Fatwa Fallout!

Choose the wrong mufti and you have marriages annulled, no funeral prayers and dead bodies hanging around the village. So goes life as a Muslim in India.

Sultanpur, Sept. 7 (PTI): Over 100 Muslim couples exchanged vows again after the Barelvi school 'fatwa' had annulled the 'nikah' of over 150 people for attending a funeral prayer led by a cleric, who according to it, does not subscribe to the Sunni faith.

The "remarriage ceremony" was performed at Pancho Peeran village of this district last night and was solemnised by Maulana Hafiz Rabbani, Maulana Aas Mohammad and Hafiz Mohammad Shah of the Barelvi school of Muslim thought even as security forces were deployed in the area to maintain peace.

The Pancho Peeran Dargah Committee today reacted strongly to the 'fatwa' decreed on August 28 after the 'namaz-e-janaza' (funeral prayer) a day earlier, and threatened to move court to seek redressal. Its secretary Matin Khan alleged local BSP Lok Sabha MP Mohammad Tahir was "behind" the whole controversy and accused him of "conspiring to usurp dargah property".

"Md Tahir does not consider the disciples of the dargah as Muslims and therefore had a fatwa issued against the Sufi 'mufti' who led the funeral prayer, and annulled the nikah of the participants," he told reporters in Lucknow. Tahir's PRO Syed Ehsan Ali refuted the allegations and said he had "nothing to do with the fatwa. Its a religious matter and we have no comment on it".

In another fallout of the 'fatwa', no one now appears ready to lead funeral prayers in the village.

Police said on Ajmeruddin filed a complaint alleging that the body of his father lay for hours before the mosque of Pancho Peeran village but no 'moulvi' came forward to lead the prayers.

What is Muslim to do? What to do?

Get a FREE TRIAL COPY of the The Gathering Storm eBook which includes the Forward by Walid Shoebat, Introduction, and first 50 pages of The Gathering Storm eBook. And sign up for my free WEEKLY STORM REPORT and receive a synopsis of the most important weekly news revealing the intimidation, infiltration and disinformation tactics used to soften-up the non-Muslim world for domination.