SOURCE :- SIASAT NEWS
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board chairperson Darakhshan Andrabi on Tuesday, October 13, denied that the board had ordered uniform Friday sermons in its mosques, a proposal had drawn sharp opposition from Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti and the Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulema (MMU).
“There is no order. There is no order anywhere,” Andrabi, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, told reporters in Srinagar.
She said religious scholars and preachers were free to choose the issues they wished to address. She added that neither she nor any board official could decide the subjects of the sermons.
Her denial is at odds with what a board official told preachers at a meeting on Sunday, October 11.
Directive issued a month ago: Waqf Board member
According to a report in The Hindu, hundreds of preachers from across J&K joined Sunday’s meeting virtually. Ishtiyaq Mohi-ud-Din, an executive magistrate with the Waqf Board, told them that a directive for a common khutba (sermon) at all places of worship had been issued “almost a month ago.”
“One topic will be selected and the same topic will be highlighted (in the mosques),” he was quoted as saying.
He also asked the clerics to suggest ways of bringing mosques not affiliated with the Waqf into the fold. He said such mosques made up “a huge chunk.”
At the same meeting, Andrabi said there would be no change to the “Khutba Rasool,” the part of the sermon drawn from the sermons of Prophet Mohammed. However, she said imams and khateebs would speak “in one voice” on issues such as drugs, waywardness and women’s issues. A committee of religious scholars would decide the topics and the chairperson and officials would have no role in it, she said.
Friday sermons in J&K mosques have two parts. In the first, the preacher speaks on a contemporary issue, and in the second, he recites the sermons of Prophet Mohammed. In the past, the first part often turned to local and global political issues.
Opposition pours in
Abdullah shared the report on social media and called the move an attempt by the BJP to interfere in the religious affairs of Muslims. He said it would not be accepted under any circumstances.
“The BJP-appointed chairperson must immediately halt this misplaced attempt to please her masters,” he said.
Mehbooba Mufti accused the BJP of using J&K as a “laboratory” to test measures that are later extended to the rest of the country. She compared the move to the BJP’s push for a Uniform Civil Code.
“How can there be one uniform Khutba for everyone?” she asked, saying each locality had its own concerns that its imam was best placed to address. She demanded that the Waqf Board be handed over to the elected government. Any decision on sermons, she said, should be left to the MMU.
The MMU, a conglomerate of religious organisations, also objected to the proposal. It said the Board should confine itself to its administrative role.
Responding to Abdullah on Tuesday, Andrabi asked where the BJP had interfered in religious affairs and defended the Waqf Board’s functioning under her. She said the proposed core committee would be made up of religious scholars and that she would not be part of it.
The Waqf Board in BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh had triggered a similar row in November 2024. It had asked mosque caretakers to get their Friday sermons vetted in advance.
SOURCE : SIASAT
