Muslim clerics, scholars back Deoband stand on 'Love Jihad'

Leading Muslim clerics, scholars and intellectuals here have welcomed the official stand taken by Islamic seminary at Deoband on 'Love Jihad'.

In a joint statement issued on Saturday, three leading clerics and senior faculty members at the Department of Sunni Theology, Aligarh Muslim University, while welcoming the Deoband seminary's stand also urged the media not to fall prey to communal politics by exaggerating and sensationalising isolated cases of interreligious marriages.

The seminary had on Friday in a statement said that if any individual Muslim youth tries to lure away and cheat any girl belonging to a different religion and attempts to convert her through dubious means, then such a marriage is an illegitimate and illegal act.

The seminary also alleged that the issue of so called 'Love Jihad' was being whipped up by some political groups for polarising society. "The Deoband seminary's diktat on so called 'Love Jihad' should finally put to rest any doubts which some people may have regarding the religious validity of such acts of misdemeanor committed by individuals," the joint statement issued by Mufti Zahid Ali Khan, Chairman, Department of Sunni Theology, Dr Mohd Saleem Qasmi and Dr Ahsanullah Fahad said.

The clerics have urged the media to "be extra careful" before giving publicity to those incidents which are designed to divide society and weaken the country's social fabric.

In a separate statement, secretary of Millat Bedari Muhim Committee Jasim Mohammad said that the Deoband seminary's stand should be welcomed by all responsible sections of society. The bogey of Love Jihad should now be put to rest because it is causing irreparable damage to country's unity and communal amity.