enquiry against Mufti Abdur Razzaq.

The report claims that much of the decisions made in the meeting has not been released to the media.

The Hindustan Express, in a front page lead story published Monday, had reported that Maulana Arshad Madani got the windowpane of Maulana Mahmood Madani's office broken just after Fajr prayer Sunday and sent a person inside the office through the broken window to search his office. The report alleged that he took this extreme step on the advice of his special adviser Qari Hammad. The paper also carried a clubbed photograph showing a person mounting a ladder and another person breaking the window.

The Urdu daily Akhbar-e-Mashriq also carried a UNI report of this sad development. The paper, in a front page lead report published Tuesday, said the division in the 75-year old Jamiat is nothing new. When Maulana Syed Asad Madani was named president of the Jamiat after the demise of Maulana Hifzur Rahman, a group led by Mufti Ateequr Rahman Osmani launched a separate Jamiat. Then Maulana Syed Ahmad Hashmi and Maulana Waheeduz Zaman Kairanvi separated from the Jamiat to launch their own Milli Jamiat Ulema.

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