Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi, the National President of All India Muslim Jamaat, on Sunday issued a fatwa against New Year celebrations, discouraging Muslims from celebrating it and instead urging them to focus on religious practices that align with their faith.
According to Razvi, the fatwa was issued by Chashme Darfta Bareilly, urging both young Muslim men and women to refrain from partaking in the New Year festivities.
“The young men and women who celebrate New Year have been instructed in this fatwa that celebrating New Year is not a matter of pride and neither should this celebration be celebrated nor should it be congratulated,” Razvi said, emphasizing that the New Year marks the beginning of the Christian calendar, or the “English Year.” He further stated that such non-religious practices are strictly “prohibited for Muslims.”
Razvi continued, urging young Muslim people to avoid participating in New Year celebrations, stressing that Muslims should instead focus on religious practices that align with their faith. “New boys and girls have been instructed not to celebrate New Year… Muslims should avoid celebrating New Year,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bareilvi, amid reports of author Salman Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses’ being available for sale over three decades after it was “banned” in the country, had voiced his opposition and said that the “ban should continue”.
He said there should have been dialogue with people demanding a ban before allowing the sale of the book. “There should have been dialogue because there is a Muslim perspective,” he said.
Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi, president of the All India Muslim Jamaat, also echoed similar views.
He expressed concern that the availability of the book could “harm the social and religious fabric of the country”.
“I request the government that in the manner in which the then government had imposed a ban on the eighties, this ban should continue,” he said.
(Inputs from ANI)
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